Previously, Near Me experienced performance issues when processing large datasets, dataset with dense or complex geometries, or handling large number of configured layers. These challenges sometimes caused the user interface to become unresponsive, requiring users to wait until the application recovered.
With the February 2026 update, several enhancements were introduced to significantly boost both performance and user experience—especially when working with large, complex, or geometry-dense datasets. While the visual changes on the front-end are minimal, the back-end has undergone substantial improvements to optimize processing and responsiveness.
It’s important to note that this performance improvement initiative is part of an ongoing, long-term project. We are committed to continually enhancing Near Me’s capabilities and addressing performance challenges.
The video below demonstrates these improvements in action. After the update, Near Me now exhibits noticeably faster and more reliable responsiveness, even when handling large polyline datasets.
Enhancements Introduced:
Deferred Processing
Near Me now defers certain actions until needed, improving responsiveness.
For example, when running Near Me, it first shows the count of results. In case of a result count over 10,000, actual results (first 20) are rendered only when users expand a layer accordion.
A threshold of 10,000 records
The following functionalities in Near Me requires all results to be fetched to work:
- Export
- Generating output data source
- Clip features (Proximity setting for line or polygon features)
- Highlighting features
With the new changes, if the result count is below 10,000, the above features will work without doing anything from the user’s side but if result count is greater than 10,000, users will need to use the Retrieve all tool for these to work.
We set this threshold to keep the user interface responsive when working with large datasets; we don’t want to overload the server with a large number of queries. We have added some changes for when the result count is above the threshold.
Behavioral changes when result count is above 10,000 records
Export is a user-initiated action in this scenario:
- Export button will not show up at the beginning when the result count is returned.
- A warning icon with tooltips and Retrieve all button will appear at the layer level.
- A batch Retrieve All tool will appear to batch retrieve all layers’ results.
- Users must click the Retrieve all tool (with some exceptions that are mentioned below) to process data for export, generate output, clip, and highlight features.
- When clicked, a loading icon indicates real time processing status; once ready, the export icon appears.
Previously, Near Me processed everything upfront, which caused delays and unresponsiveness with large datasets.
There will be no UI changes when number of returned results is below 10,000.
Exception:
When Near Me result count is over 10,000 but is configured with search by location and sort by distance Proximity analysis, Near Me will fetch all records to sort the results by distance. If Retrieve tool is not clicked, Near Me will auto trigger this tool and retrieve all records upon expansion of the layer accordion.
Known limitations:
When working with large datasets, sorting results by distance continues to present performance challenges. This is primarily because all processing for sorting by distance occurs on the client side, which can significantly impact responsiveness and efficiency during data handling tasks.
To address these issues, a server-side solution is currently being developed. This enhancement is expected to shift distance sorting operations away from the client, improving performance and user experience with large datasets. The implementation of this server-side approach is slated for later this year.
Even though we were not able to improve much in this workflow, you will still see Near Me is more responsive in this workflow as well after the update.
User Experience:
- Minimal visual changes, but significant backend improvements.
- Users with small datasets will not see any difference; improvements are most noticeable with large datasets
Near Me is now more responsive and efficient with large or complex datasets. Export and other heavy actions are user-initiated, reducing initial load times. Some limitations remain for sorting by distance, but further improvements are planned this year. Please note that large and complex datasets can lead to performance challenges. Be mindful when working with such data and follow the best practices outlined below.
Best practices to optimize performance in Near Me
Configuration options in EXB:
- Enable client-side query in the Map widget.
- If you do not need sort by distance (which is the default), use sort by Field in Near Me widget.
- Configure only the fields you want to export so that Near Me will query only those fields and not all fields (which is default).
- Turn off expand feature detail option in the proximity analysis in Near Me.
- If you are working with a large dataset, try to avoid configuring Current map area search method with map widget’s extent change message action to fetch records automatically. When map extent changes, it automatically fetches data based on Map’s zoom, pan action and can make the app less performant.
Optimize feature layer:
- If possible, generalize your polygon or line layers if they have many vertices.
- Remove fields that are not needed.
- Layers with a large number of features will take time to query, so if possible, use a smaller dataset.
- Generate attribute and spatial index for faster query.
Optimize map:
- Avoid using large number of layers in the map.
- Configure pop-ups with needed fields only.
Article Discussion: