Google Play Store for tastes, colors and finding your favorite navigation app. I have been using Android for years and have had the opportunity to test GPS navigators both directly from the mobile phone and in Android Auto: Google Maps, Sygic, TomTom AmiGo, Maps.me… which comes by default, and I have one thing clear: global Waze is the GPS navigation device that satisfies me the most.

What quite surprises me is that although Waze was born as an independent project, it has been part of Google for years and, without being “its pretty girl”, it has retained its essence and virtues that make it better than Google Maps. behind the wheel. The icing on the cake is that it’s free, but the B-side is that it integrates ads. After trying many browsers, I realized that Waze shines above the rest in these functions.

Your active community for events on the road

The main feature that makes Waze stand out from others is ‘Wazers’ community. Other apps like Google Maps are more usable (after all, it comes by default on Android phones), but anyone who uses Waze knows the importance of knowing when the police are at the next intersection with a checkpoint or a ruin has been located. The vehicle stops in the middle of the road and he doesn’t hesitate to report it so that the rest will know in a few minutes.

A few minutes is no exaggeration: it won’t be the first time the police are on the road near my house (and outside my window), and when I get out of the car and open Waze, the alert is already there. Efficiency is a plus that makes a difference in avoiding unpleasantness, but at the same time Waze makes everything easier: First, only by the presence of reporting (something other apps also have), but two taps are all it takes to do it… even from the car’s infotainment system.

An ordinary interface but above all clear and intuitive

I have to confess something: I have bad orientation and it’s hard for me to read maps. Therefore, this will neither be the first nor the last. I choose the wrong path to take when I have a navigation device in front of me. Yes, I have no idea and I get annoyed, but there are apps (most of them, in fact) that are not particularly clear when it comes to marking routes and the colors chosen are very similar.

In this restrained and conservative aesthetic scenario, Waze came along and made my day. The app uses purple (a rarely used hue in this category of apps) to delimit the route. wider and more striking color variety. For messy people like servers, larger, more informal icons attract more attention.

road experience

Until three years ago, my car use was limited: within Pamplona, ​​from there to the nearest beach and also to my own city, not forgetting some trips to use the surrounding mountain route. In other words, they are very simple roads with low traffic density. I occasionally took longer trips, but this had nothing to do with arriving in Madrid and facing heavy traffic.

It’s normal for navigation apps to have options to avoid toll plazas or highways for those who don’t want to open their wallets, but Waze hides two important tricks: ‘unpaved roads‘ And ‘Avoid difficult transitions‘. This wouldn’t be the first time while driving my Polo that Google Maps has offered me a shorter route over a potentially dangerous goat path for a car as low as mine, but I avoid it on Waze as the first option. Secondly, it is really a question of whether traffic bothers you and you prefer simple routes as much as possible, because there are intersections that are a real nightmare.

Personalization

Please note that this is a secondary section to the previous ones, but the fact that you can configure the application to your liking is a plus. Here Waze shows his chest and eyes because that’s just matter of preference, can also improve the experience.

So, in terms of voice prompts, it is possible to select male and female voices and vowels from a long list of languages ​​(exclusively for Basque assistant Leire) and even use our own voice after recording the voiceovers. . Another point of customization, fun in this case, is that you can replace the car icon with another icon and be careful because for Christmas they even release a version with a sleigh and Santa steering.

Cover | Álex Alcolea (Xataka Móvil)

Xataka on Android | Google Maps vs Waze, detailed comparison: which app has the best navigation options?