Waze App

This is the first app that I've done a long review with screen shots. If you have any feed back please let me know.

I have been a Google Maps App user for the last two or three years. I have heard about the Waze app but never downloaded it due to my satisfaction with the Google Maps app. Recently while listening to the podcast "This Week in Google" https://goo.gl/Es8RNG two of the show members discussed how much they love the Waze app and how it saved them a lot of time. I also thought of an article that I read that talked about how the app allowed users in the community to report police officers. Their was some indignation that this defeats the point of speed traps or that is was akin to having a radar detector.

Waze (Free. iOS, Android, and Windows) Owned by Google this app has a lot of great features and an easy to use interface. It combines users data and Google Maps to suggest the best route. It also alerts users of police or stop light camera presence. Informs of hazards such as accidents, flooded streets, and road closures. The app illustrates areas of high traffic telling how many additional minutes it will take to use a given roadway or how slow traffic in the area is moving, it even shows icons for points where traffic is backed up or at a stand still.

As you can see in the above screen shot it gives: current direction, what is next in directions, when you should arrive, the distance in miles and time, it displays certain businesses Dunkin Donuts, Wells Fargo, and KFC), other Waze users, and hazards. You might also notice that I have the speedometer display turned on (I did this because I place my phone over where the speedometer goes). The silhouette shows you how many of your friends are on the road.

Here are some of the things that users can report to help other users know. I have not used the map chat but I suppose you can send other Waze users a message. I have reported traffic jams, police, accidents, hazards, and road closures. I think that the picture feature is helpful if you are looking for a building you've never been to before.

You can navigate to a favorite place that you have saved, you can type in an address, or put the name of a place. One of the cool features of the app is you can search for a place with a variety of search engines: Waze, Google, Yellow Pages, Yelp, Four Square, or your contacts' information.

This shows how you can choose from a variety of routes and you can inform Waze if a certain route is your favorite.

You can customize your profile with a picture. You can see what friends use Waze. Users get points for reporting map problems, hazards, traffic, etc, so you can look and see where you are on the scoreboard.

I have been so impressed with all the information that it provides that I deleted another app I had on my phone that provided only gas prices.

Users can choose what Waze icon that they display to the world. It also shows up on the menu where it says "My Waze" it displays the icon you chose. I chose "Nerdy". I highly recommend this app but I will point out a few things that may or may not bother users. There are pop-up ads sometimes when you stop at a stop light; these ads are for movies, restaurants, or banks. You can choose what language / voice gives you directions but I didn't find any that I found particularly pleasant so I turned voice directions off. Also a neat thing is that it will give you directions with the phone closed / locked if you have to save battery life or something. The app notices when you are moving and unless you notify it that you are the passenger it will not allow you to type anything while you are moving.

If you want to learn more or get a link to download the app checkout their website: https://www.waze.com/