Google Maps vs. Waze: Which navigation app is better?
Google Maps vs. Waze: Which navigation app is better?
Google Maps vs Waze is a hard fight to judge. For starters both services are owned and run past Google, and that means there are a groovy many similarities. In fact the ii navigation apps seem to go more alike with each update. So how are y'all supposed to pick one over the other?
Thankfully there is a very articulate line separating Google Maps and Waze, and both apps operate very differently. That leaves Waze with a small, merely fiercely loyal following that swear past its unique manner of navigating you from A to B. Only Google Maps has the brand recognition and an extensive history to fall back on.
Simply that stardom doesn't change the fact the noticeable differences are subtle, then maxim which service is the best one is not so simple. In all likelihood it will depend on your own needs and preferences. But, if you throw both apps into the ring for an all-out brawl of Google Maps vs Waze, which one is going to come out on summit?
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Google Maps vs Waze: Availability
Google is well known for keeping its hands in every figurative cookie jar, then Google Maps and Waze are both widely bachelor. Both apps are available on iOS and Android devices, and are compatible with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay. So information technology doesn't affair what device you use, or what car you lot drive, you've got the option of using both.
In that location are fifty-fifty versions available in desktop browsers, though they are express by the fact yous can't get any live navigation that fashion. Notwithstanding you tin can expect upwardly directions, locations and salve things to your account, which you can option upwardly on your phone after.
Winner: Necktie
Google Maps vs Waze: Navigation
At their core, both Google Maps and Waze volition get you where you lot want to go. That existence said, despite both being operated by Google, they are pretty unlike. To the point where the "winner" depends entirely on how y'all get effectually.
Google Maps is your traditional navigation app. You lot punch in a location, and it will observe a way to get yous there, no thing how you plan on doing it. You could walk, bulldoze, cycle, or take the bus, and Google Maps has something to offer. Google can even alarm you lot to obstacles or traffic along the way, and give yous the selection of taking a different path.
Waze, on the other hand, is built exclusively for car and motorcycle users. Rather than finding the quickest single path to your destination and leaving you to it, Waze is always analyzing conditions to try and get you there the fastest possible way.
Both services tin make up one's mind traffic weather from the number of users on the road, just Waze actually does something about it. Google Maps will flag traffic or obstacles it knows about on-screen, equally does Waze, but the difference is Google volition happily send you on the same pre-set route regardless of how things change. It may ask if you want to take an alternate road depending on how bad the traffic gets, only it's non particularly aggressive about it.
But final year Google Maps changed the way it calculated its calculates its routes. The service will now use a number of factors, including existent time traffic conditions and number of traffic lights, to brand the proposed route safer, and more eco-friendly. That way you relieve on fuel, and are less likely to go into an accident.
In other words Google Maps volition have more than just your final ETA into account when it tells you where to go. And more recently information technology even started showing yous exactly how much a particular route volition cost, should you pass through any tolls. A characteristic it pinched from Waze, we might add.
Waze is built around one thing, and i thing but: minimizing your fourth dimension on the road and getting you to your destination equally quickly as possible. So doesn't enquire permission to alter your route mid-trip, and automatically offers upwardly directions that get yous around obstacles that have popped up. All in the name of getting you somewhere in the shortest corporeality of time. For that reason Waze users ofttimes find they get sent to some very random places, as the app works to become them where they need to go.
A great example of this is when I looked upward directions to my parents' house. Waze said it would be a 213 mile trip that would take 3 hours and xix minutes. Meanwhile Google Maps provided a shorter road (211 miles), just would accept three hours and 32 minutes to make the trip. That's travelling the same bones route, and not avoiding cost roads.
Also, Waze said driving to our London office would be a 45-mile trip taking 1 hour and 12 minutes. Google Maps sent me on a 46 mile journey that was two minutes longer.
The downside to Waze'south organization is that information technology'southward reliant on other active users on the road. And then if you're the but Waze user for hundreds of miles, the app has no thought what's going on up ahead.
Fortunately both services let you lot save maps offline for after use, though Google Maps is more than upfront about information technology. Google Maps' Offline maps feature lets y'all select an area of the map, and download all the available data inside information technology. Previously you could relieve private routes, though this no longer appears to exist the case.
Waze doesn't have either option, but saving a road to your favorites does cache the relevant information so yous tin employ it offline. But because Waze is reliant on alive information, if yous do lose cell service you won't become whatever up to appointment data about what'southward happening on the roads. Basically you lose the very part of Waze that makes it special.
When it comes to driving the two services are practically identical, but Waze'southward unique way of navigating around delays makes it an invaluable tool for motorists. Provided you're happy taking weird routes, Waze is the way to go.
Winner: Waze
Google Maps vs Waze: Public and Alternate Transportation
This is an piece of cake conclusion to brand. If you lot're travelling by public transport, or another means of alternate transportation Waze has absolutely null to offer. Literally zilch.
The point of Waze is to redirect you as a driver whenever it sees a faster road circular obstacles, but patently yous don't have that luxury on public transit because yous're not the one driving. So you're going to have to use Google Maps.
Google Maps has back up for public transportation, walking and cycling. Attempting to use Waze would just transport you down any old road as a car can get down there, which isn't always a particularly safe thought.
Google Maps, on the other paw, is packed to the brim with public transit information. For starters it includes total timetables and maps for transit services beyond the world, and can integrate them into its directions without hesitation. It also has existent fourth dimension updates on delays and other issues you may face on your journey, so y'all're at to the lowest degree aware of issues ahead of time.
Google Maps can also judge how busy a particular service or surface area is going to be, by using a mix of historical data and how many people it tin meet there at any given time. It even integrates with local ride sharing services and, where available, bike and east-scooter rentals.
Waze tin't compete with all of that, but at that place is more than that could be done where alternative ship is concerned. Peculiarly in areas where those rental services are bachelor.
Winner: Google Maps
Google Maps vs Waze: Interface and Design
Despite beingness from the same company, and doing similar things, Google Maps and Waze await completely different. While Google Maps has the look of a more traditional app with all the on-screen information that provides, Waze takes a much simpler arroyo with fewer details and a cartoony pattern.
That departure comes from the fact these two apps are designed for totally different things. Waze is a tool to assistance motorists get from A to B while fugitive traffic and road hazards, only nix else. Google Maps is useful for damn-near everything, whether that'due south navigation, discovering new things, or even chatting with businesses.
However, when information technology comes to really navigating, the ii apps expect functionally identical. The apps cut down all the unnecessary clutter, and just show you what you need to know. That includes your icon, where y'all demand to be going, plus some actress surplus information like speed limits, and road hazards in your path.
We take to give this one to Waze, considering it cuts out all the fluff from the outset and but shows you what yous demand to run across. It doesn't matter if you're actively receiving directions or just looking at the map, everything is nice and clean. While Google Maps' extra information has its uses, information technology does tend to clutter your view. And frankly information technology has a trend to await like a complete mess at times — especially if you lot're in a big urban center.
Winner: Waze
Google Maps vs Waze: Advert
Both Google Maps and Waze have advertising, though they each differ in how they handle what sort of paid content y'all actually meet.
Equally a general rule, Google Maps is pretty subtle about its advertizement, though more recently it has fabricated changes to make ads more distinguishable on the map. One good case is using a square icon, rather than a circular i, for a business or location that's paid to be there. Pretty subtle, every bit I said.
Meanwhile Waze is very in your face and tin flash distracting banner ads every fourth dimension y'all stop moving.
The ads disappear when y'all outset moving again, so you don't have to worry about dismissing them all the time. But they are still large and very noticeable, especially if your phone'south screen is on the smaller size. Frankly Waze could do with toning it downward a flake, because if information technology needs to display ads the least information technology could do is endeavor to make them less intrusive.
Winner: Google Maps
Google Maps vs Waze: Information
Google Maps and Waze are both heavily reliant on information, only Waze virtually of all. That'south because Waze's entire performance is built around user-submitted information. A lot of information technology is collected automatically, just by the unproblematic fact that you are driving effectually with the app open. Users are as well able to submit reports virtually any obstacles or hazards that may impede other drivers.
Analysis of all that data paints a picture of what is going on on the roads, and can be utilized to directly or redirect users where necessary. It likewise helps Waze's algorithms improve the service and its maps.
Google Maps tin can likewise meet a picture of road atmospheric condition, only its organization is based on a larger pool of information. It uses historical data to guess what conditions volition exist like at any given point of the day, simply is also able to pull in real time information from traffic sensors and Google Maps users. The systems have similarities, though Google Maps is able to make utilise of a lot more information than Waze does.
For that reason it doesn't matter if you stray into an area with few Google Maps users. The app volition be able to encounter what's going on based on other factors, and continue you relatively well informed.
Of course Google Maps and Waze utilize their data very differently. While Waze will actively redirect your journeying based on the data information technology receives, information technology'southward a feature that still hasn't been ported to Google Maps, even though both services are endemic and operated by Google.
You can continue tabs on upcoming road conditions if you pay attending to what Google Maps has on screen, but information technology's upward to y'all to select those alternate routes if they're ever bachelor. Google Maps will not automatically send you down a unlike path the same manner Waze does. Simply more than on that afterward.
But years of information drove and analysis come with a lot of advantages. Google Maps knows how many people use detail routes at any given menses of the mean solar day, and even areas where people typically go over the speed limit.
Barring any external factors that get in the manner after you've already set up off, Google Maps always has a pretty good idea of which route yous should accept and how long it'due south going to take you to reach your destination. While Waze has a lot going for it, that lack of historical and traffic sensor data does not work in its favor.
Winner: Google Maps
Google Maps vs Waze: Discovery
Despite the fact Waze is primarily a navigational app, it has surprisingly robust discovery features that match those found in Google Maps.
Both apps accept a number of like features helping you detect of import businesses and locations in the expanse around yous. They include a search bar and specialized buttons that accept out near of the intermediary steps and show you lot what's what. Whether you're looking for a gas station or a supermarket, you have the tools to speedily find them and get there.
Simply as often seems to be the example, Google Maps is all about giving you more. It features a larger number of specialized buttons. And then if you demand sporting goods or an electronics store, Google Maps' list of discovery buttons has something. Waze, on the other hand, keeps information technology uncomplicated.
You could hands argue less is more when information technology comes to finding stuff, especially when you lot can always use the search bar to do roughly the same job. Yet, Waze'south location cards don't accept quite every bit much data as Google Maps does.
My local Chinese restaurant is a swell example of this. Google Maps has the address, opening hours, contact information, reviews, photos of the food people accept submitted, and even icons telling me what services they're currently offer.
Waze had information on the nearest car park, which was great, simply beyond that it only had the basics: address, telephone number, and website. Other smaller businesses around me had like issues, but at that place'south a lot more to be seen for large chains.
My nearest McDonalds had opening hours and onsite-service icons (drive thru simply right at present), but no contact information — including the website. Y'all'd accept idea it was the least they could include. The TGI Fridays five miles up the road was the same.
Both services are also able to permit you search for EV chargers, thank you to the latest Waze update, though Waze'southward offering is currently only available in the U.South.
Google Maps doesn't accept everything for anybody, just it still manages to pick up a lot. One of the takeout places near me has aught online presence — not fifty-fifty a website telling yous where they are. Despite that Google Maps notwithstanding has a lot of data, including when they're open, what their phone number is, and even when they get busy.
So Waze is very hitting and miss with actress data, while Google Maps has nigh everything you could promise for considering information technology collects and then much data from then many different sources.
It's also not articulate whether Waze's discovery options volition exist getting the same improvements that were announced for Google Maps dorsum in May. Those recommendations are going to be a lot more focussed, with time of day factoring into what Google Maps has to show you. So we'll have to wait and run into.
Winner: Google Maps
Google Maps vs Waze: Traffic and hazards
Back in the day, having a handle on traffic and route hazards was all on Waze, merely Google Maps has been communicable up. Right at present the two are functionally the same in all simply a few minor areas.
Waze is very aggressive at getting yous round obstacles other users have reported. To the point where you can find yourself driving down foreign winding streets just to shave a few seconds off your ETA. You have to adore its dedication. Google Maps still doesn't become to such farthermost lengths which is fine.
While Google Maps and Waze both let you report those hazards every bit yous come beyond them, they don't e'er match upwards, especially if you're using Google Maps. For instance the stretch of freeway that takes me into London is well-nigh completely covered in speed cameras. There has to be at least one camera every mile enforcing a strict 50mph speed limit. Waze has piffling graphics for most of those cameras, and flashes up an on-screen alert every time I drive past i.
Meanwhile Google Maps does a pretty terrible chore of both. Google Maps lets you report speed cameras, and other serious road hazards, merely on the 45 mile trip from my business firm to London information technology showed a chiliad total of two cameras. Waze doesn't seem to have them all, but information technology has a heck of a lot more than than Google Maps. You'd think Google's data collection machine would be more accurate than Waze's crowdsourced approach.
Granted Google Maps isn't far backside, but Waze does have the edge on business relationship of the fact its user base of operations isn't quite as passive.
Winner: Waze
Google Maps vs Waze: Hands-complimentary control
Both Google Maps and Waze operate their hands-free controls in the same way. Your options are to tap the on-screen microphone each time you want to say a command, or rely on Google Assistant's "Hey Google" feature to practice it for yous.
If you lot're on Android that's easy, considering Google Banana is already installed. iPhone users have to go through some actress steps. Siri will send commands to both apps, but it as well defaults to Apple Maps if you don't specify. And then ask for "directions domicile with Waze," and non just "directions home." Alternatively yous can tap the on-screen microphone to toggle vox command mode, or download Google Assistant to practise everything for y'all.
At that place doesn't appear to be any difference between the two apps in terms of commands, and yous tin can apply an assistant to navigate to new locations, change your current route, meet what's upwardly ahead, what traffic is like, then on. You can even apply voice commands to report road hazards, traffic, and other issues you lot come across on your travels. These features are likewise bachelor on iOS if you have the Google Assistant app installed.
So it doesn't affair which option you take, or which device y'all employ, your experience should be pretty much identical.
Winner: Tie
Google Maps vs Waze: Customization
Waze has a lot of customization options, particularly in the phonation section. While Google typically only has ane voice option per country or region, Waze has several of them, especially if yous speak English.
Celebrity voices are also available, but those are typically in that location for promotional purposes and aren't permanent additions to the app. Similar the time Microsoft and Waze added the phonation of Halo's Principal Chief. Plus, if you refuse to accept orders from a random robot, Waze will let y'all record your ain voice to utilise instead.
Waze will besides let you pick 1 of ten vehicle icons that bear witness on screen when y'all're actually navigating, including a Formula One race car, a motorcycle, or the slow-old arrow. Plus you can alter your "mood" which substantially lets you customize the avatar other people will encounter on their own maps. Bulldoze enough, or contribute enough to Waze'south dataset, and you can unlock a special mood that features a golden crown.
Google Maps lets you change your on-screen icon to ane of three cars if you similar, and you can switch the voice to a dissimilar language or region. Merely that's almost all it has in terms of bodily customization options. But if you fancy driving around with a kindly British robot telling y'all where to become then that'southward an option for you.
Customization is a very small-scale part of what both apps can do, but if yous want to better express yourself through your navigation app then Waze is the way to go. Also Waze is the best option if y'all want to mix things up and swap out the irksome default voice.
Winner: Waze
| Google Maps | Waze | |
| Availability | x | x |
| Interface and Design | x | |
| Navigation (Driving) | x | |
| Public and Alternate Transportation | x | |
| Advertizing | x | |
| Data | x | |
| Discovery | ten | |
| Traffic and hazards | x | |
| Easily-free control | 10 | x |
| Customization | x | |
| Total | six | vi |
Bottom Line
In that location'southward no denying the fact that Google Maps is the more than comprehensive navigation service. Not only does it offer a considerable amount more than Waze, it's more detailed and has a lot more resource at its disposal. More to the point, it doesn't thing how yous choose to get around, Google Maps has the tools to help you lot do information technology.
Waze is very limited past comparison, simply offering navigation for motorists. And withal it's able to offering a service that Google Maps tin't friction match, which is pretty damn weird considering how long it'south been part of the Google family. Why? It's not entirely articulate what Google has to proceeds from keeping both services alive, and not offering Waze's breakout feature every bit role of Google Maps. But that is how things are.
If you're a driver who wants to get to their destination as speedily every bit possible, and don't care how you lot get there, you'll want to utilize Waze. Google Maps may be able to see and anticipate road conditions, but information technology isn't as proactive about sending you lot down a different route when things get dicey.
Just if you're not driving a car or motorcycle, Waze is completely useless. It has a very narrow employ-example, which is a void Google Maps fills very easily. So in many cases, Google Maps isn't just the winner, it'southward your just option.
- More: Hither's how to download offline Google Maps
Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/face-off/google-maps-vs-waze
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