Waze (iPhone/iPad) 3.8.0

Overview

Waze is a GPS navigation app for iOS, Android, Windows Mobile, and Blackberry, that gives you voice-enabled directions and not only. It lets you know of traffic jam, accidents, police activity, ongoing pave or hazards as well as allows you to submit reports about those situations as well. However it is not very accurate like Google Maps as it still needs improvement on its maps and overall information.

Interface

As soon as you launch the app you will be asked to login, or create an account for using. You can skip this part and continue to an introductive series of screens that give you an idea of what Waze is and how it works. When those few steps are over the map with your location appears in the screen, with a button in each of the bottom corners. The left button will bring up the menu, from which you can view new reports about the roads near you, choose a location to navigate to, view your Waze profile or go to the settings menu. In there you can find many configurations that you can change to make the app more suitable to your needs. The other button in the main screen brings up the reports menu, which is used if you want to submit a report about traffic jam, hidden speed cameras, map issues etc.

Pros

For starters, it is free. Then, it is actively maintained by its userbase and not a limited group of developers, therefore it is updated all the time. As for its functionality, it provides you with many kinds of reports: traffic jams, police activity, accidents, hazards, cameras, map issues or paves. You can also chit chat with other users, or use the check in function that sets checkpoints in certain locations. It has a voice-guidance feature too.

The rank feature is a unique point-based system that allows you to move through the ranks by using the application and filing reports. If you let Waze connect to your Facebook it will display your ranking on your profile page.

Cons

The fact that its power is its users is not only an advantage but a disadvantage too. For dynamic situations like traffic jams it needs constant updating so don’t expect too much information on low traffic roads. A lot of locations in the maps are not even available, so you might have to completely abandon Waze if your daily routes belong in that category.

Alternatives

Google Maps is the default GPS application for Android and Apple devices, and being developed by Google you can say with safety that’s it’s one of the best apps of this kind available. Sygic Mobile Maps is another GPS navigation app, and similarly to Waze the users can report speed cameras and accidents on certain locations to alert other users.

Conclusion

Waze is a great app that will save you time by picking shorter routes and delivering you the latest reports on the current status of the roads nearby, it still has a long way to go before it becomes an accurate and popular application that can satisfy the biggest percentage of GPS users.