Both applications belong to Google and yet, Google Maps and Waze compete to become the best GPS navigation app (free or paid) that you can download to your mobile. At Xataka Android we have already compared them in depth to know their main virtues and defects, but the reality is that the colors vary according to your tastes and it depends on what you are looking for.
Keeping the above in mind, we proceed to list the main differences between Google Maps and Waze because even though they both do the same thing, they don’t do it in the same way and maybe you like one more than the other. In fact, I can tell you one thing: I use one application to move around town and another to move from one town to another.
First of all, one more premise: While Google Maps is designed to be used to get around on foot, by car or by public transport, the purpose of Waze is to provide navigation when you are in your personal vehicle. What does that mean? If what you are interested in is going from point A to point B and you want to use the metro or walk, go directly to Google Maps.
The most important differences between Google Maps and Waze
Regardless of subjective issues like the interface, more sober in Maps and more colorful in Waze, there are other functions that are present in one application and not in another or which are objectively more complete in one application than in another.
- The cost of tolls. If, in addition to the distance, type of road and estimated time, you care about the cost of travel using toll highways, then Waze is your application, because Waze gives an estimate of the price of tolls, which Google Maps does not offer this.
- How to warn if you are speeding. Both Google Maps and Waze allow you to configure a speedometer in their settings to tell us when we are visually exceeding the road speed limit, but Waze also reinforces this warning with an audio alert, which Maps does not do and which you can take into account if you like to press the accelerator.
- Three-dimensional representations of buildings. If you’re moving through a big city and find yourself lost in the traffic and streets, only Google Maps has a very useful function for knowing where you are: the representation of the shape of the surrounding buildings.
- Choose what the route will look like. During the trip you may want to avoid ferries, tolls or highways and this is an option present in both applications, but Waze goes one step further by also including if we want to avoid complicated intersections or non-compliant roads. paved.
- Download the map. If you are going to pass through an area that you know has poor coverage, you have low data, or your data rate does not apply to that location, Google Maps has the ability to download maps for use offline, a notable absence among Waze’s functions.
- Unforeseen events on the road. Both Google Maps and Waze offer real-time traffic data, which helps us avoid traffic jams and calculate how long it will take us to move forward in a jam, but Waze has an ace up its sleeve: a community very active for warn of police checks, remains of cars on the road and speed cameras.
- Additional in formation
- Customize the app. Both applications choose a language for the voice to help us in navigation, Waze is much more advanced and goes even further, allowing us to choose if it is male or female, to use our own voice and also to change the car icon.
Which is better, Waze or Google Maps?
The previous differences mean that depending on why you are going to use the navigation app, if one or the other is more appropriate.
So if you need to travel to areas without coverage or data, Google Maps is a winning horse. Likewise, to move around the city, its 3D representation of buildings or information on establishments are assets to take into account. Of course, if you travel on foot or by public transport, it’s the same thing.
However, if you are going to move from one city to another, the comprehensive proposal for road incidents from the active community of Waze marks a differentiatorin addition to being able to dodge goat paths and don’t overdo it with the speed.
Cover | Montage with photo from Sincerely Media on Unsplash, icon by Fathema Khanom, Waze and Google Maps
In Xataka Android | Google Maps vs Waze, in-depth comparison: which app offers the best navigation options?