There was a time when there was no gps navigation apps for iphone. And not so long ago, a little over thirteen years ago. Applesfera, with more than seventeen years talking about the brand, is like a bitacore in the Apple world since we left in April 2006, and it allows us to recover things like the first evidence of a digital compass in iPhone OS 3.0 – in May 2009.
This small sensor is basic for many uses that are familiar to us today, such as extended reality – it’s not for nothing that I told you fourteen years ago about Apple’s journey in this field. It is also essential for what we called in 2009 “step by step apps”i.e. the GPS navigators that traditionally existed in non-mobile devices (as the famous TomTom).
At that time, the iPhone did not incorporate this type of navigation until the appearance of the first car gps navigator for apple phone: Navigon MobileNavigator, which I tested in July 2009. Since then, the appearance of this feature in Google Maps and Apple Maps has made it popular with motorists. However, there is an even better option that I’ve been using for years.
The best GPS navigator for iPhone
It’s funny how the first version of Navigon was priced at $74.99 in the App Store – one of the most expensive apps at the time. Today, despite the fact that there are paid applications with this feature, Apple and Google offer very good service. However, there is another possibility that offers even more: it is Waze, a GPS navigation app with collaborative capabilities between drivers and a host of spectacular features. All this, completely free (that if, with an announcement when the application detects us stopped at a traffic light, nothing intrusive by the way).
Sync your calendars to arrive on time. The application itself allows add our calendars and synchronize them so that if we have an event in them geolocated (i.e. with an address), be Waze that alerts us when we have to leave to arrive on time.
It is also possible to plan a trip and discover when is the best time to go out – depending on real-time traffic conditions. It’s a very visual feature, and it allows us to scroll through the timeline to find the perfect departure time and go more serenely to our destination.
Personalization features and reviews. We can choose between more than twenty icons for our vehicle indicator on the map. Very crazy things like a paper plane, the car of Batman or the zombie-mobile. From time to time, the brand throws events and allows us to temporarily change the appearance, beyond everything we always have (even the voice that guides us in the application).
With Batman’s car, you won’t get there any faster, but your journey will be more epic
In the ads, this is where the app shines with its features: inform us practically in real time of any incident, danger, accident, bad weather, works and others. Each of them can be configured if we don’t want them to warn us about everything, and they are very useful on the road – but above all very precise.
We can connect virtually any music service to Waze to use it without leaving the app
Music connected as part of the interface and beautiful natural voice. An interesting point is Waze’s ability to connect to virtually any music service (including Apple Music, Spotify…) to display it in its interface. This allows us to change songs or know what is playing, without leaving the navigation at any time.
There is another point I would like to highlight about Waze and that is the incorporation of a voice that – personally – I consider the best I’ve heard in any GPS navigator. It is not active by default, you must select “Spanish (USA) – Joanna”. We can also indicate the type of sounds we want to hear and use Siri Shortcuts to call the application even if we are not with Waze open.
Collaborative and shared GPS navigation
The information is clear, detailed and concise: we have the main options at our fingertips at all times with the data we want to know
Obviously, where Waze also needs to stand out is in its very facet of navigation. Use full maps from Google Maps (Waze was acquired by Google in 2013.) which updates each time we start a route to have the most accurate version of our route. When we select a route, the amount of information is detailed and clear in its interface.
It allows us to see even a displacement line with the possible works or other circumstances of our trip, but one of its best options is the ability to share the tour with anyone – even if you don’t have the Waze app. This allows those who are waiting for us to be able to see where we are going and what we have left to carry, almost in real time, automatically.
A little-known feature of Waze is its official “Live Map” site to plan trips more comfortably. Then we can send them to our iPhone or share them with whoever we want
This process is entirely user-chosen and we can un-share at any time. can send a link or use some of the typical messaging appssuch as Messages or WhatsApp to send the shared route – very comfortable and useful so that we do not have to send our progress in the middle of the trip.
One of the possibilities that not everyone knows about Waze is the existence of an official website called Waze Live Map where we can use our account to plan a trip – with an interface very similar to the one we have in the app – and from the comfort of a large screen on a computer or tablet. Once the trip is prepared, we can send it to our phone ready to go (or share).
I commented before The collaborative capabilities of Waze: they are the ones that allow practically any circumstance – even if it is brief in time – to appear in real time in our journey. For example, accidents, works, interesting places to visit, dangers… Users “vote” these alerts before they appear to everyone, and they are usually very precise because the number of drivers with this application is huge these days.
Of course, if you have CarPlay in the car, the application has its interface adapted and ready to use. Thanks to all these possibilities, its ease of use, its clear and detailed data and its collaborative possibilities, for me there is no doubt: Waze is currently the best GPS navigator for iPhone.
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