- Provides voice-guided turn-by-turn driving directions, with multiple voice prompts before turns and merges
- Automatically recalculates route when you make wrong turns or change course
- Offers multiple routes to avoid traffic, highways, or tolls, and can automatically re-route on command or based on traffic conditions.
- Uses Android's built-in voice search, so you can speak destinations to search them quickly
- Automatically saves frequently visited destinations and locations so you can easily navigate to them again, allows you to star locations you find in Google Local for quick reference, and has built-in support for Google Contacts, so the addresses of friends, family, or colleagues is a swipe away
- Offers live traffic reports on-screen, along with a dynamic ETA to your destination based on traffic conditions along your route
- Uses Google Street View to display your destination when you arrive
- Uses Google Local for detailed information on destinations and places near your route or current position, making it easy to detour for gas, food, repairs, or any other reason that might take you off of your current route.
- Supports Google Places and Zagat ratings and reviews for hours, reviews, contact information, and photos of destinations on or along your route, or at your destination
- Switches between day and night map view for easy reading
- Offers intelligent re-routing when you make a mistake or leave your current route
- Offers walking and public transit directions in addition to driving directions
If you have an Android phone, you're already familiar with Google Maps. It's a near-flawless turn-by-turn navigation application, and if you're running Android Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0) or Jelly Bean (4.1 or 4.2), the experience is even better. The voice is much more human, street and highway pronunciations are more accurate, and GPS-dependent tasks like location fixing and re-routing are much faster and more forgiving. Google Navigation is baked into Google Maps, a core application in Android, so you don't have to download it on its own, and it works out of the box. Sign in to your Google account to get access to your contacts and any starred or favorite destinations you may have saved in Google Local or Places.
Google's dynamic ETA and live traffic data on along your route are killer features in Navigation, especially for commuters who know all too well that whether they get off at the next exit will mean the difference between being home in time for dinner or slogging through hours of traffic trying to get around an accident already on the shoulder of the freeway. One tap brings up multiple routes if you want to switch among them, and Google will route you along the lowest-traffic, fastest route automatically if you let it. If you're running low on change, you can tell it to avoid tolls, or steer clear of highways if you prefer.
Many of the quirks with Google Navigation we used to have are also gone, including old problems with its traffic data, and that's a point we have to give to Google: They're hard at work with Google Maps, constantly updating it and adding new features and closer integration with other useful Google services, like Google Now, your Google Contacts, and Local. We can only assume that the app is going to continue to improve, given the frequency of meaningful updates from Google.
It's difficult to find things not to like about Google Maps Navigation in Android. It's functional, the voice prompts are on point, and it's free (and already on your phone.) If there's anything we would quibble about, it's that some of the street and highway pronunciations could still use some work, and some of the voice prompts could come a little sooner?but those are common problems that any turn-by-turn GPS service face. It would be nice to be able to easily add a destination mid-trip, or "pause" navigation and pick up your route again later because you're making a detour to grab a bite, but again, not many other GPS apps offer this, so it's not Google's fault they're not there.
One thing we do wish Google Maps would do is allow Navigation to continue even if you're dragged the focus of the map away from your current position. This way your passenger or another user could look further along the route to see if or where traffic conditions change, or where the next turn is, without dropping Navigation entirely. As it is, when you change focus, you're now looking at Maps, not Navigation, and you have to tap the blue arrow on-screen to resume your course.
Waze (Free) was our previous pick for the best turn-by-turn nav app for Android, and make no mistake, we still love it. We think it's social features add a lot to the driving experience, whether you're driving around trying to pick up holiday candies, earn enough points to get a newtitle, or compete with other Waze drivers. Perhaps more importantly, Waze's social element allows its users to report construction, accidents, police activity, speed traps, and other annoyances well in advance of you actually driving into them, which is a huge benefit whether you're commuting or you're on a road trip.
Waze's crowdsourced features earned it top spot up to this point, and it's still a tough decision to bring it down to second best. It's easy for users to report issues on the road so others (like you) are alerted to them when you approach, and the service collects information from multiple traffic sources so you have something to go on even if your road isn't heavily traveled. We still like the fact that Waze automatically re-plots your course if your phone crashes, the app crashes, or something else happens to interrupt navigation?something Google Maps doesn't do. Similarly, Waze makes it easy to browse your route or look around the map when you need to, and always returns to a vehicle-centric view when you're finished?no taps required. Still, Waze has suffered from a lack of regular feature updates lately, and the latest versions of the app feel a little buggy and crashy. Some of you have reported that Waze just never seems to get your directions right, and while crowdsourced maps are great if you have all day to drive around, you'd prefer the fastest, most efficient route over wondering "where is this taking me?" Still, it's an amazing app, it learns your preferred routes for you, and if the social features sounds interesting to you, you'll enjoy using Waze. I keep it installed, even if it's not necessarily my first go-to nav app.
Navigon for Android ($40 + $14 in-app purchase for live traffic) Navigon (by Garmin) is another option, and while it's expensive and the app forces you to download your maps ahead of time (a process we suggest you do over Wi-Fi, as the files are pretty big) you do get the benefit of a "real" GPS app, where all of your maps are stored on your phone and you don't need a constant data connection to help you find your way. If your data connection drops, or you travel through areas with little to no signal, Navigon keeps going like nothing happened. Plus, the app is snappy, the interface is well designed for in-car use, and the voice prompts are clear and loud. That said, it's really pricey by comparison, and you have to pay again in-app to get live traffic, when other apps offer it for free. Plus, reviewers at Google Play point out that "Lifetime" map subscriptions are anything but, and you'll quickly find yourself paying again and again for new updated maps. Navigon has a long and storied history, and it's a great option if you need offline maps (although Google Nav also allows you to download map areas), but its really hard to get around the price.
Sygic ($42 for North American license, $32 for US only, Price varies by location, Free trial available) is another solid turn-by-turn navigation option for lovers of offline maps. Sygic leverages TomTom's maps for driving directions, and has its signature big, bright, colorful GPS maps and on-screen UI. The screens are easy to understand, upcoming turns are shown clearly, and the full license comes with real-time traffic. The app allows you to add your own points-of-interest (POI), speaks street names and lane-change warnings, and even integrates Google search so you can search along your route. Sygic is packed with all of the features that make a GPS device useful, which means you don't have to leave the app to search for businesses on the way, find a place to eat, see traffic conditions, and so on. It's a great app, and many of its users are happy with it, but again, it's difficult to recommend paying so much money for the North American maps when the 7-day free trial is over when other apps offer the same core features for free, even if many of the premium ones are missing. Plus, if you plan to travel anywhere outside of the area of the map package you paid for, get ready to buy another map pack.
MapQuest Mobile (Free) has come a good ways since it was first introduced. It used to be buggy, but it's much smoother now, and its directions are solid. Still, the bit problem with MapQuest Mobile is the same problem that plagues MapQuest in general: It's turn-by-turn directions still aren't that great. I often found MapQuest trying to route me through communities and cul-de-sacs when I knew there was a faster route on a larger street just up ahead, and toggling to OSM (a nice feature), didn't seem to help. It did re-route me if I missed a turn, and it does offer some traffic conditions, updated every five minutes from public sources, but unless you're looking for some of the sponsored hotels and restaurants that pop up in the app's search results, finding locations can be tricky and you may have to leave the app first. Still, MapQuest Mobile has some useful features, including voice search and support, a map toolbar that lets you search along your route without interrupting navigation, live traffic flow and incident reports, and more. If you really dislike Google or Google Maps for some reason, give it a try. It's one of the few well-polished navigation apps centered around OpenStreetMaps, which is nice, but it still needs some work where it counts.
Note: Despite our best efforts to get review copies, we were unable to test CoPilot Live USA. It should be noted that these apps were not considered in our evaluation because we couldn't test them.
Lifehacker's App Directory is a new and growing directory of recommendations for the best applications and tools in a number of given categories.
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