Waze has established itself as an indispensable ally for millions of drivers seeking to avoid traffic traps. Its success is based on its ability to offer alternative routes based on reports from its large community, promising to avoid traffic jams. However, Waze's very popularity sometimes has a perverse effect: by directing many users to the same "clear" secondary roads, it can inadvertently create new congestion points there. A frustrating phenomenon for those who thought they had found... the perfect escape, coupled with a few bugs and the progress of a competitor.
Already the undisputed leader in mapping, Google Maps is gradually integrating the best features of Waze and gradually winning the hearts of motorists. A new update could still allow the Google application to gain new fans.
Android 16 will improve Google Maps
When using Google Maps and switching between different applications, you have to reopen the application to find your route. Google is preparing the arrival of a new feature dubbed "Live Updates" is particularly interesting. Inspired by iOS's "Live Activities" (available since 2022) and technically linked to the next version of Android, it promises more responsive traffic information. The idea is to permanently display, and offer quick access to, all the important information about your journey, such as arrival time or time remaining before the next junction.
"Live Updates" should appear at the official launch of Android, which could happen as early as this summer. The feature seems to be enabled by default on compatible devices, but Google provides the possibility to disable this option for those who do not find it useful. Although it is not exclusive to Maps and linked to Android 16, this new feature first appeared in beta on Google's navigation app.
Between Maps and Waze, Google seems to have made its choice (but assures that this is not the case)
While the fear of a merger weighs on Waze, this new feature tends to demonstrate that the American giant continues to favor Google Maps to the detriment of the application it acquired in 2013. Even though Waze regularly gets new features, like AI or the Gemini assistant on iPhone, most of the flagship features arrive on Maps. Google's app offered itself Waze's crash reports at the end of the year, but the Mountain View firm that it does not plan to abandon either of its two applications. By the summer of 2024, it affirmed to The Verge that the Waze community was "dedicated". "They prefer certain things that Waze does over Google Maps, and we know the reverse is also true," explained Tim Queenan, director of Waze.
With the arrival of "Live Updates," Google will nevertheless demonstrate its ambition to compete with Waze on its own turf: dynamic, community-driven traffic information. It remains to be seen whether this innovation will be enough to lure Waze loyalists away from their favorite app.
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