Waze Navigation & Live Traffic Reviews

by Pianolist

I have pretty much switched to using Waze exclusively for my navigating needs. Even though my new Toyota has a nav system I prefer to use Waze. Better routes and with Wazers keeping it current you rarely are caught in a huge traffic jam. A couple of notes after a year or two. Waze has changed and gotten a little buggy. Still use it but since the last update it crashes all the time. I will be driving and look up to see Waze has crashed. Have to pull over and restart nav. Also now has “false starts “. It will come up but isn’t functional. It has to shut down, swiped from background and restarted. What it really needs is a pause button for temporary stops.

WazeNavigationLiveTraffic still crashes after the first 3 words of the next instruction. Very annoying when in heavy, unfamiliar traffic. Sometimes just keeps crashing after restart.

The worst is now the sloppy handling of Bluetooth with hearing aides. I would think they would be more respectful of those of us with disabilities. After giving a direction over the car radio it disconnects from the car and keeps the empty Bluetooth carrier active. This connects to my hearing aides effectively turning them off. Just what you need is to be mostly deaf in traffic thanks to your Nav program. They need to address how they handle Bluetooth. The cheapest bidder isn’t the best.

by LordLombardi

You wanna know where traffic is jammed? WazeNavigationLiveTraffic is wonderful for that. Want a route around? Avoid Waze.

WazeNavigationLiveTraffic is useful for for ETA’s if you sync with your calendar, and to show you where traffic jams are. However, expect it to always take you through traffic jams. The most use I’ve gotten out of WazeNavigationLiveTraffic WazeNavigationLiveTraffic during traffic hours (aka the time you would most want to use WazeNavigationLiveTraffic) is zooming out to see the full map and then seeing myself how to get around the jam. Without fail, if I’m trying to get home from work, Waze will want me to take a Street that I know for a fact will be jammed. I decided to follow the directions twice thinking maybe Waze was smart than I am and knew something I didn’t. Both times I was backed up a solid mile before where Waze thought the real jam started it. And I’m talking I was in bumper to bumper traffic waiting for the light to turn 3 times before I got past a single block. Despite this, Waze insists this is the fastest route — it’s not.

Waze also becomes unresponsive to traffic reports during peak hours it seems. You could report bumper to bumper traffic in a downtown street and Waze will only mark the small section where you are even if the jam stretches 10 minutes in front of you. You would think it would gather that you’re in a bad jam and find a different route, but it doesn’t. Your best bet is to zoom out the map, and try to find a better way yourself.

by Debest74

WazeNavigationLiveTraffic used to be so good but for the past few months is just not working. At this point i open it for police reports and use google maps for directions. I go fairly frequent to Las Vegas from California. Lately the directions won’t load and when I do get it to work it routs me completely out of the way!!!! Google maps tells me it’s going to take me about 4 hours with traffic and Waze is literally making me turn around/make a U on the 15 when driving from Vegas to take a completely obscure way adding 3 hours to the rout. The last straw was a few weeks ago driving from California to Las Vegas. At first it wouldn’t load so I went to the Waze support area and it advised to break down the trip in chunks so I decided to have it navigate me to the outlets in Barstow since I pass them EVERY SINGLE TIME. Somehow it took me trough a back way and trough a town name Crestline, up some mountains in the middle of no where and by the. It was pass 12am!!!! A 4 hour drive turn into an 11 hour drive!!!!!!!
If anything happened I would have been royally effed in the middle of nowhere.
This weekend I went back to California and decided to try again thinking it was maybe a problem that day. Once again it kept routing me trough some weird areas turning a 4 hour trip into 7. I had my girlfriend open her Waze to compare and Hers was working perfectly fine and using a complete different rout than mine was and about the same one as google maps.

by FrPoupart

I’ve been using Waze For carpooling since September (four months now) primarily as a driver. I am glad it’s been launched and I have some constructive feedback.

WazeNavigationLiveTraffic has changed and is not working well with Apple Car Play. It will not allow me to access messaging feature while when I arrive at the pick up point and I cannot end the carpool for several minutes until I exit the car thus making the whole process a nuisance rather than a seamless experience. The carpool features should be available on Apple Car Play. Additionally, 1) there are way too many buttons to push as a driver, thus causing significant distraction in the process; 2) the fact that there are two apps (driver and rider) is significantly confusing to me and everyone whom I’ve ridden with; 3) WazeNavigationLiveTraffic ’s design to protect privacy is the rider makes pick-up locations that are totally illogical and make no sense (like the middle of a freeway, just as an example); 4) WazeNavigationLiveTraffic biases their rider, rather than an equal approach for both rider and driver (if the rider sets a time, the driver cannot suggest an alternate) so there should be a reschedule button; 5) WazeNavigationLiveTraffic is simply NOT elegant and modern looking, it is clunky and the buttons to move between screens are hard to tap because they are so small.

Other than these issues, it’s a valiant effort and I applaud the Waze and Goggle teams for trying to crack this nut. It is something the world needs.

by EDazey

I like Waze for navigation; it has some good aspects over other map apps-I like that based on the day and time that I open WazeNavigationLiveTraffic it predicts where I might be going, I like that it chooses the shortest route and is always right regarding my ETA, I like that I can send my ETA to any of my contacts so they know when to expect me, and I like that if I try to access the search function while in motion it says this is unsafe and asks if I am the passenger. I DON’T like that all other uses of WazeNavigationLiveTraffic while in motion are extremely unsafe. To document police, accident, stalled car, road closure, etc I have to take my eyes off the road to navigate through all the prompts which is exactly like texting and driving, I DON’T like that there are ads that pop up anytime I am going less than 5mph-my husband has them pop at highway speeds! We need a paid version of WazeNavigationLiveTraffic !! Also, the see other people on the road function does not work well. There are many times I see other icons when there isn’t even another car around or my husband is using WazeNavigationLiveTraffic in his car ahead of me but I don’t see his icon. Also, beeps are not useful. Not only is it unsafe to get in and access the beep function, it serves no purpose. Once you accept them there is no history and no way to tell who beeped you.
Like I said, I like WazeNavigationLiveTraffic for overall navigation and real-time ETA, but otherwise it needs some serious updates.

by Lord Simmlink

I have been using Waze for about a month now I commute Just over 1000 miles a week. I really like that many people are out there using it and that you get vital information like a car’s coming up on the shoulder, objects in the road and where the police are camping at.

The only problem I have with Waze I’d like to see some changes is that there are too many choices to make when reporting information, for example if I want to report a car on the side of the road I have to hit four different selections before my information is sent meanwhile I’m trying to look at the screen to find a small button and not paying attention to what is on the road. Reporting information needs to be simplified for the driver no more than two clicks to report a hazard something along the lines of the first click hazard second click “car on shoulder” or “car in lane” or “object in lane”. Decision making buttons need to be a little larger like when you’re confirming a hazard on the road is it still there yes or no the buttons are too small and I often miss them and not able to confirm the information information. May be a few seconds before you approach the hazard two large buttons could pop up and simply confirm yes or no is it there.

I will say this I do enjoy using it and it is much better than Google maps or other navigation apps out there.

by Wolf_for_Lioness

I love Waze in its overall functionality, but it has gained a couple irritating issues over the last few updates.
As CarPlay activates in my car, or any car for that matter, after I’ve used Waze as my last app, when Waze initializes it automatically starts playing from my phones media library. It doesn’t allow the current media selection to continue, including the radio. It’s the only app that has constantly done this for the last couple of months. All other non-music apps don’t interfere with what media is selected. I have to manually go and select that media source again and then come back to Waze. If I have another app going like Google maps, this doesn’t occur but when I select Waze it always does this.
Also, Waze in CarPlay has trouble finding my location upon initiating. I have to go onto my phone and open the Waze app itself and then close it out in the task manager. Then, when I select it in CarPlay it works fine.
Lastly, the speedometer now—just barely—partially shows at of the the top left corner of the display in CarPlay. Cannot not been seen usefully.
I’ve got as far as uninstalling WazeNavigationLiveTraffic , then reinstalling it and signing back in and it still does all of these.

by Smiledaydream

It is the most useful of the navigation apps because it uses the most sources for information and does a great job helping me navigate. Directions are given in a way to help locate the turn or offramp. Other apps often change suddenly into step-by-step directions or some form that I do not want to see. Waze stays consistent in the format of the split. Waze has a number of notifications about things in the road. These are good but also have weaknesses. It is hard to report that something was not accurate. At the point it is supposed to be there the option to indicate it was incorrect goes away. This option should remain for 2 to 400 feet after the symbol location. Most hazard reports are inaccurate. Most police reports are incorrect. This is frustrating because it such a good idea but the tool doesn’t really allow for good reporting. Stopped vehicle reports do not indicate in lane or side of road so they are usually pointless viewings of vehicles stopped somewhere having no affect on traffic. There is a great feature to go later on the time this feature cannot be used for some reason I will choose directions to the airport. Half the time I can choose go later and half the time for the same trip I cannot. I know the data is there. But for some reason the feature just vanishes. Make it easier to report.

by Als2130

WazeNavigationLiveTraffic has saved me so many times. I absolutely love it. I use it constantly, mainly because it alerts me to traffic and cops, but also because it has shown me shorter ways to places I go to all the time (and thought I knew the best route there). I only have two complaints. The map change suggestion feature is totally useless. There’s a road near me that’s a private lane and ends at one curve of an s-curve. Waze always tells me to use this road for 100 feet, then get back on the main road. No, the private lane ENDS at the main road! I’ve tried changing this a dozen times, and it never gets changed (once it was actually, but a week later it was back). I’ve learned to ignore it, but I feel sorry for tourists because they get confused (I can tell they’re using Waze when I’m behind them because they’ll slow down and sometimes stop, which is really annoying). My other complaint is that I can’t tell it to remember certain routes. From my house, there are two ways to the county road. They’re both the same distance and about the same driving time. The difference is that the one Waze always tells me to use is single lane partway, very narrow the rest of the way, and has a lot of hidden entrances and blind hills and curves. I’d much rather take the safer way. If Waze finds a way to fix these two things, I’d give it 5 stars

by EmilyJumpsHorses

The battery drain when I use Waze is unreal. I was at 43%, opened Waze & drove for about 12 minutes, decided to add a stop. I looked at my screen and the low battery 20% alert was up!! All of my background apps were closed, and there was no reason for my battery to plummet that quickly. Sometimes my app won’t show my icon but shows the “shadow” of where it’s supposed to be. Another issue is that it doesn’t show all routes. I know a certain route isn’t normally the fastest, but I also know my city’s traffic patterns and it won’t show it. Also, I’m in the top 1%, but how do I know when I’m getting close to losing that prestige? How do I see if the population is catching up to me? Finally, the fact that it doesn’t tell you whether your destination is on the left or right is so irritating and basic that I’m shocked it’s not a feature. I wish there was a feature where you could customize which “hazards” to voice prompt. For example, I couldn’t care less about a car on the shoulder ahead, and it’s annoying to have my music interrupted by that stupid hazard alert. But I would want to know if there’s a pothole ahead, an object in the road, or a police reported ahead. Create a way to narrow down the voice prompts! Why do the other Waze avatar icons around me never move? Speaking of Waze “people” icons, please come out with more options!

by Peach11111

WAZE IS AMAZING. Thank you sooo much whoever created WazeNavigationLiveTraffic. I am home safe because of WazeNavigationLiveTraffic. I can not praise you enough.
Hi everyone. Right now I am so thankful to be home. We evacuated to Concord and was there from Wednesday the 12th to Tuesday the 18th. We knew our home was alright but you know you need to see it for yourself. We left Concord at 10:30 yesterday morning along with our two puppies. We used our GPS on hour cars for a good ways. We ended up in SC at South of the border. This was also with the help of a police officer and a local resident. But with all of this and trying to get past the water flooding was daunting. My sisters we watching out for the whole way. One of them told use to try WazeNavigationLiveTraffic “WAZE”. I downloaded it to my iPad. I am here to tell you we would not be home today if it wasn’t for WazeNavigationLiveTraffic. It would even tell us about a vehicle parked on the side of the road a half a mile away in the dark. It is amazing. She only made two mistakes but that was because road block had just happened. I highly recommend WazeNavigationLiveTraffic. Everyone stay safe and God bless all the lineman, police, EMS, firefighters and anyone else I have not mentioned that are working so hard to keep us safe and getting our lives back to normal.

by Mefreesea

I love WazeNavigationLiveTraffic simply because of his style and I like way to look at our worsening traffic situation all across or length it's no longer our grandparents freeway gone are the days of leisurely drive and pleasant afternoon behind the wheel now driving Siri is business and not to be left that at all so Waze shows it other ways to use WazeNavigationLiveTraffic Multi platform use an informational stack to assist with around you at all times need to come to that oh my by that I mean the dreaded stocker the one who just won't leave you alone and must bother you in any which way they can interesting that avatars have now become avatars maybe that's a new word car the tatf. but for later next line recently I've had that displeasure of finding that I to warrant a sucker and I only found out because Waze showed me that my stocker was never far behind have a virgin ever prime ever trying to communicate the Daniel benign idiocy of their plate In stocking me it showed me how to stock them and soon as you might imagine the police were involved and well wouldn't you know it my stocker became a shocker who ended up in the slammer known as the locker and there you have it my happy story brought to you by the way thank you Stucker free

by Casual Game Player

Great features: best routing around trouble I’ve ever seen around the most up to date traffic information possible. The audio app integration is a neat addition. I recently upgraded my phone and it uses the additional screen space effectively. Changing the voice for directions is great. Loving the validation Cookie Monster provides at my destination!

Could be improved: Pandora integration makes it look like you can change stations or thumb up/down from within Waze but it doesn’t actually work. Needs to include Audible and Podcasts apps. If I take a shortcut through an alley or start out in a school parking lot, Waze seems to really lose track of where I am and is in recalculation mode for miles at best. Sometimes I have to kill it and start over to get it to tell me where to go at a critical junction.

Nit pick: Routes could better predict drive times based on historical data. I drive from Illinois to Missouri in the St. Louis area every day. That means picking a bridge over the Mississippi right at the start. I-270 will always jam up in north St. Louis County after I leave my house and take 5-10 minutes longer than Waze says on a GOOD day. They aren’t all good days.

by Serickjr

Update Oct 3, 2018-
We’ve been using Waze for many years and have always loved it... until iOS 12. There has been so many issues with it freezing, crashing and interfering with the built in Bluetooth in our car. It will completely cut off the Bluetooth in the car making it completely useless. We deleted WazeNavigationLiveTraffic for a while because it just didn’t work at all and redone loaded it after some updates were released after iOS 12 was out for a while and that’s when the Bluetooth issues started, needless to say we deleted it again. I’m very disappointed, we used for every drive we took, even up to the grocery store 2 miles away. As you can see below from our first review we absolutely loved it... But sadly, not so much anymore. I really hope that you’re reading these reviews and doing something to fix these issues so we can start using it again!

Since Google owns Waze I Would love to see some of Google Maps functions integrated into Waze. Other than that I have no complaints except the occasional outage, but we've been using it since it came out a few years ago and have loved it from the beginning!! Keep up the good work and get some of those google map features carried over to Waze!!

by Noa And Grandma

I am delighted by the services provided by the Waze app. On the first day I used it, it took me by previously unknown routes to a bakery to pick up a birthday treat for my dear daughter with 5 minutes to spare through rush hour traffic. The second time we used it we were at a huge airshow just outside of Portland OR and Waze saved the day by taking us back to Vancouver, WA on a very quiet and beautiful twisting country road through rolling farm land that ended up bringing us into Portland by way of the St. John's bridge. We were astonished to find that it took the same amount of time it would have taken us to go on the highway on a low traffic day. We were sold on it through these first initial encounters. BUT, my third use of it made me recognize how incredibly valuable and up to date it is it is when my destination was 2 blocks away from a bank robbery in progress and it diverted me from my normal route down narrow side streets where multitudes of cars were coming in the opposite direction but I seemed to be the only car going against the flow of traffic. Waze kept me safe and away from gunfire that was occurring just a block away from my final destination as bank robbers tried to make a getaway. Thanks Waze and thanks to all you Wazers that keep WazeNavigationLiveTraffic up to date so consistently. You rock!!!

by DL1771007

I’ve been using Waze for quite a while. However in one of the recent updates there are some problematic issues that need resolved. First and most important... waze now announces “hazard” ahead instead of announcing construction ahead, car stopped on road ahead, pot hole in road ahead... etc etc. because it only announced a “hazard”, one must now look at the phone to figure out what the hazard is... this can be a safety issue. It was much better when the announcement stated exactly what the hazard was, therefore one could stay focused without having to look at the phone all the time.
Another change in a recent update is the new female American English voice is very annoying!! Please go back to the original voice... it was much more pleasant and natural sounding. This new voice is not very friendly and on a long drive it’s quite irritating.
Overall it’s a great app that has saved me time and gas getting from point to point. The rerouting around traffic jams and accidents are nice, identifying traffic cameras, speed limits and current speed, etc are all nice features not found in other applications.
Keep up the good work Waze... but PLEASE fix the “hazard” warning (by going back to the way it used to be) and change back to the original American English voice. Thank you

by Depdoc

Waze is a user based traffic information app. It does rely upon users to report traffic conditions, construction, accidents and police. As a user passes by a reported problem, he can say Thank You, indicating the condition exists, or No longer There, indicating it has been cleared. There are two things I’d like to see changed: 1) allow the time to respond to the condition to last longer. Sometimes, the actual condition is at a slightly different place due to the time lag between where the incident is and when it was actually reported. and 2) when reporting police, it would be nice to know if the police is moving or stationary. If moving, the radius for notification should be extended and the time to clearing shortened, as a moving car will not remain in its position very long. If stationary, then notification can remain as it currently is. If police is moving, it would also be nice to know which direction and then adjust notifications accordingly. Note these are suggestions and not complaints. This is a great app and a must have for any driver. It also has a pretty good navigation system. But if you select another route than it gives you, it is slow to recalculate and sometimes requires stopping the navigation and then restarting it to get the alternate route.

by Andrepimarlucatom

Update:
Waze updates have been good and the reporting process is improved and there are less steps to get to the actual reporting - yay!
When you fix the default address estimation from interstate (literally I get suggestions for MI addresses, and I live in Alexandria VA!).
Previous:
I've recommended WazeNavigationLiveTraffic to dozens of friends and helped many download it to their smartphones and set it up for them. I can't say however that I'm very happy about the latest version of Waze. The GUI is not what it should be, the # of improvements is about equivalent to the # of detriments. It's hard to cancel an instruction once entered, the screen going from side to side is not user friendly. And reporting hazards is STILL a 2-3 step process!!!! There should be the option for active wazers to have a "visible police" button, "car on shoulder" button "construction" button and/or various traffic buttons of our choosing on the map page that we can report as we go. Also, PLEASE STOP SEARCHING THE ENTIRE MAP OF THE USA WHEN I'M OBVIOUSLY SEARCHING FOR AN ADDRESS IN MY LOCAL VICINITY. That was an obvious upgrade improvement you guys should have included. I would give you 5 stars or 10 or 20 because I love your app - but these improvements really need to happen ASAP. Keep up he awesomeness Waze!! Plus your Customer svc and responsiveness is great too!

by Duncapa

Waze is my #1 choice for GPS. Live traffic updates, being able to edit traffic conditions on the fly to give a more accurate commute, and sharing routes and eta’s are great features. I do hope they integrate voice commands with Siri so we can say things like “Hey Waze, drop a stopped vehicle pin.” While we are driving so interaction becomes handsfree and safer.

I gave 3 stars because there have been repeated issues with WazeNavigationLiveTraffic and service saying “No GPS available.” I have tried rebooting, deleting & reinstalling, and clearing WazeNavigationLiveTraffic cache on my phone as well as making sure iOS and WazeNavigationLiveTraffic are updated constantly. But the occurrence does not appear to be linked to hardware failure unless it is something inherent to the 8s. Google and Apple maps do not have any issues when this occurs so I’m at a loss as to what causes the issues with Waze. This occurs for about a 8-12 hours once a day, once or twice a month. Not the end of the world but heavily inconvenient when you regularly use the service for your GPS navigation (and it’s a great service) and you are on the road daily for 4-6 hours at a time it is a problem.

If they could fix this problem and integrate voice commands for pin drops, this would be a hands down 5 Star app. Hopefully I’ll get some feedback and can continue to use the service.

by AshEBom

I had been using Waze for about a year and LOVED IT!! But since the most recent IOS update, it continually is “searching for GPS” and looking for language (I still speak English 😉). I went to my cellphone provider, then Apple, and logged off of Waze to see if WazeNavigationLiveTraffic would reset itself and be fixed. This didn’t work. I even did a total reset of my phone, and nothing worked on Waze and Google (who owns Waze). I then contacted Waze, but got nothing but constant/obvious automated answers back that stated things to do that I already started I HAD ALREADY DONE and listed in my email. This is upsetting since other competing GPS apps work on my phone, so it’s not anything on my end. After a couple of weeks, I did a web search to see if others had issues or could help me. Interestingly enough, I found out I am in good company, sadly. Please Waze/Google, it would be greatly appreciated if you could actually get this obvious bug fixed. Your app was wonderful, but I’m sadly happy to switch to another app to at least get me to places. No, the other apps don't have the accident, police, or other very helpful perks. I just can’t stand diving “approximately” or now the map keeps me at the beginning location and has no idea that I have already driven and arrived at my destination. Beyond frustrating. Again, please send out a fix! 🔨

by Soundingon

My girlfriend had an accident using WazeNavigationLiveTraffic today. Granted, she’s a new driver, but she was driving her brand new car using Waze and it was very slow telling her what turns to make. While she was driving down a street, Waze told her when she was almost about to pass a street to turn all of a sudden. Being the unexperienced driver she is, she turned too fast and hit a sign. She got significant damage to her car. Again I can’t totally blame Waze, but I just used Waze and realized it’s doing the same thing to me. Telling me to make turns at the last second.. Now of course I opt to miss the turns, being a more experienced driver, but come on Waze... give us a break. I just missed two turns because it told me to make them at the last second. There has to be a way to keep WazeNavigationLiveTraffic from telling the driver to make a turn at the last second that could cause him/her to have an accident. That’s way too dangerous. WazeNavigationLiveTraffic needs a lot of work lately besides that. It just seems very buggy and often quits the route if I change apps. Ads are also showing up the wrong time, blocking me from seeing what my next move will be. I’m disappointed in what’s happened to WazeNavigationLiveTraffic. It needs a big revamp.