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5 New Waze Features Rolling Out Now: Here Are All the Details

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Google today announced that Waze is getting a handful of new features, including some Gemini-powered personalization enhancements for Conversational Reporting.

Waze-logo.jpeg

Conversational Reporting already uses Gemini when users report traffic incidents like slowdowns, but now you can use it to suggest map updates like road closures or outdated addresses. Saying something like "The road is closed here" will prompt Waze to send the information to local map editors, who then verify the suggestion and update the map for everyone.

Google says reporting road updates conversationally is rolling out now globally on iOS and Android.

Elsewhere, Gemini is being recruited in Waze to help users who know what they need to get, but don't know where to get it. Before navigating somewhere, you can tap the search voice icon to ask questions like "Find me a coffee shop that's open right now," "Find me parking close to Grand Mall" or something more specific like "Find me a gas station nearby with the lowest prices." Google says Waze will respond with a list of options that you can navigate using your voice.
The feature is also rolling out worldwide now on all platforms.

In addition, Waze is getting an option to adjust to a "less chatty" mode for voice prompts, so that interacting with the app's driving directions doesn't intrude as much on a driver's music or podcast listening.

Waze is also getting a new Motorcycle Mode that includes two-wheeled shortcuts and more accurate ETAs for more optimal routing.

waze-conversational-reporting-road-updates.jpg

Lastly, Waze will now suggest routes based on your previous trips, augmenting its hyperlocal understanding of a city's traffic patterns. So if you prefer driving on highways over local streets with multiple stops, you'll see those suggested first. It's an optional setting so it can be toggled off, and it's rolling out now in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru and the Philippines on Android and iOS, with more countries coming soon.

Article Link: 5 New Waze Features Rolling Out Now: Here Are All the Details
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2026/07/13/five-new-waze-features-rolling-out/
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  • Angry
Reactions: Z-4195
I'd use Waze if it shared all my bookmarks and search history with Google Maps. I like to plan trips on Google Maps desktop and then navigate using the app. But if I use Waze it won't have a clue what the addresses I painstakingly copy pasted one by one into Google Maps are. I don't want to get in the car and have to spend 10 mins to go through emails and messages to find addresses that I already went through once. And Waze doesn't have a desktop version... so to me this makes Waze a no-go.
 
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Reactions: clg82, SFjohn, Böhme417 and 2 others
Will Co said:
True. But there's the Google aspect: they'll monitor and monetise the crap out of every bit of information they can glean from you interacting with the service, and privacy be damned. No thanks.
Click to expand...
yeah, like why would they do that with a free product they are giving you? Expecting to somehow make money to keep the free products rolling out, the nerve!
 
  • Disagree
Reactions: Eddie Beeps and marte91
if they could make it so advance warning of hazards or police could be configured, as by default it's too short. Many times on on top of the police before it notifys me. what's the point of notification ?
 
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wonderings said:
When I had my old car with CarPlay that was one of the things I preferred about Waze, simpler maps. I did not want all the 3D buildings, just a quick and easy to read map without a lot of visible extras.
Click to expand...
Waze dark mode on CarPlay is also much darker than Apple Maps
 
Will Co said:
True. But there's the Google aspect: they'll monitor and monetise the crap out of every bit of information they can glean from you interacting with the service, and privacy be damned. No thanks.
Click to expand...
I wonder if Waze has fixed the requirement access location all the time as opposed to when running.
 
Have a bad feeling that eventually Google is going to wreck Waze to the point where I’ll have to uninstall it and find a different app. Or they will eventually say they’ll discontinue it because they want you to use Google maps and instead. 🙄
 
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Reactions: marte91
Will Co said:
True. But there's the Google aspect: they'll monitor and monetise the crap out of every bit of information they can glean from you interacting with the service, and privacy be damned. No thanks.
Click to expand...
Well I’ll take it. It’s much easier to say, eg: navigate to the closest gas station on route 252 than to use the screen.

If one doesn’t want Google to have their voice, then sure I understand.
 
JosephAW said:
Have a bad feeling that eventually Google is going to wreck Waze to the point where I’ll have to uninstall it and find a different app. Or they will eventually say they’ll discontinue it because they want you to use Google maps and instead. 🙄
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I don't know why they don't do that already. Merge all the Waze features into Google Maps. Why keep 2 map apps going does not make a lot of sense to me.
 
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Reactions: JosephAW, CosmicRadiation, Böhme417 and 2 others
macjaffa said:
because they are different apps that do different things. to merge would compromise both negatively.
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What is it that they do different? Or better yet why can't Google Maps have user added things like police or construction? Seems like a simple layer to turn off and on if you want it or not. That is all I used Waze for, maybe I am missing something that is more complicated?
 
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JosephAW said:
Have a bad feeling that eventually Google is going to wreck Waze to the point where I’ll have to uninstall it and find a different app. Or they will eventually say they’ll discontinue it because they want you to use Google maps and instead. 🙄
Click to expand...
I’m surprised that Waze hasn’t been merged into Google Maps. I still remember meeting the Israeli engineers who developed Waze as a start-up. I heard them speaking Hebrew in a hotel lobby and initiated conversation. The acquisition had just happened and they were living it up! That was more than 10 years ago. I guess if the two apps were going to be merged it would have happened by now. I use Waze in Mexico because it shows time/distance to toll plazas, and Google and Apple do not.
 
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Will Co said:
True. But there's the Google aspect: they'll monitor and monetise the crap out of every bit of information they can glean from you interacting with the service, and privacy be damned. No thanks.
Click to expand...
Unlike government that helped Google at key points: partial funding in the 1990s through the Massive Digital Data Systems program (a project managed by the CIA and NSA), and the 2004 acquisition of Keyhole (an In-Q-Tel project).

There’s no air gap in surveillance.
 
wonderings said:
What is it that they do different? Or better yet why can't Google Maps have user added things like police or construction? Seems like a simple layer to turn off and on if you want it or not. That is all I used Waze for, maybe I am missing something that is more complicated?
Click to expand...
google maps is google maps because it doesn't have all that crap. Waze is waze because it does. If my grandmother had wheels she would have been a bicycle. Why not put an email client in it as well. Maybe we should appeal to our dear leader and campaign for one true map app that does it all and ensure there are no options available except the map app decreed to be The One.
 
  • Haha
Reactions: marte91
Why does Google have 2 products that do the same thing; google maps and Waze?

Can't they integrate the crowd sourcing into google maps?
 
macjaffa said:
google maps is google maps because it doesn't have all that crap. Waze is waze because it does. If my grandmother had wheels she would have been a bicycle. Why not put an email client in it as well. Maybe we should appeal to our dear leader and campaign for one true map app that does it all and ensure there are no options available except the map app decreed to be The One.
Click to expand...
Well Google Maps is to navigate where you go in the best way possible with the options you want, like avoidances. Waze is the same thing but has an extra feature to let people know where police are or construction through crowd sourced data. They are both doing the basic same thing, these are not like two totally different applications here. They are the same on more functions then they are different. Google Maps also does some of this already with speed traps so you can report this yourself and through this they are crowd sourcing all the data. So 2 apps doing the same thing by one company. The only reason I used Waze when I had CarPlay was for the simpler map view and the simplicity of reporting police or construction. Seeing as Google already has the option to report, all that is really different is the level of detail and I am guessing I am in a small minority that wants a simpler map.
 
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Reactions: appleCakes
I still wished Waze rolled out the location of traffic lights, though. You see that in Google Maps and Apple Maps.
 
macjaffa said:
you see, it's not. This is the fundamentals right here. Waze is for that.
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And to keep this on track and not go down the Anti-Israel black hole. I do see small differences but think they are more the same then they are different. Both navigate you where you need to go, both already offer police and construction crowd sourced. The base fundamentals are the same.
 
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