11 Time-Saving Hints for Finding Your Waze

These tips can help you navigate the crowdsourced directions app more effectively and get you to your destination faster. A friendly face to show you the way is a godsend when you’re in strange land. Waze aims to accomplish just that by providing directions and tips from other drivers in your area.

The app began as a small project in Israel before being purchased by Google in 2013 for more than $1 billion. Waze’s strength is in its numbers: the more people that contribute, the more accurate the information Waze gives.

The service had 140 million monthly active users at the time of the last count. While some drivers are annoyed that Waze has converted their backstreets into congested highways, Waze is one of the most useful mapping programmes available. During the pandemic, it provided services such as putting medical testing sites as pins on its maps and creating specific badges for retailers that provide social-discrimination measures such as curbside pickup.

Here’s how to put your Waze knowledge to work for you.

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1-Plan of Exit

Waze’s Planned Drives function will inform you when to leave if you tell it where you’re going and when you need to be there. Log into Waze on a PC and select the Live Map option. Enter your starting location and destination information, then select Arrive By from the clock icon and enter the day and time you want to arrive.

When it’s time to depart, select Save to App and you’ll receive a notification. Make sure you’ve granted Waze access to your location and that you’ve enabled notifications on iOS and Android.

Then open Waze and go to My Waze > Plan a Drive > Add a Drive, where you may type your destination into the search bar. Save the time you want to arrive by scrolling down and clicking Save. After that, you’ll be taken to a page where you can choose Tell Me When to Leave.

2-Directions from the Desk to the Front Door

Waze Live Map allows you to plan your routes before you leave the house. On your computer, go to the Live Map, type in your destination, and then select Send to Your Phone at the bottom of the screen. You will be sent a QR code. Waze will email you a link to your directions if you point your phone camera at it.

3-Push It to Its Limits

It’s difficult to know your limitations, or rather, the speed limit, especially when travelling in unfamiliar territory. Waze, on the other hand, can overlay a speedometer on the map and includes a speed limit function that can inform you when you’ve hit it or gone over it by 5%, 10%, or 15%, or 5mph, 10mph, 15mph, or 20mph.

To access the speedometer, go to Settings > Speedometer. Toggle Show on Map to On to see the speedometer at all times. Toggle on Alarm When Speeding and scroll to Show Speed Limit and Speeding Threshold to set when you want an alert.

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4-Don’t Drive By Yourself

You can broadcast your drive if you want people to know where you are, either for safety reasons or because you’re that friend who always says you’ll be there in five minutes then shows up half an hour later. When you’ve finished mapping out your route, go to the bottom of the screen and press Share Your Drive to transmit your route and location via SMS, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, or email.

5-My Hero Has Left the Building

Sometimes you’re stuck in a traffic jam, and other times you’re stuck in an emergency situation. If you’re on the road and need assistance, pick Roadside help from the Report menu on the main Waze screen.

Select Emergency call to be linked to local emergency services, Road assistance to acquire a list of roadside emergency services and easy access to them, or Fellow Wazers to flag down a fellow vehicle.

6-My command is to listen to your voice.

Driving while distracted is dangerous. Even on iOS, you can use Google Assistant to browse, report, and control some operations to reduce the amount of time you have to look at the Waze screen. Toggle on Google Assistant in Settings > Voice & Sound > Google Assistant. You can talk to Waze by saying “OK Google” when Waze is open. (Siri Shortcuts are also supported by Waze.)

7-The Fast Lane of Life

If you were using the HOV lane or a toll pass that may speed you through, the ETA button didn’t always give you the most accurate number. Let Waze know ahead of time if you plan on driving in a high-occupancy lane or utilising a pass. Select your route under Settings > Toll & HOV Passes.

8-Voices Leading the Way

Change the sound of Waze if you don’t like it. Select one of the basic voices or a promotional tie-in from Settings > Voice & Sound > Waze Voice.

9-Step on the Gas

Waze can show you gas stations and prices along your trip. Go to Settings > Gas Stations if you have any choices. You can select preferred stations (particularly useful if you have a loyalty card) and gas type, as well as sort results by price, distance, and brand.

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10-What’s Your Personality Type?

What you’re driving determines the best route to take and how long it will take you to get to your destination. Waze will give up the finest information for you, whether you’re driving a standard car, a taxi or car service, a motorcycle, or an electric vehicle, if you go to Settings > Navigation > Vehicle Type.

11-Discover Your Own Waze

Take Waze’s word for it, but not always. Check out alternative route options once you’ve been offered a way to get where you’re going. Tap Routes, then choose the one that appears the best to you, whether it’s one that doesn’t take you through four lanes of traffic or into any potentially dangerous scenarios.