Lately I get the feeling that google maps was handed over to a spazzy Gen Z product manager. Its UI is a mess (for me) and also it seems to be doubling down on advertisements. I thought to try Waze but was put off when it asked me what sort of ads I’d like to see :(
So are there any good, paid alternatives out there? In my limited experience, the problem with non-google apps is that the search functionality is always inferior, to google, but that was some years ago and maybe it changed and they’re using google itself for search.
I don’t have a macphone so can’t use apple maps. Maybe I’ll swallow my pride and use Waze. My main issue with google maps is that I need to store quite a lot of favorite places (I’m afraid I’ll never get the hang of getting around London without help), and that part of the app is just awful.
I’ve switched over to Apple Maps for most things recently. Google Maps is not just a mess of confusing UX these days, Apple Maps also has a far superior layout for Car Play. I love how Apple Maps via Car Play dynamically shifts the angle it shows you depending on upcoming turns. It’s so…“comforting”, helpful, and intuitive.
Additionally, Google Maps has been horribly unstable for me on my iPhone for the last few months. It frequently crashes, in a way which locks up the entire iPhone - I can’t even swipe-up to close the app. Just need to wait 5-10 seconds for it to crash. And oftentimes, via CarPlay, it’ll show the map and just not update anything until I navigate away from the app and back to it.
Not paid alternative, but Bing/MS Maps is adequate. As someone said above, Apple Maps is also adequate. It also depends on your area you are traveling, sometimes one service may be more spotty than others. But Google Maps is still the most feature rich and up-to-date maps service in my area, despite the increasingly bloated UI.
In cities I still use Waze. But ignore it when it tells me to take random exit off highway then get back on after a mile to save 14.4 seconds. Mostly I check the best route before leaving and only diverge of something major pops up. Plus it shows speed traps.
That’s my problem with Waze and why I only use it when I know where I am going so I can ignore it if need be. I use Apple Maps if I am going to somewhere new. Waze will do the freeway game to save a few seconds, maybe, or it will have me go back roads that will then put me at an intersection to make a left turn onto a busy road without a light. I would had been better off sticking to the main road and using the light at the major intersection.
It hasn’t seemed intrusive to me. Not yet. I put in where I want to go, and it shows me a route. If I search for specific restaurants or businesses, it gives me that. And if I search for generic terms like Chinese restaurants, then it gives me a lot of ads from Chinese restaurants that paid Google, which makes sense.
Also when you start the app up, it says “latest in the area”, which is all ads, I guess, but it’s at the bottom of the screen, and I’ve never scrolled down to look at it.
I’ve always assumed that Waze has the wrong penalty for making turns. Driving 6 blocks, turning once and driving 6 blocks is far faster than making successive turns each block and traveling diagonally, but Waze does that shit to me far too much. In traffic (Boston) merge time on each turn waiting to get into the next traffic stream can be long.
It’s also more mentally taxing to make many turns than to drive straight.
Sometimes in excessive traffic Waze does generate better paths than google maps, but it’s rare.
I haven’t used Waze since Apple Maps gained the ability to warn about accidents ahead (and offering an alternative route), along with red-light camera warnings at intersections. Seems to work really well in my area, obviously that’s a big YMMV.
I do think the UX itself has regressed recently too. Things which should take just 2-3 taps, like deselecting a point of interest, or searching, or starting navigation, have 2+ additional steps interspersed all the time. Not that big of a deal on their own, but combined with the other annoyances, it just shows a total lack of polish.
One feature that I was recently shocked to find out is that you can’t simply use Google Maps to plot your own route. I realize the point is typically to get the optimal fuel efficient route most of the time, but I recently had a need to create a manual route and just wanted Maps (or Waze) to let me drag the lines around, save it, and then follow it just like any other route it generates. No go.
