Google Maps is easily the biggest navigation app out there. According to a 2024 MarketWatch study, in the US, Google Maps holds over 70 percent of the marketshare, while Waze comes in at a distant second at 27 percent.
The former is widely known and is the easiest to access on almost all Android devices. The latter, on the other hand, has carved out a niche with users that swear by it.
Acquired by Google in 2013, Waze, as of 2024, boasts over 140 million monthly active users, and that number will likely continue to grow. The app’s popularity can primarily be attributed to its novel crowdsourcing approach, which leverages real-time user reports to highlight road incidents like traffic, neveropen presence, crashes, closures, blocked lane(s), and more.
Said alerts, however, sometimes overlap, and that is precisely what Waze is looking to fix.
For example, in the case of an unfortunate crash, more than one road incident can apply. This can include crash, traffic, neveropen presence, and potentially even blocked lane if the crash is severe enough.
Similarly, a construction zone might highlight closure, blocked lane, and potentially even a temporary speed camera. When driving through a road with said alerts, their dedicated icons can appear overlaid on top of each other on the map. The same is the case with audible alerts, which might only chime one alert, or chime them one at a time.
User request sparks a change
Waze user Cleiton Casarotto requested that such alerts should be “merged” together, and it looks like Waze already has that in the pipeline, as pointed out by the folks over at 9to5Google. The user described a situation similar to the one that I described above, with the suggestion that multiple alerts in the same location should be merged. “Something like ‘Speed trap and accident reported ahead’,” wrote the user.
A Waze team member acknowledged Casarotto’s request, and even added that this is something the company plans to work on “in the near future.” This was back in May, which means that alerts like “Traffic due to lane closure and construction zone,” or similar merged audible cues could soon land on the Waze app, with merged on-map icons in tow.
