Just think about it. A navigation app that sends you into off on some wild goose chase, into the sticks, or worse, off-road completely can cost you time and endanger you and anyone else you're driving around. You want an app in your pocket you can trust, and so this week we asked you what navigation app you trusted with your route and your safety, and the results are in. And while these results are not surprising, they did bring us a spirited discussion on what matters to you — our readers — in your navigation apps.
Google Maps — preloaded on most Android phones and integrated with most of Google's other services like Hangouts and Google — is good enough for over five thousand of the seven thousand who responded. As you can see, that's a substantial portion, but it's not quite everyone. Like all apps, there are things that irk certain users. The American accent irks some British users, the app can crash during long trips, the offline capabilities are somewhat meager and harder to reach.
Picking up the slack for the most part among the responding readers is HERE Maps and Waze. Waze took twelve percent, in no small part for its alerts for things like patrol cars and red-light cameras were a big hit with many users, but others appreciated the crowdsourcing of traffic data that kept things current. However, Waze also drew some ire in the comments for being a resource-hog and for their cartoony UI.
HERE is just rolling out of beta here on Android, but many users already appreciate its record on platforms like Windows Phone and Nokia's Symbian system, its more robust and data-friendly offline capabilities, and how these capabilities often translated into increased battery life while navigating. HERE took just shy of ten percent in the poll, but that may grow as the app gains more exposure in the Android market.
Other navigation apps, including CoPilot, Navigon and Sygic rounded out the remaining five percent of our responding readers — many of whom stated more precise or robust navigation needs. We also found a number of commenting users still prefer a standalone GPS unit or the navigation built into their car's dash.
Do these results surprise you? Do you think there should be more competition and diversity in your map choice, or are the current option more than enough for your needs? What features do you need added to your choice to make it perfect, besides teleportation?
