Waze introduces personalized navigation

Credit: Waze

Many people have preferred routes, and Waze is making sure you stay on yours. The app on Android and iOS is introducing personalized navigation, which will offer routes based on your previous trips, on top of what the company says is a "hyperlocal understanding" of a city's traffic patterns. You can turn the feature on and off in your settings. It has already begun rolling out to users globally.

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Google rolls out Waze incident alerts on Maps

Image: Google via Tech Radar

What separates Google Maps from Waze is the community-driven traffic incident alerts you get on the latter. But that feature looks like it's coming to Maps. Users are now seeing Waze traffic alerts in the app with the words "From Waze drivers" in the pop-ups. Google announced this integration back in July, but it's been getting a broader release in time for the holiday driving season.

As Tech Radar pointed out, Google Maps has been asking drivers to offer traffic incident updates for a while now. But the alerts coming from Waze are a new addition. These notifications are for incidents like lane closures, nearby construction, and the like. It does hint at Google possibly integrating Waze into Maps, which they have said in the past that they won't do. But we can't say for sure that Google will keep its word. We all know what happened to Fitbit after all.

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Waze to let you see school zones

Image: Google

Waze will make it easier to see busy school areas on the map soon. When driving near a school, you'll get information about that school zone and a reminder to be extra cautious. This feature will come to the Google-owned app globally later this year on Android and iOS devices.

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Waze introduces Conversational Reporting

It'll be much easier to report incidents while using Waze. The app launches a beta version of Conversational Reporting, which allows you to speak naturally when reporting hazards you see on the road. All you need to do is tap the reporting button and speak as if you're talking to a friend. Gemini allows Waze to understand what you're saying and add the real-time report for you. It will ask follow-up questions when needed. Waze can then categorize the report for you.

Beta testers get access to this feature in English on both Android and iOS devices. Google plans to expand the feature to more users and languages in the coming months.

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