HERE WeGo: Maps & Navigation

I really like this on Android Auto. Satellite view is pretty cool. The notification on screen of an upcoming Rest stop on the Interstate is literally something I've wanted for over a decade. It was exciting to see. It's not perfect on Android Auto yet, but I like it better than any other Android Auto navigation app. And I've tried all of them I can find. The fact that it is free, is secondary. It's really good now. Not just good for a free app.

So I went for a 10-day road trip across 6 countries in Europe and chose not to get data service (I kept in mind I could always activate 24-hr for $10 anytime), so it was super stressful to rely on Google map because I had to load it in the morning at airbnb, find a nearby Starbucks, McDonald’s or airport when I lose connection, sometimes just by accidental taps or being idle I guess. On day 3, I met my cousin in Switzerland who introduced me to this life-changing app. It has rerouting function which I love, the appearance is fine, the voice is a bit weird, and I have a love/ hate relationship with the fact that it beeps (love) but jumps me out of radio (hate) every time I go over speed limit (too sensitive and many times the limit is not up to date). The last day, to deal with strike traffic in Paris and to make sure I could get to the airport, I still chose to pay $10 so that I could have Google Map. For a free app that saves money, this is great! If I spend the previous night adding destinations into my favorites, it becomes even more convenient. Make sure you have space and the download is complete because the map for France is heavier and when I came back to France from Switzerland, I realized the map was halted only when I needed it the most. Still, very highly recommended.

This app is as good as it can get. It even works good for over the road trucking as I have been using it forever to drive a semi truck to all of my customers. Do not get me wrong, this is not a truck gps, but what this is.... is a very nice gps that gives you routes on the main highways and for this reason, I have decided that this is better than Google Maps anyday! By the way, Google tracks and records your location at all times and saves this information along with your ip address stamped on it at all times and even use the info to market products toward you depending on your travel habits! As a offline mapping software, I can trust this more than I trust Google who also owns Waze. Apps like these use less data, are easier on your mobile phones battery, and will even help your phone last longer by not depleting the battery by logging your data all day! I know this app is not as popular as Google or Apple Maps, but it should be!

I like this app a lot! I've noticed compared to Google Maps it always has more accurate bus info, it uses less battery, and it's much less crowded. I like the simplicity and it works well for me. The only drawbacks I dislike is it rarely has very much info about restaurants/places. Google Maps always has pictures, the website and busy times, reviews, etc. With this you sometimes get a phone number and website.

I really love this app and I've been using it a long time. The ability to download offline maps is clutch and the recent Android auto update is much appreciated. If I had one critique or suggestion, it would be with the destination pins when approaching your destination. I wish that, instead of being placed directly on the road, that the pins be placed to the left or right of the road so that you can tell from a distance which side of the road the destination resides when you're approaching.

Its a very useful offline map while exploring places and using navigation for walking across city blocks. 3D map with building layout helps very much to identify the landmarks and path to follow. Now talking about the navigation, its annoying sometimes. When a desired route is selected, sometimes you have to make some detour to bypass the commute hour traffic or other obstacles. So Here map is constantly trying to put me back to the originally selected track. Its fine to show a road for some period of time so that you can stay on the previously selected track. However this stubborn suggestion lasts until all possible route to the previous path is exhausted. And you can see the ETA is greatly changed by doing this. So the suggestion here is to let the user continue on current track after some number of attempts. Its a nice to have feature to show a message to the user whether they want to stay in same route or are they trying to get back to original route selected.

I used both the new and old Here We Go (HWG) app. The new app is cleaner but missing some settings; particularly a switch to NOT use the Bluetooth connection to the car audio. I often prefer to have the voice directions emit from the phone speakers instead of the car audio system. The only way to stop HWG from using Bluetooth is to disconnect the phone from the car audio (which usually just reconnects on its own) or turn off Bluetooth on the phone. If the app had a switch to specify Bluetooth audio or speaker audio (like many audio apps do), that would make this a 5 star app.

Used this when I was in France and London. Was great using offline maps and was very reliable and mostly accurate. Would like to see more integration into iOS. Would like to be able to submit feedback on address corrections via the app as opposed to being taken to the website. Would like the option to not have ads perhaps via in app purchase or just have those removed entirely. Again this is a great navigation app and it’s offline features like being able to download a whole map of a country for offline use is fantastic.

I’d like to see full screen use on the iPhone X like Google Maps or even something similar to Apple Maps. It’s trivial I’m sure, but it’s attention to detail. It does appear night mode uses true black which will conserve battery. Being able to download maps is great, it saved us on our last trip to Europe and made getting around a breeze. I also haven’t noticed any ads lately, which was fairly annoying not to be able to opt out of. It would be nice to have an auto switch feature for the units, it’s already using our location, can’t be that hard to know what areas use which units on their roads, there are only three. The voices are a bit digital and processed sounding, not major, but smoother voices would be nice. The directions can be confusing, especially the lane indicators and arrows. If you’re a Windows 10 user you’ll notice the native MS Maps app is in fact Here We Go. This made planning trips in Europe easier since we could see things on my Surface Pro 4 in larger detail then use the iPhone on the streets for navigation. Reality is I’d only use Google Maps if they offered offline maps. However, they don’t, so this is where Here We Go really shines. If Here We Go could get their interface, search and options on par with Google Maps, I may just remove Google Maps. At the moment there’s a long ways to go still.

Not Dex friendly. Not Bluetooth friendly. Apps, like maps benefit from big screens such as Dex or screen casting. HERE-WeGo doesn't cooperate with a Bluetooth mouse. I can't find any way to zoom and unzoom with the mouse. It should be a simple as turning the scroll wheel or perhaps holding a keyboard key while spinning the wheel. ALSO, the voice navigation fades from Bluetooth to external speaker while giving voice instruction. Usually I can only hear the first few words of an instruction.

The thing that I love about Here Maps is the ease of downloading a country instead of sections like Google’s. Though, it’s still not capable of reliability like routing, place of interests, and live traffic. The routing takes you to more turns than making it simple, most of the business listings are either outdated or missing, and you get barely traffic report updates. The 3D building is a great feature especially how it shows an imagery of a tower building, which is another great thing but although it doesn’t cover that much area. I also like the voice guidance they’ve provided, it has a detailed guidance like it tells me to “enter the highway”, and it comes with more languages but the quality of the audio is low which you can barely hear at all. The most I disliked about this app is CarPlay support and it’s been 3 years that they still haven’t implement it but yet Magic Earth already have. This navigation tool has it’s potential but I believe that it’s putting less effort to improve it overtime. It is safe to say that you can use it for your holiday trips but be sure to be alert with your surroundings as this app would not be accurate all the time.

It was the best alternative to Google maps and waze, but recently the voice guidance started having issues. The voice directions would cut out before completing the directions. The voice guidance was so great until recently, so I am not sure changed. If you fix this problem then this is would be better than any other map apps.