Waze is one of the most popular GPS based navigation applications available for smartphones with GPS display screens and support.
The app makes use of the user’s location details to provide information such as voice guided route details, turn by turn information and travel times submitted by users. You can avail traffic updates, live maps and road data such as community-contributed road alerts. The app also guides you on finding the most affordable gas station in your routes. All these factors and more contribute to why it is essential having this app on your smartphone. Waze is compatible with smartphones operating on almost all platforms, and can be used on Android, Blackberry, iOS, Windows Phone and Symbian smartphones.
What Makes Waze Different
The key difference between Waze and other geographical navigation apps is that it is community driven. As a result, you can make your own contributions to this app to report road blocks, traffic jams, police traps and more. However, one major drawback is that it does not have a complete base map for all the countries in the world.
Downloading Waze on Your Smartphone
There are two ways you can download Waze on your smartphone with a data connection. One way to do this is to go to your mobile browser and search for the app online. You can download the app and install it. The second method is simpler and faster. You can go to the app store in your smartphone and install the app from there. For Android users, you can download Waze for free from Google Play Store.
When you click on Install in the app store, you are provided with a list of details that Waze would access. When you agree to this, you will see a new screen displaying the full name of the app. Tap on this to begin the download. A progress bar shows the status of the download. Once the download is over, installation will begin automatically. After the installation process, click Open to begin the initialization process. You will see the Welcome screen along with a message that you may have to wait a couple of minutes as Waze is going to run for the first time on your smartphone. If you have turned off your location setting, then you will be asked to turn it on after the initialization. Based on the location set, language files will be downloaded automatically. As with any software, you will then be asked to accept the terms of use.
You can also set the language of your choice from a list of given languages. Once you do this, Waze will provide you with a login screen. You can sign up if you are a new user or get started right away if you are an existing user. There is also an option of skipping the registration process for the time being. When you do this, a temporary account will be automatically created for you. However, the drawback of not being a registered user with Waze is that neither will you be able to access its website nor will your points get accumulated when you drive.
Once you have successfully installed Waze on your smartphone, it is advisable to take some time and first explore the various features it has to offer before using it. This will assure you of minimum hassles when you use the app on the move.
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