Photo: Bogdan Popa/autoevolution
I've been using Waze for as long as I can remember (not always as my main navigation app, but I kept it running in the background for warnings on road incidents), but I've never seen so much confusion about its direction in the long term.
The latest few months have brought all kinds of mysterious changes to the application, making many people believe Google is literally trying to kill off the app. I'm sure this (still) isn't the case, as Google isn't yet trying to integrate Waze into Google Maps, but some of the latest changes have indeed been questionable.
The most recent concerns the police reporting option. Some users can no longer see the "other side" option, meaning they can't report a speed trap on the other side of the road. The feature has been there for years, but it's now going dark for a reason that Waze didn't want to share.
The removal happens in stages and starts with part of the iOS user base. I still see the "other side" option when reporting police, but the number of users noticing it's missing keeps growing. Additionally, Waze has also removed this feature from the latest beta build, confirming reporting police on the other side of the road might soon be impossible.
The most recent beta update also removes the ability to report vehicles stopped on the side of the road. It doesn't make any sense, as the feature makes perfect sense, especially at rush hours when a vehicle sitting on the side of the road could cause a traffic jam.
Unsurprisingly, Waze users aren't happy with all these changes, and the latest beta builds have generated a prompt response from the community. Users want the options back, but the company wants to stick with the original plan of removing them, apparently for a more straightforward experience.
Meanwhile, bugs keep wreaking havoc in Waze, as critical fixes are still missing. More than a month ago, users discovered that the dark mode on CarPlay is broken, with Waze sticking with the daytime visual style even at night. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out why this is such a big annoyance, as a couple of seconds of looking at the screen could get you blind and make it harder to move your eyes back to the road.
The issue can be resolved by opening Waze manually on the smartphone (or by switching to Google Maps, at least temporarily).
The first reports signaling this dangerous behavior made their way to the web shortly after the early August release, but Waze is yet to ship a fix. A new update should go live in the coming days, as the company appears to be moving closer to finalizing the testing work on the latest beta build.
The most recent concerns the police reporting option. Some users can no longer see the "other side" option, meaning they can't report a speed trap on the other side of the road. The feature has been there for years, but it's now going dark for a reason that Waze didn't want to share.
The removal happens in stages and starts with part of the iOS user base. I still see the "other side" option when reporting police, but the number of users noticing it's missing keeps growing. Additionally, Waze has also removed this feature from the latest beta build, confirming reporting police on the other side of the road might soon be impossible.
The most recent beta update also removes the ability to report vehicles stopped on the side of the road. It doesn't make any sense, as the feature makes perfect sense, especially at rush hours when a vehicle sitting on the side of the road could cause a traffic jam.
Unsurprisingly, Waze users aren't happy with all these changes, and the latest beta builds have generated a prompt response from the community. Users want the options back, but the company wants to stick with the original plan of removing them, apparently for a more straightforward experience.
Meanwhile, bugs keep wreaking havoc in Waze, as critical fixes are still missing. More than a month ago, users discovered that the dark mode on CarPlay is broken, with Waze sticking with the daytime visual style even at night. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out why this is such a big annoyance, as a couple of seconds of looking at the screen could get you blind and make it harder to move your eyes back to the road.
The issue can be resolved by opening Waze manually on the smartphone (or by switching to Google Maps, at least temporarily).
The first reports signaling this dangerous behavior made their way to the web shortly after the early August release, but Waze is yet to ship a fix. A new update should go live in the coming days, as the company appears to be moving closer to finalizing the testing work on the latest beta build.
Google News