The best driving GPS navigation app?

[LunatiqueRob]

I'm about to defect over to Android (waiting for my Galaxy Note 3), and I've done a lot of research into driving GPS navigation apps, but it's hard to tell what some of them can really without a free/trial version, and not all the features are listed completed in the bullet points. So I thought I'd ask you guys.

Right now, I've been using Magellan's RoadMate app on the iPhone 4, and it's been quite good. I've used their standalone GPS unit in the past for a while too, so I'm familiar with their features. I've also used TomTom's app as well, and a little bit of Navigon. What I'd like to find, is an Android app that has these following features that really matter to me:

(Your suggestions can be commercial or free apps, as long it's quality stuff.)

-Have music playback control buttons in the GPS app.

-Live traffic update/rerouting when there's heavy traffic.

-Able to save your own list of destinations as favorites.

-POI search for nearby restaurants, shopping, gas station, hospital, etc.

-Speed limit monitoring/warning.

-Show current speed, how many more minutes until destination, what the time will be when reaching destination.

-Show the next couple of turns so I can get in the right lane fast enough

-Color-coding of the last couple hundred of feet of the route before I reach the next turn, so I know the turn it coming up

-Shows highway exit lanes visually with detailed graphics.

-Local map storage so don't need to rely on cell signal.

-Can edit/add/subtract destinations from a multi-destination route.

-Can choose to avoid highway, or use highway only, choose fastest or shortest route, etc.

-Has all previous destinations listed in the history.

-Can pin current location (for finding the car later, or an off-road location).

Thanks!

 

[Golfdriver97]

I'm about to defect over to Android (waiting for my Galaxy Note 3), and I've done a lot of research into driving GPS navigation apps, but it's hard to tell what some of them can really without a free/trial version, and not all the features are listed completed in the bullet points. So I thought I'd ask you guys.

Right now, I've been using Magellan's RoadMate app on the iPhone 4, and it's been quite good. I've used their standalone GPS unit in the past for a while too, so I'm familiar with their features. I've also used TomTom's app as well, and a little bit of Navigon. What I'd like to find, is an Android app that has these following features that really matter to me:

(Your suggestions can be commercial or free apps, as long it's quality stuff.)

-Have music playback control buttons in the GPS app.

-Live traffic update/rerouting when there's heavy traffic.

-Able to save your own list of destinations as favorites.

-POI search for nearby restaurants, shopping, gas station, hospital, etc.

-Speed limit monitoring/warning.

-Show current speed, how many more minutes until destination, what the time will be when reaching destination.

-Show the next couple of turns so I can get in the right lane fast enough

-Color-coding of the last couple hundred of feet of the route before I reach the next turn, so I know the turn it coming up

-Shows highway exit lanes visually with detailed graphics.

-Local map storage so don't need to rely on cell signal.

-Can edit/add/subtract destinations from a multi-destination route.

-Can choose to avoid highway, or use highway only, choose fastest or shortest route, etc.

-Has all previous destinations listed in the history.

-Can pin current location (for finding the car later, or an off-road location).

Thanks!

Welcome to the forums. Beautiful dog. Yours?

To your question: I don't use any navigation much and when I do, I use Google Maps. When you open it, there is a Y shaped icon next to search; that is Navigation. To play around with it, you can enter any address or something well known like 1600 Pennsylvania Av (White House).

I have seen a couple people say they liked TomTom, but it is a large file as in 3GB (GB was no typo). And it is expensive. like $70 for the US maps alone.

 

[Jo Chee]

Papago sucks. Dun use.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[Golfdriver97]

Papago sucks. Dun use.

Posted via Android Central App

Welcome to the forums.

From a Sprint Moto X using AC forums app

 

[FaisDogg]

Google Navigation, fast, accurate

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

 

[LunatiqueRob]

Guys, thanks for the suggestions, but did you look at the long list of features I'm trying to match? Google's navigation doesn't even come close to matching all of those features. I'm asking about a full-blown, dedicated driving GPS with specialized features like speed limit monitoring, traffic re-routing during traffic jams, music player controls in the main GUI screen, detailed highway exist lane indicator graphics, routing based on choices like "avoid all toll-roads," "highway only," "local only," etc. I don't know if you have have used a commercial, dedicated driving GPS like the Magellan RoadMate before, but it's a very different experience from simple free apps like Google's navigation.

 

[Adamsberg]

I use Navigon (Garmin) and I think it has these options but not the music button.
BTW, this music button should be part of a car mode app IMO.
I never used some of these options, so I'm not sure they will exactly meet your requirements

A downside of Navigon is that you can't try a trial version.
So my recommendation is ... try Sygic, it has a 7-days-trial and as far I heard it's almost as good as Navigon.

CoPilot should be also almost as good as Navigon, but also hasn't a trail version ... but depending on your country's maps, CoPilot's price might be interesting.

 

[jfs101]

You should look into Waze, it has many of the features you want, about 80% of them.

It does need a connection, but for a free app it works great. No wonder Google bought it.

You can play around with it on your current device will you wait for your Note 3.

You didn't mention turn-by-turn voice directions. Waze has it and it will tell you well ahead of time to stay or go to a certain lane.

I wouldn't worry too much about the music control, as a simple swipe down will bring them up.

Sent from my HTC One using AC Forums mobile app

 

[Jay Sacks]

Guys, thanks for the suggestions, but did you look at the long list of features I'm trying to match? Google's navigation doesn't even come close to matching all of those features. I'm asking about a full-blown, dedicated driving GPS with specialized features like speed limit monitoring, traffic re-routing during traffic jams, music player controls in the main GUI screen, detailed highway exist lane indicator graphics, routing based on choices like "avoid all toll-roads," "highway only," "local only," etc. I don't know if you have have used a commercial, dedicated driving GPS like the Magellan RoadMate before, but it's a very different experience from simple free apps like Google's navigation.

I think copilot has all your requirements except music controls.

Sent from my GT-P6210 using AC Forums mobile app

 

[LunatiqueRob]

Yeah, music control isn't an issue anymore, since both Android and iOS both have the quick controls panel now.

I'll check out the suggestions. Thanks! Keep them coming if you have more.

 

[dplane]

Check out Scout.. Brilliant app and free these days

Posted via Android Central App

 

[dakeb]

Waze: re-routing when you go off piste doesn't work. It will take you miles out of your way to get back on its original route, rather than recaclulate. Has popup advertising, cluttered screen. Up to the minute traffic reports from other members., speed camera alerts.

Navfree: Comes up with some weird routing which takes you the long way round. Ideal for taxi drivers.

Scout: incompatible with my Galaxy Note 3

Sygic: Expensive maps to download

Be-On-Road: Expensive Maps, need to pay even more for traffic, clunky screen, Routing seems okay. I didn't try it with the free maps, they wouldn't download, only the trial of the paid-for ones. It has a horrible way of searching for an address, so hard to operate and select the options you need.

Google: Great Navigation, clean screen, but needs a data plan and a connection which is often unavailable at the most inopportune moments. includes traffic and re-routing, but until they implement the best bits of Waze has no traffic cameras etc. Satellite view is fun in the daytime in a good reception area.

So far, nothing beats Google Maps in my opinion. The premium ones above are not as good. Only downside is they are cloud based. 2nd would be NavFree for it's downloadable maps. A good solution would be to install both, just in case reception is poor.

I would say that all route planning should be done whilst stationary, don't try to operate it on the move, for any of the above. It is far too dangerous. I would also say SatNav is not a good idea on a small screen phone. Anything under 5" and you will struggle to see it. You will have to rely on voice guidance on smaller screens. My Galaxy Note 3 is perfect for Satnav.

 

[RobFreundlich]

I'm looking for a similar feature set, with a few additional requirements:

• Big Buttons. I'm driving! If I have to touch the screen, I don't want to have to use my fine motor control. My Garmin had nice big buttons that I could hit without even trying, and every one of the nav apps I've tried for my android phones has had tiny little buttons that I have trouble hitting when stationary, much less in motion. Google Maps is the worst offender of them all.
  
• Big Text. Yes, in an ideal world, the phone would read me everything that's on the screen and I'd never have to read anything. But this world isn't ideal, so I do sometimes have to read the screen. With my Garmin, I could glance down and look back to the road in as little time it takes to look at the radio to change stations, and the text on buttons and map labels was big enough to understand what it said. On the android apps (I'm lookin' at YOU, Google Maps!), everything is in teeny-tiny little print.
  
• Search Results should be in lists, not pins on a map. Who the heck (<cough>Google Maps) decided that an app you use while driving should show results as tiny little pins on a map that you have to TOUCH to get details about instead of a nice list with nice big text that you can scroll through?
  
• Searching should be done by my choice of Near Me, Near Route, Near Destination, and In Some City I Pick. Results should be sorted by distance from that place. Google tends to sort restaurants my rating, which is useless when I'm out with my family and just want to know "what's the nearest junk food restaurant to take my kids to before they melt down".
  
• If I've chosen to show traffic, show it to me in all map views. Period. Google Maps shows it until you zoom in to a certain level. Other apps show it to you when you're planning a route but not when you're driving it. Others show it to you in 2-D mode but not 3-D. Others show it to you when you're driving but not just browsing around the map. Simple idea: if I said "show traffic", show traffic. (I'm evaluating the Co-Pilot app at the moment, and it has a nice feature where it has a traffic bar on the right side of the screen that shows you a start-to-finish view of your route as a straight line colored by traffic weight. That's kind of neat. What's really cool is that it has a little countdown telling you when the next traffic update is. I LOVE that, because I always wonder how up-to-date the traffic info is)
  
• Give me nice big up/down arrows instead of requiring me to swipe to scroll through lists. Swiping is OK when you're stationary; it's pretty hard when you're driving.
  
• Minimal clutter on the map. I don't need 3-D buildings or lots of POI's showing up (although they're nice as an option in some cases). I need a nice clear view of the roads, their names, and the lane helper stuff.

Basically (to expand on LunatiqueRob's earlier statements), the app should be designed like the software in dedicated hardware GPS systems, since those took into account the fact that the user was in a moving vehicle and was therefore designed to be safe to use in that environment instead of cool to use when sitting at your desk or living room.

 

[marya_z]

Sounds all good out there re MAPS, but for those that pay for DATA time using their online MAPS, consider the following:
I am still using my old C5 Nokia phone. Downloaded all their "standalone" maps for FREE, apart from Internet cost to download before my European vacation. Have used the FREE NOKIA maps driving through European with phone connected to the cigarette lighter in my leased car, i.e. no power issues. Turn by turn speaking voice. Faultless maps. Excellent service from Nokia.
For everyday use it is back to my Android mobile phone (mini computer) with suitable FREE Apps. Looking forward to see a NOKIA type Map service for Android phones.

 

[camon2]

I have samsung phone s2 ( version 4.01 ) Who do you have garmin GPS AKP and MAPs USA - CANADA ? Please give me . Thanks so much

 

[HighwayToSmell]

Genius Map's just tweeted that their pro guidance packages are discounted 30% until April 23.

 

[George Macheda]

what do you mean by connection? do you the internet which uses data unless you have unlimited?

 

[Android Pac]

I am using Google Maps and latitude for so long

 

[LunatiqueRob]

I just got a PM asking me about what GPS apps I ended up settling on, and I'm posting my reply here too in case it might help some people in making their decisions:

Hi there m8,

What it is recently installed an Android 4.1.1 Jelly Bean Navigational system in my car and I want a good sat nav software installed. I normally have TomTom on my iPhone and I personally think thats for what it delivers with turn by turn voice and street names as will as what you also mentioned that surely it's has to be the best Nav software out there.

Now what it is when I try to install TomTom on my Android device from google play, my device isn't compatible, so if I'm unable to get TomTom on this device I need to have the next best thing which I need to find out what it is;-)

I tried Sygic... HORRIBLE !

Google Maps I haven't really used but even though I've read how accurate it is I still would prefer all the benefits TomTom offers.

Nokia Here i've just download but have not tested it out as yet but somehow I'm sure it will not provide me with all the benefits that TomTom offers.

If you're a using a Sat Nav on an Android device you opinion would by useful.

Cheers

I wish I could tell you that I found one perfect GPS that's both free/cheap AND contain all the features I need, but I don't think an app like that exists. Well, they do, but they charge monthly fees, and I personally hate monthly fees and prefer to pay once and not have to be nickled and dimed every month.

Right now, I'm using Google Maps and saving offline maps to my phone so I don't use up precious mobile data while using the app. The saved offline map expires every month so you have to re-save it monthly, and you can only save roughly a 30 minute drive radius. What I love about Google Maps is that it has lane guidance and it's free. It's also one of the most updated maps with updated POI due to being a Google app.

Waze is now also owned by Google so it enjoys similar benefits (and also free), but it doesn't have lane guidance or offline map option. What it does have though, is real-time traffic reports that's powered by users, so it's very immediate, and you feel like you're part of the community when you contribute to the app by reporting traffic jams, accidents, stalled vehicles on the side of the road, etc.

If I don't want to use up mobile data with Waze, and Google Map's offline map saving isn't enough (such as when I need to drive longer distances), I use Nav Free. It's free, as stated in its name, and it has offline maps, but there's no lane guidance, traffic reports. It does have google search integration, which makes searching for POI much better than GPS apps that only have its own search--which is often terribly outdated and incomplete. With Google search integration, if it exists, Google will find it.

If I want all of those features in one app, I'll have to use one of the paid apps with monthly subscription to live traffic reports, and maybe one day I'll do that, but for now, between the three apps I mentioned, I'm covered pretty well.

 

[jevalladares]

Personally I'd suggest to give Waze (now owned by Google) a try, the biggest feature of this app is the real time traffic infornation that is provided by users.