Google Maps - Transit & Food 4+

I have been using google maps since 2011. I never write reviews but this app has surpassed my expectations. I have tried waze, ios maps and they dont do it for me. I am a truck driver by trade and aside from truck route maps on a desktop, i always use google maps. Will google maps ever be perfect? No but we are talking about perfect cellphone service and non hesitant location tracking to have a perfect gps. Depending where you are and who your carrier is, your cell reception might be shakily and you might miss a turn, not the app’s fault. Once google introduced the option for additional stops with in your route, they locked in my loyalty to the app. The reason why i wrote this review today is a new option that i have long awaited. Since i drive for miles, i am always on the app. I also am always listening to music. Of course i have had many times where i missed that very important turn because i was skipping or searching for a new song. Not anymore, maps now has a very simple tab on the map that lets me skip my song with my maps still on the screen. Thats a game changer for me. Once again, google has made me a pleased customer. Great work.

This app does an above-average job at assisting in navigation. I like that it apparently integrates user movement over time; for example, when I moved to my house, it ignored a pedestrian footpath to the other half of my street, but it now no longer routes me two miles away when I’m going to the bus. The reason I don’t give it five stars is its integration with Lyft/Uber, because my pocket would open the links and sometimes nearly summon a car (I had to delete them to avoid being charged), and because of transit system shortcomings. GMaps doesn’t offer enough different choices for routes, sometimes missing obvious bus lines or transfers, sometimes only giving one option it thinks best, though I might know more info and want to prompt more choices, which isn’t possible. I a forced to enter fake destination or origin information to force other routes to display. One bus may be very crowded at certain times, one route may have a steep hill. It needs to offer a way to expand route choices. Also, I still need to use OneBusAway to check on arrival times, as GMaps is not always current, especially with detours and alterations. As for driving, it’s fine, except the way it ignores neighborhood shortcuts and alternatives. Overall, a good tool to assist you, but you need your own knowledge to make it truly effective. Therefore, 3.5 stars, which I weighted up to 4.

Google maps is one of the best of the big navigation apps along with Apple Maps and Waze (owned by Google also I think). I've been using since about 2014 and its always a headache if I missed a turn in a city. It will redirect to the next best turn, but by the time it loads the new route and narrates the instructions I've missed that turn as well. This continues indefinitely, until I stop moving or just take the next turn on faith. Its extremely frustrating after missing several turns because I cant inch along waiting for the maps to catch up. I'd rather it give me a turn further ahead so I actually have a chance to react from about 40 mph. This is something that seems totally fixable.

More recently, its been stopping narration unannounced. Either never starts or just decides that a certain direction is the last one to be narrated. Exiting the app and reloading helps occasionally but not enough to consider it a solution. I use the maps when I'm driving to an area I dont know, so thats obviously a big issue. Updating the app and my operating system hasnt done anything to help. This happened today and added 20 minutes to a 25 minute commute. I've tried Apple Maps and a little of Waze, Google Maps usually works the best but even still its irritating when you plan a trip I cant rely on Google Maps to do the only to do the only thing its made to do.