Google Maps 4+

This app is amazing! It has everything Apple Maps has and more! It comes with street view good enough it’s almost as good as Google Earth itself, multiple maps, the equator, the International Date Line, coordinates, the current time, weather, description, and photos of the country/territory/city/prefecture you clicked on, and the ability to find places such as restaurants, hotels, parks, attractions, stores, gas stations, etc. There’s also a feature you can use called live where you can point your camera at places around you(as long as you’re outside of a building near stores, buildings, signs, etc.,) and it can try to find your exact location to help you get places and find the direction of where you’re trying to get to. I have not used this app for directions while driving yet, so I don’t know how that is, but so far everything else about this app has been amazing! The only downside is that you need a strong Wi-Fi connection to get the most out of this app, but you can just use cell if you need to. Overall though, I very highly recommend this app!

The changes that Google has made to their maps seems to be in favor of traffic CONTROL rather than the best routes for the individual user, less options for personal control and a stronger push towards getting you to go through state toll roads when no toll roads (that are a faster option to boot) are available. I'm a longtime user of Google maps and Keen to their tactics of late. I've been wanting to get a couple of old Rand McNally road maps for a while,we're going to need them! An app should be a tool of assistance and yes,convenience,but when an app is trying to control you,it's time to boot it. This may sound crazy to some of you,but pay attention,especially to the so called "better route available" options that pop up,watch your estimated times,this option is being used to herd you like cattle for reasons other than your travel benefits and more for clearing roadways and such. And even crazier,it sure seems like a social experiment to see what kind of "order follower" you are. I've seen this with my own eyes and ears, so call me crazy,but for those of you who are intuitive and catch on to patterns quickly,see for yourself,this is the world we live in now? With all the A.I. And apps on your phone,what was a tool is using you as a tool,or so it sure seems. I think the cost of convenience has become a bit too high for me.

Every time I click on directions from Google, it asks me, do I want smarter and better and faster maps? Of course I do. So I can click a button and go straight to Google maps, an app I already have. Every time I click this tho, it does not bring me to Google maps. I click open maps, and I am brought to the App Store maps. Even tho I have the app. Then I open maps from the App Store and it has erased the directions I need so I have to go back to Google and then just type it in to Google maps myself. I might as well just use the maps app that comes with the phone bc instead of a short cut it takes me here every time. So every time I click for directions Google brings me to the App Store instead of pulling up the directions in the Google maps app. And then when opening the maps app from here it does not have any addresses saved from the google search I started with. Just not as convenient as the maps app already in my phone honestly. It’s actually wildly inconvenient when I’m running late and forget that the short cut will actually slow me down! Maybe this is more an issue with the directions button on Google not working (since it doesn’t take me to the actual Google maps app), but it brought me here so I’m leaving my review here. Every time it brings me here I leave one star.