Waze is Now Available on Android Auto, In-Car Units Only

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Over a year ago at Google I/O 2016 we learned that Google was working to integrate Waze into the Android Auto experience. Waze, which was previously acquired by Google, offers features and a UI that some people just prefer over the traditional Google Maps solution. So this news made a lot of people happy but many thought this meant the update would come quick. We’re over a year out from that announcement now and the feature is only available via in-car head units.

This is still a big update for those who have or are looking into purchasing (or leasing) a new automobile that has Android Auto. This enables users to navigate and control Waze through your in-car display, auxiliary touch screens, steering wheel buttons, and more. Like the regular application, you can navigate to your Waze favorites in a tap, receive visual and audio alerts to keep you informed, quickly view your ETA Panel, but you’ll be able to do from your car’s infotainment system.

If you’re already a Waze user then you’ll feel right at home with this new integration into Android Auto. You’ll just notice that its most popular features will be baked right into your car instead of everything coming from your smartphone. To get things going, simply make sure you have the latest versions of Waze and Android Auto on your phone. You’ll then need to connect the phone to the car with a USB cable, select Waze from the Navigation App footer, and then start a drive by entering a location.

That’s basically all the information that was given with this announcement today. We know that a lot of people want to do this with the smartphone version of Android Auto and so do the folks behind Waze. They did announce that “integration of Android Auto on your phone screen is in the works,” but didn’t go into any further details today. So we’ll just have to wait and see how long that takes to implement.