The Many Ways to Waze

The world of smartphone applications is a varied and confusing one. But so is the world of LA traffic. That’s why I use Waze.

Surprisingly, not a ton of people have heard of it. For me, the consummate commuter, it’s a life-saver.

Which Waze should I go?

Purchased by Google in June of last year, Waze is a GPS application formulated as a game that updates your traffic route in real-time to give you the best and fastest possible route from one point to the next. It gives you route options and an estimated arrival time that’s usually on target. If traffic changes and the route Waze gives you starts backing up, it updates with alternative options. All of this is performed by a voice navigation system that gives you step-by-step directions.

You can elect to use toll roads (or not), find nearby gas stations, food, and other facilities in relation to your location. Users can also report police sightings, accidents, construction, and debris.

It Don’t Run in Our Blood – So We’ll be Waze Royals

The most interactive part of the application is that users garner points if they report information, and their level can increase based on how much they report. The levels, ranging from Waze baby to Waze royalty, are represented by increasingly hilarious avatars, and the higher the Waze level, the more the user has an ability to edit maps. Waze can sync with your Facebook events and give you directions to the location, give you live location updates from your friends, private message, and can do hands-free voice updates by simply waving your hand in front of the screen.

So, if you’re not using Waze, get on it. Unless you’re a conspiracy theorist thinking the government is spying on you with location satellites. Then don’t. (They probably are. Hi, NSA.)

Contributing Source: Mashable.com