HERE WeGo Maps & Navigation

Update: So glad split screen is a feature now. I can definitely use this on my daily drives. The ETA is not so far off from the other map apps. If you want to drive outside of what the law allows then maybe stick to Waze for the reporting feature. I don’t need it for this app so for me it works mostly fine. A few small things: I don’t want to open the app on my phone in order for the map to switch from day to night mode, and I would like to search using voice (even though half the time that doesn’t work on the other apps). These are minor wants though and glad to see some progress. Original: I want to make this my daily map app. The traffic isn’t super accurate but that makes sense the user base is smaller, so I forgive it. I use my phone with CarPlay though, and what bothers me is that I cannot have a split screen map with this. I can have the full screen map, but when I go to the home page it defaults to Apple Maps instead of this. Also the screen on CarPlay won’t transition to dark mode unless I open the app on my phone. It’s a convenience thing and a first world problem but because of that I find myself barely using it.

So I went for a 10-day road trip across 6 countries in Europe and chose not to get data service (I kept in mind I could always activate 24-hr for $10 anytime), so it was super stressful to rely on Google map because I had to load it in the morning at airbnb, find a nearby Starbucks, McDonald’s or airport when I lose connection, sometimes just by accidental taps or being idle I guess. On day 3, I met my cousin in Switzerland who introduced me to this life-changing app. It has rerouting function which I love, the appearance is fine, the voice is a bit weird, and I have a love/ hate relationship with the fact that it beeps (love) but jumps me out of radio (hate) every time I go over speed limit (too sensitive and many times the limit is not up to date). The last day, to deal with strike traffic in Paris and to make sure I could get to the airport, I still chose to pay $10 so that I could have Google Map. For a free app that saves money, this is great! If I spend the previous night adding destinations into my favorites, it becomes even more convenient. Make sure you have space and the download is complete because the map for France is heavier and when I came back to France from Switzerland, I realized the map was halted only when I needed it the most. Still, very highly recommended.

Just returned from a 9 day trip to Ireland from the U.S. We did not activate a foreign data plan, but definitely needed some navigation assistance. Even with good signage, few places on earth are more difficult to drive in than Ireland..left hand driving, lots of turns, roundabouts, small roads, busy traffic. I tried several different offline apps on the first day, each were epic fails (including Google Maps and Waze). Downloaded Here WeGo in Ireland while at our first hotel, via Wi-fi, then downloaded our next destination each morning as we went. Even changed our destination a few times in the middle of the day, with neither wi-fi nor data. Perfect! Unbelievably accurate and easy to use. Great design for forwarning you about which exit to plan in the many roundabouts. Once the maps are in there (did itself), apparently works off occasional GPS checks (free and consistent, even in the middle of the countryside). Piped bluetooth through our car stereo, clearly and briefly overriding our music. Great graphics, easy to glance down at while driving. Can use either miles or kilometers for distances and upcoming turns. It was spot-on throughout each and every drive. Rarely looked at the paper map. Even rang a little bell if it thought we were going too fast in a speed camera zone (lots of speed limit changes, easy to miss). So thankful! I'd have been happy to have paid $20 for this app- the only other alternative seemed to be renting a handheld GPS from the rental car company for 9 Euro/day, without the bluetooth. What a great app!