Waze works on a number of mobile phone devices with operating systems, such as Android, iPhone and Symbian.
Waze requires two essential components in order to work:
- GPS receiver. Your phone must have an internal GPS antenna, and you will need to make sure it is turned on with a clear view to the sky in order to use waze.
- Data connection. You must have an active data connection. Waze is a data intensive program, and an unlimited data plan is recommended. Please check with you carrier regarding your current data plan.
First you will need a supported phone; currently waze is compatible with:
- Any Android based phone (running OS 1.5 / cupcake as minimum)
- iPhone (running OS 3.0 or higher)
- Symbian based - such as the Nokia E71x (running Symbian series 60)
- Windows Mobile (running OS 6.0, 6.1 or 6.5)
In the future we are also planning to support BlackBerry devices, as well as other platforms.
To download the app, or register for upcoming versions of waze, please visit http://www.waze.com/download.
Since waze is using live map data, it requires an active data connection to keep you informed at all times about the ever-changing situation of the road.
All map, traffic and other event data is saved on our servers and sent to you based on your location and proximity to those events. The active data ensures that you will always receive the most updated map, as well as traffic events, wherever you are driving.
Once you view a map of a certain area, this map is cached and saves on your phone so you won't need to download it again the next time you are driving in the same area.
You do not have to do anything in order to get the latest and most updated map. Waze servers know to recognize when the map portion you are currently navigating on has changed from the time you downloaded it.
For example, if you were driving down Main St. last week, those maps were saved on your phone. If two days ago another wazer edited this street - for example, added a new exit or a turn restriction - when you navigate to
Main St. today, waze will send you the updated map of Main St. to replace the one that was cached on your phone.
Anyone with waze running on their phone can help improve the map by pointing out problems, adding new roads and updating house numbers.
From the map editing options (on touch screen devices, this menu is available right underneath the compass icon) choose to:
- Record a new road - Once you select this option, you will be notified that you are now recording a street that is missing from our maps. For best results make sure to start and end the recording of the new street at a junction with a street that is already mapped.
- Update house numbers - You will be requested to enter the house number to your left and to your right (based on the direction you were driving prior to stopping).
- Report a problem - You can pinpoint a location with a problem in the map. Choosing this option will open a subset of options, such as 'missing road', 'wrong turn' etc.
At the top status bar you will notice a small '!' with a number next to it; the number represents the events in your area.
To view the events choose the 'events' tab. You can now see events by type, sort by recent events or their distance, as well as choose to view the events on map / comment on events / report events no longer relevant and more.
As a member of waze you will notice you accumulate points by participating, and the more points rank you higher among the community members.
There are many ways to keep those points coming:
- Simply drive around with waze activated - Driving with waze improves the map by giving us data about the roads, such as allowed turns, average speeds and directions.
- Send reports - Share events with other wazers and you will receive more points as well as help other people avoid traffic, closures and other road hazards.
- Record new roads / update house numbers - Improve our map data by adding new roads that aren't mapped yet or by adding house numbers for a better navigation experience.
- Edit the map - Help us improve the map on your home computer by editing the map on the Web. Older community members will be glad to help you get started.
When first starting waze you are signed in with a randomly generated username and password.
This is done in order to keep track of the points you accumulate. You will be reminded to create your own user name and password, but this is not a must.
The benefits of having your own user name? Easy access to your personalized dashboard on www.waze.com, the ability to post on the forum and get credit for your work from other community members.
If you are not interested in creating an account with your own user name and password, you will be able to keep this random user name and still use waze, with all features remaining available to you.
No. If you want to create your own user name, please go to settings >> profile on your mobile device. All the points that have already accumulated, including your rank, will now be associated with your user name.
You might notice that points that you've earned earlier on, are now gone. No need to worry - the points are not really gone, they are just being processed.
Every time you open waze, your rank and points are pulled from the waze servers. However, these servers are updated with all the new points that users have accumulated only once a day. So if you started your day with 5,000 points,
drove around and earned 2,000 points, then you turned waze off and later opened it again and saw you are back to 5,000 points, the reason is because your recent points have not been processed by our servers yet.
Check again within 24 hours or so, and you should see that these points were added to your account.
Every wazer has permission to edit the map based on his drives. That is, on roads where you drove you should be able to make changes and edit the map.
Gradually, by earning more points you will get more stars; ranging from 1-5. Each star gives you permissions to make changes even in areas where you did not drive. You can also undo changes of other community members that have fewer stars.
You might be interested in getting more involved and editing more areas that you are very familiar with - for example your neighborhood or work area. You can become an area manager of a specific area, regardless of your points / stars, by sending us an email request. In this pre-defined area, you will have full permissions.
Waze respects your privacy and will never share your location against your will. However, being a social application that endorses sharing between its community members, there are several ways for you to share details with other members of the community.
By default, your privacy settings are set to show you as anonymous to other wazers. If you send reports, those are sent with your nick name, if you chose to have one. If not, they are sent out anonymously, as well.
You can choose to be displayed by your nickname on the map; this means other wazers will see you with the nick name that you chose.
On the other hand, you can choose to become a 'ghost' which means you will not be displayed at all to other wazers.
At any scenario, other users cannot 'look you up' by your user name, nick name, or any other identifier.
No. The phone number was only used to send you a text message with the download details. After this has been completed, we no longer keep your phone number on file.
Rest assured that waze will never share your personal data with any third party. The traffic-related data collected from the phone, during the session, is secured on waze servers and access to the personal archive is password protected.
You can create an account for waze from the actual application installed on your phone. However, you can keep using waze without ever creating an account. Waze provides a default random user name and password upon initial
activation of the application.
Creating your own user name allows you to personalize your nickname, gives you access to map editing and waze's forum and other benefits. To create an account simply go to setting >> profile from your waze application and
follow the instructions to personalize. Make sure that you get a confirmation that your account has been successfully created (i.e. the username you requested was available, etc).
In some cases when problems and/or failures may occur, the simplest process to re-initiate the random user name generation is to remove the application and re-install it. You can also contact us for further instruction or assistance on this.
In case both your user and password are correct, but you are still receiving an error message saying your user name is wrong, please check you data network settings and connectivity to ensure that no external problems exist.
Our map keeps improving with time, mostly due to the help of community members such as yourself. If you find a mistake on the map, got the wrong route, or waze gave you a turn that doesn't exist or isn't legal, there are a few things you can do :
- Report a problem using your phone - using the 'map editing' sub menu under the compass, you can report different types of problem. Your request is sent to other waze members who are editing the map in your area from their home computers.
- Report the problem on the Web - look up the problematic area on www.waze.com/livemap, click on the road and choose to 'report a problem'.
- Fix the problem the next time you are next to a computer - you can edit the map of the area where you drove, which will allow you to fix any problems you came across while driving.
The GPS information used by waze originates from the built-in GPS component and not Cell-id or WiFi based signals, as they are sometimes used in other applications (and as such enable users to view a map indoors, for example). The reason we rely on a real GPS signal is because for turn-by-turn navigation, only a real GPS signal from a satellite is sufficient, whereas Cell-id gives only proximity-based information which is insufficient for our application. As such, to use waze there is a need to be in an open area with clear view of the sky (or at least near a window), in order to get a GPS signal that will enable you to use waze for commuting purposes.
On the top status bar of waze you will notice a small GPS icon that resembles a small satellite dish. When first launching waze this icon is gray, indicating your location is unknown.
Later this icon will turn orange (approximate location) and then green (location known). The icon must turn green in order to report events and receive turn-by-turn navigation.
The first time you launch waze, it might take up to 5-10 minutes for the icon to turn green. Each time after that, it should take no more than 1 minute.
If you can't seem to get a position fix, please close waze and verify that your GPS antenna is turned on. On some phones you have an option to turn the GPS antenna off to preserve battery.
- On Android phones: go to settings / Security & Location / make sure that 'Enable GPS satellites' is checked
- On iPhone: go to settings / general settings / make sure 'Location Services' is toggled to ON.
If you are using waze while moving between a WiFi network and a regular cellular network, you might experience issues with data connectivity. These issues are not specific to the waze app, and you are welcome to check this explanation from Apple for further details: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1398
There are other ways to get information about waze:
- Ask other members on our forum
(you must be registered in order to post on our forum) - Check out our wiki articles
- Send us a tweet (@waze) or contact our support at support@waze.com