i have the same plan with att… 200mb and i use waze all day long…refresh map, sending log and whatever…
until now i never exceed the 200mb…
off course the way we use the phone is different for everybody… i don’t download or stream unless i’m connected with wireless…but i surf a little, download small app… etc…
i don’t think that the maps in waze will kill your data plan…
My data plan is for 200 megs and I have never exceeded it. Though I would like to have offline version as well. When going abroad 1 day of data roaming costs more than my usual monthly payment for data plan. So the only alternative is to buy another gps navigation app. It would cost me less than roaming with waze for 2 weeks.
first off i have to tip my hats off to the devs, from all the GPS/nav apps i’ve tried nothing has come close to the experience i have had with WAZE. that being said, having downloadable maps must be on the table. with all the social aspects layered over it. making that an optional “paid” version would definitely put waze over the top. while i have no fear of data plans going haywire on an unlimited data plan, BUT the philippines is notorious for not having the best OTA data speeds transfers. this would definitely cause problems with maps not loading fast enough, or not loading at all, to be actually useful.
i love the social feature/crowd sourcing data implementation. and it does bring drivers and commuters together on a common platform. but this is all for nothing if the maps don’t load properly because of slow data connection speeds. (am i making sense here?)
Yeah that makes perfect sense and although my data plan is only 500mb I’m not charged for using extra. There MUST be an option to cache an entire route map from Wi-Fi for those on low data plans or for signal dropouts. Especially for the developing world or in areas in some countries where signal is likely to be inconsistent.
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I wouldn’t mind seeing this feature but instead of the entire US, however about the option for either cities, states or regions? I like in Kansas City & 95% of my driving is done 45 minutes from my house & back.
I drove from Raleigh, NC (27606) to Kershaw, SC (29067), and lost T-Mobile coverage on long sections of the trip. For most the second half of my drive, Waze showed a white screen – no street, no landmarks, nothing. When I pulled over and zoomed out, I found that I’d somehow deviated from my planned course, and Waze never even alerted me. Fail!
Waze has GOT to start caching ahead, and not just the route, but 10 or so miles on each side of the route, in case of detours. Otherwise, Waze is useless to me.
Google Nav caches the whole route now, and just recently introduced the feature where you can pre-download maps in a 10-square mile area from any arbitrary point too. If Waze wants to keep competing, it needs something similar.
Google Maps has offered the “pre-cache map tiles” add-on since before I got my Android in December, 2011. I’m not sure it’s built-in now, is it?
I just read an article about it the other day but it may be old news…I only switched from Iphone to Droid about two weeks ago.
Love Waze! 
But would love it more if I could download my maps ahead of time. I have an iPhone with plenty of storage! Seems like it would improve the app a lot if the only data that needed to be transmitted was GPS coordinates of other users.
Hope we see this rolled out soon
The lack of having a “pre-load maps” option is pretty close to a deal breaker for me.
First, it would help limit the amount of plan data being used. Second, it would allow Waze to work in poor reception areas (keeping core functionality intact in those ares would make Waze indispensable for the end user). Third, the social functions of Waze could be kept intact regardless of any pre-caching option (so I don’t buy that excuse).
I’ve used Waze a couple of times now and really like it. Pre-caching of maps via wi-fi would vault Waze to the forefront of GPS apps, but it’s crippled without it.
I suggest you use Waze more before proclaiming the product is crippled by not having a manual method to pre load maps.
Had you searched the forums, you’d know that by setting a route via wifi does indeed cache most, if not all of the relevant map.
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Settle down everyone… Waze is a fantastic app and I am enjoying it, but putting this option in the routing interface would help data conscious users stay within their data plans and, more importantly, avoid the problem of no map availability in low signal areas.
If, indeed, the Waze does cache the route via wifi, the app developers should just come out and say this up front instead of leaving it to be hashed out deep in a forum thread somewhere.
Until the app developers either put a pre-load map route option in the app, or state clearly and unequivocally in the app description/FAQ that maps pre-load automatically (to quell my concerns about map availability in low signal/rural areas), I stand by the term “crippled.”
Then with all due respect I’d call people in wheelchairs able-bodied…
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I can see where pre-loaded maps would be beneficial. Before the moderators yell at me, I do love Waze. I have made tons of my friends add the app because there aren’t enough people in my area that use it. There have been many times that my handy dandy Waze app saved me from a speeding ticket. Thank you for that. However, I drive though a lot of areas that have very spotty cell service and when that happens I am 100% screwed when I’m using Waze for directions. I literally had to pull over at and buy a GPS one time because my poor little Waze was just dropping connection and I have zero sense of direction. I love the interactive nature of Waze. I have, of course, created my little driving group and I am a reporting fool. But limited service and limited data plans are out there. Can there be any provisions made? Thanks for listening and keep the wonderful updates coming.
It use to at least cache the whole route when navigating. That was backed off some at some point (they didn’t announce it, was just kinda noticed at some point). The best we have gotten is that this was for performance reasons.
My educated guess is to lessen the load on the servers when trying to download all the map tiles.
Once waze has gotten through the infrastructure changes noted in the status.waze.com posts, hopefully they can bring back the ability to cache the whole trip at all zoom levels.
I would love to suggest to waze that they also cache the list of tiles requested, and if it can’t be retrieved at the time it was requested, try again later when it can. That way at least on the second trip through an area that can’t be routed through (or is off the beaten path) it will already have them loaded.
Waze does deduct points when people report that there is a problem and nothing is there.
Since when?
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Yeah. That doesn’t happen. Sine those notices are for events that are usually very temporary in nature, the purpose of Not There is so that people can get rid of the notice once the problem is gone.
I’m not drunk…I’m using Tapatalk.