Hi everyone,
We’re excited to officially announce the gradual rollout of a new pilot bringing Google Maps real-time alerts into Waze. Starting today and over the coming weeks, this feature will go live for drivers in Spain, Argentina, Colombia, Poland, and Indonesia.
This initiative is designed to share real-time reports across our ecosystem, ensuring every driver has the freshest information available. Our goal is to supplement the map where gaps exist while prioritizing the high-quality, real-time data that Wazers provide.
How will these alerts work?
We know how much you value an accurate, clutter-free map. To ensure a seamless experience, these supplementary alerts will follow familiar Waze logic:
- Grouping: If a Waze alert already exists for a location, we’re not going to surface a duplicate Google Maps alert. Waze-sourced reports take precedence. If a Google Maps report comes in for a location with an existing Waze report, it’ll act as a secondary confirmation. You can swipe the alert card to see the additional Google Maps attribution.
- Validation: Drivers can confirm or downvote these alerts just like any other report. Downvoting will only affect the Waze app.
- Lifecycle: These alerts will be displayed according to the same lifecycle and expiration settings currently configured for Waze-native alerts.
- Attribution: In areas without a Waze report, a regular alert will appear on your screen. Tapping the pin will indicate that the source is a Google Maps driver.
- Exclusions: This pilot currently excludes road closures and SOS.
Why now?
By surfacing Google Maps alerts when a Waze report isn’t available, we’re ensuring that drivers stay informed and confident no matter where they are. This is another step in our commitment to providing the most hyper-local insights and reliable navigation on the road.
We hope you’ll find this pilot a valuable addition to your drive, and we’re excited about the possibility of bringing it to even more locations in the future.
Best,
Danit