Waze (finally) testing out a lane guidance feature
While there are probably not a lot of people that are actually using Waze, this doesn’t mean that they’re not working on building some features so that when we can finally go out more freely, there are new things to expect. One of the most requested features for the Google-owned app is something that Google Maps already has: lane guidance support. Now it looks like they’re already testing it out in Israel and hopefully release it in other territories soon.
Waze themselves shared that user activity has been significantly low, which is understandable since people are encouraged to shelter-in-place. But there are of course people who still need to be outside for essential tasks so the navigation app is continuing to develop current and new features. A lot of users have been requesting for lane guidance and so now is a good time as any to test it out, as per a blog post in an Israeli blog.
Lane guidance is important for those who are driving in unfamiliar roads. It tells you which lane you have to stay in if you have to make a turn soon on the road or highway so you won’t miss your exit. It will appear as a graphical representation on our navigation screen and it will highlight the lane you’re supposed to be on and the exit indication that you will have to take later on. It will appear 500 meters before the turn on city roads and 1 kilometer before highway exits.
Waze has actually received several updates recently, including Google Assistant support, in-app music player for streaming services, etc. Google also seems to be bringing feature parity between it and Google Maps as the latter got incident reports, speed limits, etc. While both are owned by Google, they each have their own user base and their own specific features so it doesn’t look like one will be sacrificed over the other.
The lane guidance feature is currently being tested out in Israel only although the blog says it will be rolling out in the coming days. No news yet when it will start testing in the U.S. or other territories but hopefully, it will be soon.
