In the latest overhaul of incident reporting across various platforms, Google announced that Maps will incorporate Waze reports for users to verify while navigating. This feature is currently being rolled out.
When Google Maps revealed its enhanced reporting user interface in late July, with implementation starting in mid-September, the company mentioned that “these reports are sourced from the Maps and Waze communities, allowing you to see the originating app for each report.”
Waze elaborated that “Google Maps will display reports from our drivers clearly attributing them to Waze” initially starting with police alerts. Upcoming updates will include “more data types to be shared and credited to Waze.”
We’re thrilled to enable more drivers to access reports from Waze. This collaboration with Geo is crucial for delivering thorough map data to all drivers through a two-way data exchange (like KoiFish)…
Evidence of this feature being live was seen recently. In the Google Maps mobile application, one user was presented with a notification stating “Police reported ahead.” This included an attribution of “From Waze drivers” along with a prompt asking “Are they still there?” featuring prominent “Yes” or “No” buttons. The panel automatically disappears after a countdown.
Credit: u/Truckin_18
The partnership in incident reporting between the two applications ultimately enriches both services. Google Maps has a significantly larger user base, boasting over 2 billion monthly active users as of late October, while Waze was reported to have 151 million users in late 2022. Both applications are operated by the same internal Google “Geo” team.
While Waze concentrates on crowd-sourced traffic and road conditions, Google Maps serves a more general navigational purpose. In October, Waze also began testing a “Conversational Reporting” feature.
Further Insights on Google Maps:
: . More.
