10 Waze Life Hacks Every User Should Know
Waze is a navigation app built on the collective insights of its users, designed to help you get to your destination as quickly and accurately as possible. While Google Maps and Apple Maps offer relatively simple directions, Waze strives to surpass these alternatives by integrating real-time community feedback on obstacles, speed cameras, road closures, and more. Whether you’re switching to Waze or using it alongside other navigation tools, here are a few tips to help you get the most out of the app.
Sync your calendar to receive departure time reminders based on real-time traffic data.
If you lose track of time or are running late for events, Waze can notify you of your departure time—based on your current location and real-time traffic information—to ensure you arrive on time. You can set departure time reminders in advance for individual planned trips or sync your calendar to receive notifications about scheduled events. Calendar syncing connects to your device’s default calendar, but you can change it to a third-party app if you prefer. To trigger reminders, calendar events must contain a navigable address, and you must select “Plan a Trip” for each event in Waze.
Use personalized “baby reminders” for things you often forget.
Waze has a “child reminder” feature that prompts you to check for children before leaving the car. This is certainly an incredibly important use case, but you can also use these alerts to create custom messages, such as “Don’t forget your groceries!” In Waze, tap the menu button > Settings > Reminders > Child Reminder and select “Custom Message.”
Set up speed alerts to receive notifications when speed limits change unexpectedly.
Varying speed limits, especially on unfamiliar routes, can lead to speeding without your knowledge. However, Waze can warn you if you exceed a set speed limit to avoid surprises and increased risk of a ticket. In the menu, go to Settings > Speedometer and enable “Show speedometer.” Tap “Speed Limit” to choose the speed limit at which you want to receive alerts, and enable “Alert when threshold reached” if you want Waze to play an audible alert.
Remove low-priority reports from the map to focus on important information.
Waze provides a wealth of route information to help drivers avoid obstacles and hazards, but this can clutter the map and distract from the most important information, especially in busy areas. Waze claims to automatically limit and prioritize alerts, but you can customize which alerts appear based on what’s most important to you. In the menu, go to Settings > Alerts & Reports > Reports and select the appropriate alerts.
Run Waze in the background to receive audio alerts while using your favorite map app.
In the same “Alerts & Reports” menu, you can enable “Alerts While Driving,” which will provide an audible warning and a pop-up on the screen about the hazards you select. This allows you to navigate with another mapping app (such as Google Maps or Apple Maps) in the foreground while Waze data continues to flow in the background.
Add a High Occupancy Lane Pass or a Toll Pass for personalized route planning.
Waze integrates with toll road and high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lane passes, so if you have an Express Lane or High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lane subscription, your route will be optimized with them in mind. If you don’t have one, Waze can still accommodate HOV lanes if you specify the number of passengers in your vehicle. In the menu, go to Settings > Toll Roads & HOV Passes and tap the plus icon to add your passes from the list. If you need to specify the number of passengers, you can do so in the View Routes section and enable the HOV option.
Disable the ability to drive through complex intersections to avoid dangerous maneuvers.
If you’re driving through an unfamiliar, heavily congested, or poorly designed area, you can ask Waze to help you avoid complex maneuvers, such as crossing multiple lanes or making left turns at intersections without traffic lights. This prioritizes convenience over speed by using protected green arrows, roundabouts, and right turns. In the menu, go to Settings > Navigation, select “Avoid complex intersections,” and choose “Always.” You can also ask Waze to avoid toll roads, ferries, highways, and unpaved roads.
Connect an audio player to listen to content without leaving the Waze map.
Waze has a built-in music player that syncs with your favorite music platforms—like Spotify, YouTube Music, and Pandora—so you can control your music without switching between apps. (Since Waze is a Google product, Apple Music is not included.) Simply tap the music icon on the map to select your music player and tap Accept . If you don’t see the icon, go to Settings > Music Player and turn on Show on Map .
Choose a famous person’s voice to make audio navigation more interesting.
If you want to make your voice prompts more engaging, you can choose a celebrity or character voice to guide you. Recent examples include Bill Hader’s The Cat in the Hat and Ziggy Marley. Tap the speaker icon > Current Voice to find the voice or language you want. You can also record prompts in your own voice.
Adjust your privacy settings to hide your browsing history and profile information.
If you don’t want Waze to store certain types of data, or if you want to hide your activity from other users, you can adjust various privacy settings in the app. You should definitely disable personalized ads (under Settings > Privacy ) and consider enabling Invisible Mode, which hides your username, mood, photo, and online status from other Waze users. Finally, you can delete recent locations and trips, as well as your navigation history, at any time.