Waze Gets a ‘Less Chatty’ Update, Personalized Routes
Waze Gets a ‘Less Chatty’ Update, Personalized Routes
Publish Date: 2026-07-13 18:00:00
Source Domain: www.cnet.com
Waze, Google’s other navigation app, has announced a batch of updates this week that will make it “less chatty,” encourage drivers to talk more and personalize your most frequently driven routes. In select markets, motorcycle riders will see bespoke pathfinding specific to two-wheeled travel, and (like all things Google these days) it’s all underpinned by a Gemini-powered artificial intelligence update that also aims to improve voice destination search and map reporting.
Acquired in 2013, Waze exists alongside Google Maps, sharing Google’s underlying map data and increasingly cross-pollinating features. Both, for example, feature increasing levels of Gemini integration.
However, driving-focused Waze lacks Maps’ transit and walking modes. Overlap like this is usually a one-way ticket to the Google Graveyard, but Waze distinguishes itself from its step-sibling by focusing on crowdsourced, real-time reports (like accidents, speed traps, road hazards and fuel prices), rather than just aggregated traffic data. This makes Waze an interesting alternative for drivers who value the human-reported detail that Google Maps typically doesn’t surface.
Less chatty navigation
All that extra detail can get a bit annoying when you’re just trying to focus on a good playlist or podcast, which is where Waze’s new “less chatty” mode comes in. This toggle reduces the frequency and length of the app’s voice prompts without disabling them outright.
Waze says that critical alerts for hazards, turns and lane changes will still come through, just less often. The result, ideally, falls somewhere between having my audiobook interrupted for every upcoming speed camera and no spoken alerts at all.
The new updates to the Waze app for Android and iOS are rolling out this week.
Personalized navigation
Meanwhile, Waze’s new personalized navigation option layers a driver’s own trip history and habits onto Waze’s existing map and traffic data-crunching. For example, if I consistently choose…
