During its first major virtual event suggestively called Waze On, the navigation company owned by Google revealed a slew of new features coming to the app, as well as an important partnership with another big name – Amazon.
First off, Waze confirmed that Amazon Music will join its audio player partner program in the coming months so that Waze users can listen to Amazon Music in the app’s audio player without having to switch between apps.
As far as the new features go, Waze revealed a bunch of those that will be available sooner or later on all compatible platforms. Lane Guidance is one of the new features announced today that will probably make many drivers very happy.
With Lane Guidance, drivers will receive information in real-time about which lane to be when merging or exiting a stretch of freeway or highway. This is rolling out to users worldwide starting right now.
Traffic Notifications is another important feature that will be available to users next month. It tells drivers how traffic will impact their journey to favorite/frequent destinations, in addition to one-time planned drives.
Another major improvement coming to Waze users in October is Trip Suggestions, which shows personalized recommendations based on trips taken in the past, as well as locations are recently driven to. With Waze Trip Suggestions, drivers will get all the information they need before leaving, including the time the trip will take and the traffic along the way.
Finally, there are some carpool features that Waze users in some markets will get later this month. The so-called “real-time rides” feature is meant to notify Waze drivers when they leave about riders on their route that are looking to carpool. This feature will also include integration with Moovit.