The IT Nerd

We all like options. From dinner locations to workout playlists to movie nights, we want to choose what best suits us at any given moment, based on our priorities, the weather, or even simply our mood. 

And we know love for information is no different when you’re behind the wheel. You want options for getting from A to B—the cheapest, the shortest, the fastest—and you want to be sure whichever you choose is actually going to deliver before you commit to a route. 

This is why we’ve been hard at work bringing this information to Wazers, before they start a drive. Starting today, before you set foot in their car, you’ll be greeted by Waze with a wealth of new intel—like alternative routes, traffic conditions and real time reports—to help make your best routing choice. Making it easier than ever to get the info you need, before you even leave the house. 

Want to avoid that notoriously congestion-heavy stretch of highway? Or know how much the tolls ahead are going to cost you? Or curious why Waze has suggested a less direct route to get you to your destination? From now on you’ll be getting “the why” in your trip preview, so you’ll know Waze is making the best recommendation. Or, if the mood takes you, go your own way. Because drivers that know and understand what’s ahead are happier drivers all around. 

This experience starts rolling out to users globally today, and will reach everyone in the next couple of months. Make sure you have the latest version of Waze downloaded to receive all the latest updates. 

It’s an icebreaker at work and a dealbreaker on a date, but now Waze, the world’s largest community-based traffic and navigation app, is asking its users the age-old question: Are you a cat or a dog person? 

From today for a limited time, drivers can choose between two navigation voices designed to personify our beloved household pets. Users who want to hang out with a dog that’s feeling upbeat, excited, but with a tendency to get distracted or a cat that’s feeling skeptical, irreverent and a little neurotic can now do so by activating this theme!

Drivers hitting the roads for their summer staycations can also change their Waze car icon and hop in the Meow Mobile or Woof Wagon to guide them on their way, and express their pet preference by choosing a Cat or Dog mood to show others on the road how they’re outsmarting traffic. 

To access the new Cat & Dog theme on your mobile device, visit here.

The Cat & Dog theme will be available in English, French and Spanish for a limited time. 

For more information, or to download the Waze app, please visit this link. 

This month marks the beginning of annual Pride celebrations around the world. It’s a time to recognize the progress and ongoing fight for visibility, acceptance, and legal protections of the LGBTQIA2S+ community. And a reminder to all that everyone should have the freedom to live openly because love is love. In honour of this moment, we’re excited to welcome Boy George to Waze. 

A music and fashion icon who has, for decades, represented what it means to live authentically and unapologetically, Boy George uses his signature voice to create not only instant classics, but also impassioned songs that shine a light on the movement to secure the rights and liberties of the LGBTQIA2S+ community around the world. And now, for the first time, he’s using this recognizable voice to navigate Wazers as they drive, giving us all a chance to feel what it’s like to have Boy George in the passenger seat.

Enjoy Tea Time with Boy George on WazeBoy George is here to make your daily drives a little more fun, and a lot more thought-provoking. The man of many hats—literally and figuratively—fulfills every fan’s dream of sitting down to a nice cup of tea and a chat. He’ll also tell you where to turn, give you a heads up on hazards ahead, and impart words of wisdom, like reminding you that life is about learning to be yourself. When you activate his voice navigation in the latest version of your Waze app, along with your choice of Mood and car, you can get the full Boy George experience each time you hit the road, no matter where you are in the world.

Stream Boy George’s Own Pride Playlist To make your tea time even sweeter, Boy George has also curated a special Pride playlist you can stream seamlessly as you drive through the Waze Audio Player. Just sync your audio and Waze apps and you’ll never miss a beat (or a turn).

Each track has been selected to celebrate acceptance, freedom of expression, and love, while following Boy George’s golden rule: “listen to the music you love; passion always eclipses what’s fashionable.” 

So make sure you’ve got the latest Waze app, brew a cup of tea, cue up the “Drive with Boy George” playlist, hit the road, and enjoy riding with Boy George.

The City of Calgary today announced a data-sharing partnership with Waze, the navigation platform creating community on and off the road. Designed as a free, two-way data share of publicly available traffic information, Waze for Cities Data, formerly known as the Connected Citizens Program, creates greater efficiency, deeper insights, and safer roads for citizens of The City of Calgary along with more than 1,600 other partners around the world.

By incorporating new innovative tools like Waze, Calgary’s Traffic Management Centre (TMC) can improve traffic flow by gathering road information in real-time, and inform citizens about traffic impacts, construction and lane closures quickly. Waze for Cities Data will give Calgary’s TMC an unprecedented look at real-time road activity, the ability to harness real-time driver insights to improve congestion and make better-informed planning decisions. 

Waze will help provide The City with real-time, anonymous, user-generated incident and traffic information directly from the source: Calgary drivers and passengers themselves. In exchange, The City of Calgary will provide real-time government-reported construction, crash, and road closure data to Waze to return one of the most succinct, thorough overviews of current road conditions today.

The Waze map evolves in real time with every driver and data point it receives, promoting safer roads and sharing more knowledge with drivers about potential delays to their commutes. Waze for Cities Data provides local citizens a greater ability to circumvent road closures and traffic jams within the app. The City of Calgary can further provide Calgary Waze users with advanced notice of major traffic events that will affect their daily routes. During emergency situations, such as major weather events, users can check the app for the latest details around road closures to ensure safe travel during potentially hazardous conditions.

Help keep Calgary moving and visit waze.com/apps to download the free Waze app from Google Play or the App Store.

To find out more about Waze for Cities, please visit http://waze.com/wazeforcities
To learn more about the Calgary Traffic Management Centre please visit Calgary.ca/tmc and check out the Waze/City of Calgary video here:

Waze is announcing updates to Waze Ads Starter, its advertising solution tailored specifically to small businesses. The features take into account the unique challenges faced by small businesses now, making it easier for them to connect with existing customers and attract new ones while making the most of their marketing investment.

With these updates, Waze is making it simpler for small business advertisers to create and manage Waze ad campaigns with Ad Manager, a streamlined campaign management dashboard. Now, in minutes, small businesses can begin advertising, see how campaigns are performing at a glance, and easily make changes as well as gaining access to new ad formats and other capabilities. Available both on desktop and in a new mobile-friendly experience, Ad Manager makes it as easy as possible for small businesses to achieve their business goals.

Updates include: 

• Ad formats: Arrows and Takeovers join existing Pin and Search formats with the option to preview all ads on mobile. 
• Targeting criteria: Choose targets based on a specific zip/postal code, city, geographical region, or coordinates.
• Goal-specific calls-to-action: Achieve your goals and increase customer engagement with Waze recommended calls-to-action including, Save for Later, Save Location, Drive There, and Call Now.
• Push notifications: Re-engage customers after their drive with push notification reminders. 
• Flexible campaigns: Run seasonal campaigns or limited-time promotions.

Waze is also introducing features to help small businesses manage advertising budget, showing estimated campaign reach and providing a recommended budget that dynamically incorporates locations and other campaign details, based on a total or monthly campaign budget setting. Small business owners can begin advertising on Waze for just a few dollars per day, with no monthly commitment.

For more information on advertising with Waze, please visit waze.com/ads/waze-ads-starter/ad-manager

Waze, the platform bringing together communities on and off the road, today announced Audible has joined its Audio Player Program, giving drivers a way to fill time in the car with meaning, learning, art and storytelling.

Audible on Waze offers drivers with an Audible membership easy access to its catalogue of more than 600,000 Audible Originals, audiobooks, podcasts, and other audio programs. So whether riding with the kids, road tripping, or heading home from work, there’s an Audible title to accompany every drive. 

Audible members can listen on Waze by simply opening the Waze app and tapping the music note icon to select Audible as their audio player. They can start enjoying audio content directly through Waze right away, including Audible Originals, audiobooks and podcasts. Audible members will also receive next turn directions from Waze inside the Audible app.

Audible is the latest streaming service to integrate its audio experience into Waze by using the Waze Audio Kit.

The Audible integration for Waze Audio Player will begin rolling out from today. You can download Waze here, and to integrate your audio app with Waze, apply for the Waze Audio Kit here.

Waze announced that a holiday theme is available from now until December 31, 2020.

Drivers can activate all or part of the new holiday theme on Waze. They can select Santa’s voice to guide them on their travels, show their spirit with the Santa Mood, and switch their car to Santa’s sleigh to let Rudolph and friends guide them to their destination. 

To access the new holiday theme, visit here.

For more information, or to download the Waze app, please visit this link. 

It has been a challenging year for the small business community, with many companies having to reduce staff numbers or pause operations due to the COVID-19 pandemic. With the forthcoming holiday season, owners have an opportunity to try and rebuild their businesses. So today, Waze, the platform bringing together communities on and off the road, has announced a new initiative to help small businesses get back on their feet. 

Launching this week in advance of Small Business Saturday and running until January 7 2021, Waze is offering business owners an opportunity to contribute information, including address, contact details, and opening and closing hours via a simple form, that will then be added to Waze map by Waze’s volunteer community of Map Editors. This information will help Waze users nationwide easily navigate to these store locations using the most up-to-date information, encouraging them to shop local during the holiday season. 

This campaign builds on Waze’s COVID-19 response as part of a strategic effort to find ways to leverage its products and map to better serve underserved communities, and to enable employees, users, and partners to give back to the organizations they care about.

If you are a small business owner who’d like your information on Waze updated – or for businesses that are not yet mapped on Waze – please complete this form. 

Your city needs you!  Waze, the everyday driving platform bringing together drivers to outsmart traffic, in partnership with Warner Bros. Consumer Products (WBCP) and DC, is introducing some epic forces of good and evil to the road – Batman and The Riddler.

From today, until October 31, 2020, activate the Batman experience on Waze and choose the side of DC Super Hero or Super-Villain by selecting the iconic voice of Batman (Kevin Conroy) or The Riddler (Wally Wingert) to guide you on your own adventures. Available globally in English, Spanish and Portuguese, you can follow The Riddler’s clues or enter “stealth mode” like Batman.

You can also change Waze car icons and hop in the Batmobile or The Riddler’s racer to guide you on your way, and select the Batman or The Riddler moods to heroically or cleverly outsmart traffic. And to complete the experience, you can listen to the Waze and DC Super Hero or Super-Villain playlists on Spotify while driving via the Waze Audio Player feature.

To access the new Batman and The Riddler features, visit here.
To drive with Batman and The Riddler while listening to their character-inspired songs on Spotify, visit here for Batman’s playlist, and here for The Riddler’s playlist.

For more information, or to download the Waze app, please visit this link.

Waze, the platform bringing together communities on and off the road, today announced Canadians can search and find COVID-19 testing and screening locations within Waze, using data provided by Montreal-based Clinia Health Inc.

Waze and Clinia hope the data partnership will make it easier to find and navigate to testing locations.

Drawing upon information from public health departments, Clinia developed a directory of testing and screening locations across Canada. The database — with more than 340 data points — was integrated into Waze in July, with the data being refreshed a few times a week. This data contains information regarding testing and screening sites at hospitals and clinics, as well as mobile drive-through sites, ensuring Canadians are aware of options for COVID-19 testing.

Waze has seen an increase in drivers returning to the roads since March. Information on Canadian traffic patterns by city can be accessed here.