Why Google Killed Navigation in Android?

Getting into my car this morning with a 3 hour drive across the country ahead of me, I had a rare and slightly unnerving panic. Not knowing how to get to my destination, I fell back on my one true saviour: Android navigation to find the way; a tactic that has paid off more times than I can count. Only this time there was a problem. The last update to Maps has brought with it a stripped down flat UI to the front end of navigation. This is all good, apart from almost all of the functionality we were used to is gone! In desperation, I opened up PLAY and grabbed my second choice for finding my way around: Waze

Now, before I go further, I know that Google didn't kill navigation. It is still there and it still works, but what they have done is shifted the functionality and focus. When Android was first launched, it occupied a very different world. Smartphones were just starting to take root and tablets were just a vision within Steve Job's eye (or clunky pieces of trash made by Microsoft since 2002, you decide). Either way, being able to turn your Android device into a  Sat Nav made sense. Then things changed as the Android ecosystem mushroomed. No longer confined to phones, it now runs on tablets, games consoles, watches and other devices I am not aware of or are yet to be released. Either way, Android is no longer a Phone OS. 

While it is debatable if Maps is a core app for every occasion, it is possibly the most universal since geo-data describes our world possibly more than any other form of information. Having Google maps on any of the above devices makes a lot of sense when you think about it, but does a fully fledged Sat Nav front end? No. What does make sense is a relaly nice to use version Map's online 'directions' tool, which is exactly what we got. The decision to take this route makes even more sense when you consider Google now own Waze! While I feel this has a lot to do with getting their hands on data (the new black gold), it means that with minimal effort, Google can pop out a stand alone sat nav app, fully tested and ready to go! So in the car I will be (eventually) happy, and on my tablet I will be happy too. After all, I need to do general direction search there rather than use it for actual navigation!

However there is a sting in the tail. I really loved the old front end UI and am slightly unhappy with having to use Waze in it's current state. So as for user experience, I am far from happy and can only hope that Waze gets a serious makeover in the next 12 months.

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