8 Waze Hacks You Need to Use Immediately

You know Waze helps get you where you are going and avoid delays, but did you know it will also alert your friends to your arrival time, pull your destination right from your calendar and even entertain you? See the latest hints and hacks for using your favorite nav system.

Sync your calendar
Waze will remind you to leave for your appointment, then read the address right from your calendar, so you don’t have to type in the location again when you’re in the car.

Choose the voice
Want to indulge your inner tween? You’ll crush hard on the singing “boy band” voice option. Or if you’d prefer to indulge your obsession with the royal family, “Kate” has a plummy Brit accent and we swear her regal-sounding directions somehow get us to sit up a little straighter.

Send arrival time
Just before you back out of the drive, swipe up from the bottom of your screen and tap “Send ETA,” then tap the name or number of someone. They’ll get a customized note (typo-free, unlike our hastily typed texts) saying where you’re headed and when you’ll be arriving.

Remember your child and/or backpack
It’s hot out there in parking-lot land, so you don’t want to leave your child, Pomeranian or icy kombucha in a closed car. It’s easy to type in a customized reminder for Waze to sing out once you arrive at your destination. (“Hey, don’t forget to take your kiddo, Space Cadet!” is ours.)

Carpool
Thousands of people in San Francisco are already carpooling with Waze; this summer, the app expanded the service to the whole state. It’s way cheaper than even ride sharing (you pay the driver less than 54 cents per mile) and you’re helping reduce traffic and carbon emissions. Plus, new friends (or, you know, headphones work too). 

Record your own voice
Don’t vibe on backseat drivers, even if (see above) they sound like Justin Bieber or Kate Middleton? Take directions from someone you trust—yourself. It’s fun, and takes under 15 minutes to record the 40 prompts that Waze uses most (“Start driving,” “In a quarter of a mile,” etc.). We like to bust this one out to gaslight passengers: When they ask about it, we reply, “What are you talking about? This is just the Waze voice.” 

Pause those directions
Embarrassment ensues when we’re on a hands-free work call while driving and Waze chimes in “Make a U-turn.” (It’s only slightly less mortifying than when a voice breaks in saying “Would you like fries with that?”) Avoid such unpleasantness by turning on the “Mute Waze during calls” feature to block out the audio while keeping the map visible. 

Where's your car? 
This is the feature you need but didn't notice. When you arrive at your destination, Waze automatically drops a pin on a map noting where you parked. Later, when you open the app, it shows you your parking spot, complete with the street address and the estimated walking time to get there. Now if you could only find your keys in your bag...