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Google Navigation Tips & Tricks

jwm2

Android Expert
Mar 30, 2010
1,109
270
Sterling, IL
While using Google Navigation (beta) i've come across some helpful tips that may enhance your experience with it. Google Navigation (beta) is accessable from the Car Panel or via Google Maps. I'll share some of these tips below.

Home Screen Navigation/Destination Shortcuts: One of the first things i noticed was the inability to store places you frequently navigate to within the app itself. In order to have a shortcut to the destination of your choice do the following.

1. Navigate to the Home Screen you wish to put the shortcut icon.
2. Press the + symbol at the bottom right hand side of the screen next to the Phone button.
3. Press Shortcut.
4. Press Directions & Navigation.
5. Type in the address of the destination. You can also use GPS coordinates if you don't know the address.
6. Type in the name of the shortcut you are creating. IE: Home
7. Select an icon, such as the the arrow pointing to home.
8. Press Save.
9. The icon will now show up on your home screen, you can then move it around where ever you wish.

Create GPS Shortcut Folder: If you notice your screen filling up with shortcut icons you can always create a folder using the above instructions but choose "Folder" instead of Shortcut in step 3. Then name the folder GPS or whatever you like and you can store all your destination shortcuts within it.

Receiving a Phone Call: While using Google Navigation if you recieve an incoming phone call, you can take the call and google navigation will continue running in the background. It will even alert you of directions while you are talking so you don't miss your turn. Once the phone call is completed it will go right back to navigating you on your route.

Playing Music while Navigating: When you play music with the built in Music app and while using Google Navigation it will automatically cut the audio of the music out while giving you speech alerts during your route. This is done so you do not miss the directions it is giving you. Many aftermarker GPS devices do this as well when playing music from built in apps.

Enable Street View: This is a really cool feature but is not really talked about much within the Google Navigation guide. While you are on your route you can double tap the screen and if a street view is available it will show the street view of where you are heading and where you need to turn. This can be really handy when navigating in town or large cities where streets are in close proximity of one another. You can also zoom in to get street view, but you will need to keep zooming in until it shows the street view which can require many button presses.

Adding Layers to the Map: You can also add layers on top of the map which may help you located points of interest along your route. To do this while en route press the menu buttom and choose "Layers". It will then give you a choice of: Traffic View, Satellite, Parking, Gas Stations, ATMs & Banks, Restaurants. Just make your selection(s) and it will update the map to reflect the changes.

Turn off the Screen: While using Navigation you can manually shut off the screen and the voice navigation will continue giving you turn-by-turn voice alerts. This can help save your battery if you left your charger at home on accident. Also Google Navigation by default will keep the screen from falling asleep unless you follow this tip. Credit: Boomstk

Exit Navigation: Menu > Exit Navigation

Change Route: After your route is displayed, select the menu button, then select route info. on the map itself you will see a route icon. Select that and it will display multiple routes if they are available.

Home Screen Navigation/Destination Shortcuts (Alternate): While in the phones regular phonebook. If you edit an entry, then under "Others" click "Add", there's a "Postal Address" option. You can put in their address from there.

When you want to navigate to there, you can view the contact and a "View Home address" link will show up (or "View Work address, etc"). Click on it, it starts up Google Maps. Click on the Blue "Up" arrow that appears on the screen and it will navigate to that entries address. Credit: PaulRivers

Misc Tips:

1. When navigating, touch the ETA estimate in the lower left corner. This will make the display pop up to an overhead view of the route, complete with traffic overlays. This is handy if want to avoid bad, red traffic and wish to go another route. It won't give you options, but it will reroute if you deviate off course. Credit: dibs ODDJOB

General Tips:

1. Make sure to keep Google Maps up-to-date. Whenever an update is available its best to update your map as soon as possible to reflect any changes that may have occured.
 
Great tips - thanks so much.

I've been playing around with layers also - they are really neat. They've got favorite places of different people (some of whom I recognize like Regis & Kelly) in different cities around the world. I have saved a bunch of my old GPS trail maps onto My Maps on the big computer, and it displays those great.

I was going to ask how you exit Nav so it would stop running, but I found it under the menu button. I also tried the Route Info button. One of the icons under that (I can't tell what it is but it's got arrow on it) displays alternate route options. So cool.
 
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You can hit exit navigation, just press the menu button>exit nagivation. Also if you ever find that the address is not exactly where it should be, for example. A local casino just built a new building and moved about a year ago. Of course its old address keeps popping up when doing a google search, but they have their gps coordinates listed on their directions page, so you can enter in those as the address and it will guide you to that instead.
 
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It seems the route it chooses is based on the shortest route which may not be the fastest. Any way to choose the fastest?

Yup good idea, i just added that. On a side note these tips help me get the most out of it as some of them i did not know of until i checked for them. So thanks to all those who've helped make this thread as informational as it has become.
 
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Does Google Navigation does auto rerouting? I ended up missing the turn and while the map was still showing me where I am on the route it did not reroute directions so I can reach the destination via other roads, instead, I had to return back to the turn I missed and start following the blue direction line again. It would be great if the navigation would figure out that I missed the turn and reroute me to the next turn.
 
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Does Google Navigation does auto rerouting? I ended up missing the turn and while the map was still showing me where I am on the route it did not reroute directions so I can reach the destination via other roads, instead, I had to return back to the turn I missed and start following the blue direction line again. It would be great if the navigation would figure out that I missed the turn and reroute me to the next turn.

I would think it should have this functionality. I haven't tested it out yet though. Anyone know?
 
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....

Playing Music while Navigating: When you play music with the built in Music app and while using Google Navigation it will automatically cut the audio of the music out while giving you speech alerts during your route. This is done so you do not miss the directions it is giving you. Many aftermarker GPS devices do this as well when playing music from built in apps.

jwm2, any insight on a setting or app that will pause the music playback while the navigation makes it's announcements? Thanks in advance
 
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jwm2, any insight on a setting or app that will pause the music playback while the navigation makes it's announcements? Thanks in advance

It automatically cuts the audio out, i don't know of a setting to pause the audio, but it will cut the audio out on the music so it can clearly give you the direction you need to go. You don't need to set it to do that, it will do it automatically. However you do need to be playing music with the phone and not on your car stereo for example.
 
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Bonus tip:

When navigating, touch the ETA estimate in the lower left corner. This will make the display pop up to an overhead view of the route, complete with traffic overlays. This is handy if want to avoid bad, red traffic and wish to go another route. It won't give you options, but it will reroute if you deviate off course.
 
Upvote 0

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