Google Navigation: Showing Navigation w/o a Destination

[inssane]

Because it's such a freaking pain to enter locations on Google Nav compared to a regular stand-alone GPS.

Plus, sometimes there is not a set destination. Or sometimes you need to see quickly if a road cuts through somewhere....or any other number of quick, look type scenarios.

If you've never driven with a nice, stand-alone, I can understand how you can question the usefulness of this feature. But trust me, it really has become a great tool for driving.

If you voice command "find nearest" and your destination, it will show the nearest whatever - most stand alones don't do that.
The VC will also show you a map with your choices on it and you can scroll through a list of destinations, call them, save them as a contact, read reviews, etc.
It doesn't get much easier. You can also star and sync any destination you search and access that via the set destination screen (w/o voice command).

 

[inssane]

You can put a shortcut to some obscure Nav destination on your home screen. This should work as an basic workaround to get 3D navigation to display while you drive around.

1. Long Press a blank area on the Home Screen
2. Choose "Shortcuts"
3. Choose "Directions & Navigation"
4. Enter a destination that is somewhere else - like another city.
5. Enter a name for the shortcut and hit save.

Now you have a shortcut that you can just hit once to start the Nav screen.

Problems: It will think you are trying to navigate to that destination, so the next road, next turn, and other information will be displayed. You'll also need to make sure that the nav volume is muted.

You can also put the CAR Home icon on your screen.
1 click to car mode
1 click to navigation with no preset destination

Very easy

 

[RadOD]

You can also put the CAR Home icon on your screen.
1 click to car mode
1 click to navigation with no preset destination

Very easy

Then it comes up with a screen asking you for an end point. How do you get to navigation?

 

[spooksmcgee]

This is exactly what I want my "GPS" to be able to do, and I am surprised to find out it can't switch to 3D mode unless you enter a destination. As such, I don't think I will be getting rid of my standalone GPS anytime soon. I hope Google gets their act together and fixes this.

 

[stainless]

Yes it will Follow on 3D mode without a fake destination.

Just open the Blue "Navigation" application (only in the newer update)
and then press the little icon in the upper right corner that looks like a map with a bookmark.
It will open the "Google Navigation" app and zero in on your position and presto
3D tracking.

 

[cwcheese]

Yes it will Follow on 3D mode without a fake destination.

Just open the Blue "Navigation" application (only in the newer update)
and then press the little icon in the upper right corner that looks like a map with a bookmark.
It will open the "Google Navigation" app and zero in on your position and presto
3D tracking.

This is true, I happened onto this just after the recent Google Maps update. I saw a new map icon on the Destination bar after clicking open Navigation, so I touched it and saw the GPS map view, and a bonus is the ability to see traffic layer so I can try to navigate around those nice things we in SoCal call 'sigalerts'. This function does not work if you go into Navigate via searching a location in Google Maps app, I could not stop it from following a route and remain inside the GPS map, you have to start from the Navigation app.