How Does Waze Work & How To Create A Similar App?

10 min readMar 2, 2022

Applications for navigation are becoming increasingly popular.

According to forecasts, the number of people using location-based services will increase in the future. As a result, anyone who wants to create a GPS navigation app is on the right track.

According to a report from BIS Research Agency, it is estimated that the navigation app market will generate $34.56 billion in revenue by 2021. In other words, if you have a navigation app, you can make a lot of money from it.

The number of navigational applications available today is staggering! A product’s functionality isn’t the only thing that varies (for example, one navigator will tell you that there is a shorter road, and the other will not even warn about this until you ask it). A smartphone user’s decision-making process is therefore complicated, and your application must stand out from navigation apps like Waze.

What Exactly Is Waze?

Drivers can create and use live maps with Waze, a free community-driven GPS navigation app. Waze also provides detailed route information as well as precise directions, and user-submitted travel times. Tipping helps drivers by telling them where to turn or if they should take another route.

Waze is unique as it directs drivers based on information gathered from the public. As well as providing real-time traffic updates and location-specific directions via voice commands, Waze also sends anonymous information such as speed and location back to its database in an effort tо enhance its overall service.

While driving, the Waze community can report navigational mapping errors and traffic accidents using its crowdsourcing technology. Let’s take a closer look at how this works.

How Does Waze Work?

By using Waze, people all over the world can improve routes by exchanging real-time information about road repairs and traffic conditions with one another.

When you use Waze, you can inform others about police traps, accidents, weather conditions as well as roadblocks. As soon as the data is collected, the app analyses it in real-time so that others can discover the best routes to take. Uber and Lyft use Waze as their official navigation app.

While conventional GPS navigation apps rely on a central server, Waze is a community-driven app that collects traffic data and map data from its users. The app collects data at all times. A shorter route can only be offered if the software has exact data from every nearby route.

Your driving route will be determined based on the app’s comparison of all possible routes.

Routes can only be loaded when you have an active internet connection, as Waze does not work without it. An internet connection is required to keep the map up-to-date and to provide real-time traffic data.

Placement-based advertising within Waze’s app is its own advertising product. You can use it to advertise to nearby drivers. And the advertising for nearby stores and restaurants can be seen while driving.

In fact, Waze assesses both your location and your destination in order to provide you with the most relevant advertisements. If you’re looking for a place to eat or shop in your area, this app can help you find it.

Why Should You Create A Waze-Like Application?

People used to follow the stars in the past. Navigation around the world isn’t the most precise or straightforward. Everything is now much easier — just take your phone out of your pocket, enter the correct address into a navigation app, and the smart programme will create a route for you to travel to the desired destination.

Map services were extremely popular at the beginning of the Internet’s rise and spread. Technological advances have led to changes in the way maps are displayed and function over time. Now, many entrepreneurs want to create a navigation app for smartphones.

All of this was made possible by GPS technology, first in-car navigation systems and later in smartphones and tablets. This technology allows the location and speed of objects to be determined anywhere on Earth (except for the circumpolar regions), in almost any weather, and in near-Earth space. When the consumer’s antenna receives a synchronized signal from navigation satellites, it determines the location by measuring the time points.

According to a recent survey, GPS — navigators for smartphones are the most popular product at the moment. There are a plethora of applications available to choose from for each and every one.

In today’s fast-paced world, where every second counts, monitoring the movement of vehicles becomes a necessity, no matter what type of business you’re in. If you’re driving around in a cab or delivering packages, a GPS-monitoring system is essential. Apart from that, tourists love this kind of app as well.

Optimal Team Structure To Develop A Navigational App

DevOps Engineer
UI designers
Android developers
iOS developers
Quality Assurance Team

The Monetization Factor

Waze has integrated a location-based advertising product called in-app advertising. If you’re a business owner who wants to attract the attention of nearby motorists, this is your go-to platform. Advertising for nearby shops and restaurants can be seen while driving.

It’s fascinating that Waze not only analyses your location but also your destination so that it can show you the most relevant ads. This is a great feature. If you’re looking for a restaurant, for example, Waze offers a system where you can claim a spot on its maps while also sending out targeted messages and local ads.

Steps To Build An App Like Waze

When you are planning to build an app like Waze, the following are the steps that you need to consider and be cautious about:

Choosing The Right Technology Partner

When it comes to building an application like Waze which has a lot of growth potential and scalability opportunities — you need to make sure that the application you get is robust enough to handle the pressure in the future.

And building that kind of application is not everyone’s cup of tea. You need a company that has the experience of building strong, quality, and elite applications. GoodTroopers can help you find the most suitable technology partner.

After all, it is important to get the basics of your app done right.

2. Product Discovery Phase

Why are you building the app?

What problem does it solve?

Your app’s vision should be crystal clear, your product’s goals should be defined, and your end-users should be identified. Then, you’ll need to decide which features are most important for creating your Minimum Viable Product (MVP), which platforms your app will run on, and what your monetization models will be at this point as well.

3. UI and UX Development

How your navigation app works and looks is decided here. Use the UX insights from the User Journey Map to create clickable wireframes, visual user interfaces, and motion design (animations and screen transitions).

4. Project Kickoff & Setup Stage

Your app’s development team will begin working on your app after these final preparations are made. In this meeting, you’ll have the opportunity to get to know your coworkers, define your roles, and agree on key rules, next steps, and tools that will be utilized.

Here, the goal is to set up the project environment using best practices, ranging from project management to DevOps, in order to maximize efficiency. In this way, you can ensure that the development process is fast and efficient.

5. Making Sure The App’s Quality Is At Par.

Now that your product has been approved for development, it’s time for the developers to get to work (and repeat). At every stage of navigation app development, use manual and automated tests to ensure that Quality Assurance is being performed by your team members. This framework divides the work into short iterations that are then followed by demonstrations.

6. Publish Your App On The App Store(s)

Aside from uploading assets required by law, creating promotional materials, completing beta testing, and optimizing the product page/store presence, releasing an app requires you to take care of everything else necessary to ensure that your app’s approval goes as smoothly as possible. Your navigation app must be well-prepared for launch in order to stand out and be successful.

7. The Post Development Conditioning

If your navigation app crashes, the team keeps an eye on it and works to improve it by adding new features or improving the ones that are already there. You’ll continue to attract users and adapt your GPS app to changing market conditions as well as user feedback.

Key Features You Need To Include In Your Waze-Like App

Authorization

Apps like Waze rely on this. Upon registering, users are given a personal account where they can post reviews or notes, as well as communicate with other members of the group. Register with your email and password or connect to a social account like Facebook to access the site with ease.

Real-Time Updates

Waze does more than just provide high-quality satellite images in a navigation app. Having access to other users’ real-time updates makes for a very rewarding experience for the user. For even more precise information, you can also upload images and add notes.

In-App Messages

Make user messages more attractive if you want to spice up your Waze-like navigation app. Do you want to send them to a chat or as push notifications? When a user enters a specific region or location into a navigation app, this can be done.

Voice Navigation

Using a map while driving is dangerous. As a result, any mobile GPS navigation app would be worthless without turn-by-turn navigation. Traffic alerts and notifications in case of a better route can be heard by drivers using voice navigation. It’s possible to turn off the voice navigation if it’s causing you problems.

Social Media Integration

Authentication and social features require that you integrate your app with social platforms. It also improves user experience and reduces security risks around authentication because most possible problems and vulnerabilities are already maintained. Also, you won’t force users to create a new account, but rather use their existing accounts to log in seamlessly.

Rerouting

As soon as drivers encounter an accident or take an incorrect turn, your GPS navigation app must quickly redirect them to a new route. You don’t have to wait for your app to reanalyze the route before giving drivers precise directions.

Geolocation & Navigation

Navigation apps start with a map. Location, object location, and route are all determined by GPS. Cell ID, which relies on information from mobile operators, can be integrated into your app to reduce errors. Because Cell ID and GPS work together, the app’s geolocation services are accurate.

Payment Services

In-app purchases could be used to monetize a GPS navigation app. Potential partnerships exist in the event your app becomes popular with drivers and people who provide complementary services.

Carpool Services

Drivers can get free gas by using a Waze-like Carpool application. If another user is traveling in the same direction, you will be able to see him on your screen. The trip’s gas costs are split between the driver and the passengers. Using a Waze-like app, the app recommends a rate for the rider to pay. As soon as a user logs in, the app charges their credit cards or bank accounts.

Google Calendar Syncing

Google Calendar can be synchronized with this Waze-like application for more convenient trips. On receiving access to your calendar, Waze creates a list of appointments and their locations. Using this method, your navigation app can guide travelers back to locations they’ve previously entered.

Suitable Tech Stack To Create An App Like Waze

Utilities– Transifex, Urban Airship
DevOps– Crashlytics
Other basic tech stack — Google Maps, Here Maps or Skobbler, Google Cloud API, Google Drive, Google Fonts, Google Analytics, Blogger, Google Compute Engine, G Suite, Mandrill, Brandfolder, Google Domains, HTML5.

Wrapping Up

Due to its accuracy and alluring features, Waze is a great app to use as an example. A navigation app like Waze is only useful if you can come up with more advanced features than Waze’s app.

A navigation app can be created quickly and easily if you have a thorough understanding of app development as well as a passion for your project.

Consider starting with fewer features and improvising after a certain period of time if you believe that making apps like Waze is difficult.

In terms of classy features and other entertaining specifications, you have a lot of options to choose from, from Android to iOS.

Frequently Asked Questions When Developing An App For Navigation (FAQs)

Q. How does Waze ensure data authenticity on its app?
A. Waze collects user information such as meta-data, and other necessary information while the app is running. It then compares data between each possible route and suggests the optimal route
Q. Who is the founder of Waze?
A. It was founded in 2008 by Ehud Shabtai, Amir Shinar, and Uri Levine in Israel.
Q. How does Waze make money?
A. Waze primarily makes money from advertising by selling Waze Ads for businesses to be found on the Waze map. They also generate revenue from Waze carpool which helps users to get paid by becoming carpool drivers for other users who need a ride.

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