'Best' GPS app for android?

I don't always remember to take the GPS with me, so I've tried out so far Route 66 and Sygic.

Which GPS app do you use and why?


P.s. I'm not sure if this is the right place for this thread, but since its an android app thread.

Google Maps
Co-Pilot
Navfree

As above plus WAZE

Google maps and Waze

Google Nav. Never had a reason to try anything else.

Waze for the traffic updates and cute icons

Combination of Google and Waze

Swarfega said:

Google maps and Waze

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Both of these apps require internet access, don't they?

Navigon here

IC3 said:

Both of these apps require internet access, don't they?

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You can save maps and routes for offline use.

Route 66 Navigate. Best combination of live traffic data and sensible routing and accurate ETAs for a reasonable price. I use it because more roads are covered by traffic info than Google and rerouting due to traffic is entirely hands free, automatic and usually reliable. When it comes to traffic information and routing algorithms I'm a bit of a geek, hence the number of apps I've tried just to see how they work.

Supplemented by Google maps / navigation as the search is superior and map updates more frequent than Route 66.

That's agains a background of having previously used: Tomtom, Sygic, Navigon, Copilot, Waze, Navfree, M8, Wisepilot and a few other random ones.

When it comes to Live traffic - Tomtom's traffic is the only one worth paying for. It's used by Tomtom, Route 66 and Sygic. The implementation is crap on Sygic, however, so I don't recommend it. Next best is Google which is free, then Waze (also free). Hence all the other apps' live traffic info is not worth paying for.

K1LLSW1TCH said:

You can save maps and routes for offline use.

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That's not very practical to be honest, I prefer the option of having maps and POI on my phone/tablet.

For me Sygic so far is the quickest and most accurate, but I will check out some of the propositions from here.

I'm gonna test out the hud thing today, it looked good on the videos.



Edit

Uriel said:

When it comes to Live traffic - Tomtom's traffic is the only one worth paying for. It's used by Tomtom, Route 66 and Sygic. The implementation is crap on Sygic, however, so I don't recommend it. Next best is Google which is free, then Waze (also free). Hence all the other apps' live traffic info is not worth paying for.

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I agree with you that Sygic isn't the most user friendly app, but it's not that bad once you get use to it. But so far from only testing google navigate, route 66 and sygic... The implementation on route 66 IMO is superb and generally those small things such as the camera movement when you get to a roundabout it moves to birds-eye view. I've tested out the route 66 on the 30 day trial while having sygic on my phone, I'll look into Route 66 further more when my Syigc subscription ends.

P.s. I can't say a bad word about Sygic since I got it for free, but if I had to pay for it, than mostly like I wouldn't.

My first impressions of Sygic were initially very good, but soon I realised that the routing system is extremely poor.

While Sygic uses Tomtom maps, it doesn't use their speed profile data or speed limits for routing. It assigns predicted speed based on road type on the map. In urban areas this results in a pathological attraction for A roads. Rather than planning a sensible fastest route, it will send you on the most direct route to an A road possible - even if the A road is 30mph and riddled with traffic lights. While it's not bad for initial route planning around traffic, it is basically rubbish should anything change once you've started your journey (Tomtom and Route 66 Navigate are pretty seamless).

About 2 years ago Sygic announced on their forums that they would implement Tomtom's IQRoutes/Speed Profiles at some point. As far as I know, this still hasn't been done yet. If and when they get around to it, Sygic will deserve a reassessment.

I did like the graphics and voice directions though.

google maps with its waze is ideal for me

Uriel said:

My first impressions of Sygic were initially very good, but soon I realised that the routing system is extremely poor.

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I've only used it for short journeys so I can't really comment on this. What packages on Route 66 did you buy out and how much did it cost you? I just wanna get a rough idea, I can't remember how long left of the subscription I've. But it ends soonish...

I bought UK navigation and traffic. They are currently £11.99 (perpetual license) and £7.49 (1 year) respectively.

JediFragger said:

Navigon here

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Same here

Offline maps and much better than most others i've tried

I have the TomTom Navigation app and its great, if not a little expensive in the Play store. Its basically just like having a TomTom stand alone unit, up to date maps, live traffic updates and so on.

Sygic - Purchased. It's my usual Sat-Nav app. OK, but does do weird routes (as mentioned previously), which can be a problem in a foreign country as you have no way knowing/guessing what roads are like. It got me around NZ and Australia. Can store maps on an SD card.
It's difficult to pre-plan a route that doesn't start from current location.

Google maps - Just started using this more now that I have unlimited data

Co-pilot - Purchased. OK, but does not allow storage of maps on SD card. I stopped using it until they fix this inconvenience.

Has anyone tried both copilot and tomtom on android? I have copilot but until recently I also had a standalone tomtom device. But as it has broken yet again I refuse to buy more hardware from them. I do however prefer their software, particularly their live navigation.

So is tomtom worth buying over copilot that I already have? How close is it to their standalone units?