jeffcarp

Not true. I've used it on about 1100 miles of travel so far. I know exactly what version I have.

I misspoke above however, when claiming the Navigation app was still in the app listing. It isn't. However, if you already had a Navigation shortcut on your Android Home screens before the Maps update, on most versions of Android the Google Maps update did not remove those existing shortcuts. It did remove the separate listing for Navigation view from the app listing though. I was wrong about that. I didn't notice that because I still had the shortcut on my Home screens.

That being said, I don't use the Navigation shortcut anymore after the new update. As I see it, everything that can be done from the Navigation shortcut can be done from the main Maps screen, with the added benefit of having your Starred Favorites and Recent Searches available in a single click from the main Map screen while they are no where to be accessed if using the Navigation shortcut.

holtju2

This was the first time I have uninstalled Google app and now using the original version that came with the phone. I absolutely hated the "upgrade". Seems that Google is becoming as arrogant as Microsoft and Apple with its products,

jeffcarp

I'm curious what people don't like about the update. I love it personally. I have had a few crashes myself. The traffic rerouting works well in my opinion. The accuracy of the ETA's in Chicago and New Orleans have been amazing so far. I'm not seeing the reason for the negative reaction to this update.

ajGoes

People tend to hate changes in software, having invested a chunk of time in learning the previous version. That's the only reason I can see for, e.g., preferring Windows XP over Windows 7. However, there are some specific feature losses in the new Google Maps, including

1. No support for My Maps
2. No separate Navigate button
3. No Zoom buttons
4. No Latitude support (whatever that is)

I saw some real panic over item 1 online right after the upgrade dropped, as people who had set up events based on shared maps didn't know how to address the problem. (There are some options but they're workarounds.)

I don't miss the separate Navigate button, which always seemed weird to me: isn't navigating one of the things you do with a map? I do use two Navigate shortcuts that the old version allowed me to save to a desktop folder but they're not very important to me.

The loss of the Zoom buttons is trivial once you discover the finger gesture that replaces them. The problem there is that it isn't discoverable; you have to find it by accident or by reading the instructions. I'm a software developer and I learned long ago that few users, myself included, actually read the instructions.

I might miss Latitude if I knew what it was.

They've improved some of the map's features; for example, they've replaced the clumsy old menu-driven alternate route selector with a metaphor similar to that on the Google Maps web site, with alternates shown in grey and selectable with a tap.

Overall, I advise everyone to try living with the new Maps for a while before giving up on it. After two weeks, try to remember what you liked about the old version. My guess is that 95% of users won't be able to and will find they're perfectly happy with the new version.

VT_hawkeye

The biggest problem for me is that new Google Maps quits displaying stars for starred items/"My Places" for no apparent reason, and I have to kill the app completely in order to make it reload and display stars again. It's incredibly annoying since my usual trip habit is to star everything in advance, then identify geographic clusters and operate on the fly within the clusters -- it makes picking my next stop a five-step process rather than one.

NC_Girl

My nav app was in the top corner of my screen. I hit the blue app, hit speak destination and off it went.

I could do the entire thing while driving without even looking at the tablet.
New map? No way.....

jeffcarp

I agree on that list. #1 is a loss. #2 and #3 are complaints without merit in my opinion. No need to zoom by buttons when a gesture does it now. Still only needs one hand / one finger. #4 was a loss, but I replaced the functionality with a different app that turns out to be much better.

Latitude is a "finder" app. i.e., Did my kid make it to school? Is he at the mall like he said he would be? How far away is my wife from meeting me for dinner? etc. My family used it. Found Life360 and it is 100% better.

jeffcarp

You may not be aware of how to interact with the new Google Maps v7 app. I hope you find the information below helpful. The "workflow" in the new app is actually less screen clicks than before when you use Google Now to start your navigation session. You need to be interacting with Google Now, not Google Maps. That is the reason or your frustration.

1) Activate Google Now (same screen press as hitting old Navigation icon)
2) Say "Navigate to....in (or near)......" (Exactly the same as before)
3) Look at the screen. If it got your destination right, watch the "timer line" scroll across the screen. (Better than old version which only gave you a text list of the search result, not a map too).
4) Do nothing if it got it right. The "timer line" will finish and a navigation session will automatically start using the best route.

With the new version, if voice recognition successfully returned your desired destination, you have the original single screen click that was necessary to start Google Now and then have nothing more required of you to start a navigation session. That is an improvement over the old version, not a detriment. This also works for your Home and Work destination definitions. Tell Google Now "Navigation Home" and you're done.

You need to start your navigation session from the Maps app instead of Google Now, ONLY if you want to see the 3 route choices, want to browse/zoom the map or for some reason want to review the search results in more detail than they are presented in Google Now.

Google Now is your "one-click" interface to Google Maps Navigation now. The need for a separate Google Navigation icon is obsolete.

I completely agree that Google hasn't been detailed enough about the functionality of some of the products they release, including Google Maps 7 and how it works with Google Now. But the functionality is there and it is a big improvement over the previous version. You just have to play with it for awhile.

Within Google Now you can also use the "Show me a map of....in (or near)...." functionality and then start a navigation session from those results as well. That method however, requires more screen clicks, both in Google Now and in Google Maps before navigation is started.

I hope this helps you. Once you learn how to interact with this app through Google Now, I think your opinion of it will change.

jeffcarp

Funny behavior of starred favorites does seem to be an issue right now. But, this only appears to be an issue visually on the map. The content of your starred favorites is still there. From the Maps app's main screen, click the "person" icon in the top right. Under "Saved Places" click on "View All" and you should see all of them, irrespective of whether they are rendering properly on the map.

NC_Girl

I have never even tried Google now. I will play with it a bit and hopefully it will be everything I need, thanks for the help.

Doc Savage

Recently had iPad Chrome update forced on me. Multiple bugs of which only few have been fixed. They seem to be pushing out betas.

jeffcarp

Google Now is amazing technology. Amazing. It is my main interaction with my phone: navigation, text messaging, calling contacts, starting Internet searches, looking up business phone numbers, etc.

For travelers, if you put a quality formatted destination in the LOCATION or WHERE field of your calendar app, then Google Now will read your calendar and pre-populate itself with a calculated route to that destination, complete with an overview map and the time needed to get there from wherever you are right now (including real time traffic delays). One click on the Navigate icon and it starts navigating.

PLUS, Google Now can notify you before each calendar appointment and tell you what time you need to leave your current location in order to arrive at your future destination at the time that is in your calendar.

The location field in your calendar can take several forms:

1) Place Name, City, State
2) Street Address, City, State
3) Place Name, Street Address, City, State

For #1 it has to be specific. You can't say "New Orleans Airport, New Orleans, LA." It will take you to a small private airport near the lake. You have to say "Louis Armstrong Airport, Kenner, LA."

If you use Gmail, it will read your flight confirmation emails and populate itself with updated flight status information before your flight. It will also show you weather at your destination automatically.

It is an indispensable app for people who travel and have a lot of appointments that they drive to.

ajGoes

I just turned off Google Now after another trial of a week or so. My Droid Razr just doesn't seem to have the horsepower to support it.

Middle_Seat

Very well stated. I hope the pendulum swings back toward discoverability soon.

SirJman

Why on earth would they remove the scale & measure feature? Its a map, I'd like to be able to judge distances, and looking at a new city, this can be difficult without a scale.