In this article, we’ll be discussing all the various Waze settings and what options are available while using the app.
This is dedicated to the standalone app, but we have an article around Waze CarPlay settings that discusses the specific setting for the CarPlay app.
In the video, we discuss all of the settings to visually see what they look like, but if you are just after one particular setting, see the information below.
How to Change Waze Settings
To change the setting in Waze, you need to:
- Tap the bottom left corner where it says “My Waze”
- This will now show a side menu. Then press the “cog” in the top left-hand corner next to your profile picture.
The following is how each option is displayed in the app’s hierarchy.
Waze has a lot of overlap in the settings where you can access the same menu through multiple options so if you see duplicates, this is the reason why.
General
Language
The language option allows you to choose which text langue you would like to use throughout the app.
Note: You can also switch between all of the English dialects.
Distance Units
Distance units allow you to switch between Miles and Kilometer but will change how the journey distances are measured.
Note: This will not change the speedo settings or speed limit options.
Trip suggestions
The trip suggestion option allows you to toggle two types of notifications.
- Show trip suggestions: This gets trip suggestions based on your daily commute, saved places, and recent locations. Learn more.
- Get traffic updates: Get notified about traffic delays and road closures connected to your trip suggestions.
Prevent auto-lock
Your screen will always stay on with Waze running in the foreground when enabled. Learn more.
Ads personalization
Enable or disable personalized ads. Ads are based on info in your Waze account and information from other trusted sources. When this option is turned off, you’ll still see ads, but they’ll be less personalized to you.
Allow app suggestions
This allows Waze to suggest apps to you. An instance of this is apps that you can use to pay for fuel.
Map Display
Colour Scheme
The color scheme selector allows you to choose between Night ( Dark Screen), Day (Light Screen), and Auto (Mixed) colors. However, we recommend leaving it on auto as this will change the map’s color scheme based on the time of day. Learn more.
Map View
The map view options include 3D, Auto, and 2D. The 2D option is a flat standard map, while the 3D is slated at an angle and can show 3D building elements. Learn more.
Keep map north
This setting locks the map into facing north regardless of the vehicle’s orientation or the road.
This is also an option in Google Maps CarPlay settings.
Personal note: I’m not a fan of this.
Auto Zoom
The auto-zoom option will automatically zoom in and out of the map depending on the vehicle’s speed.
For instance, if you’re driving slow, it will be more zoomed in so that you can see the map in more detail around you.
Map Type
Map type allows you to switch between versions of the map.
Default and the map editors type.
Car Icon
The car Icon allows you to choose which icon you would like to be displayed on your visual map interface while driving.
There are lots of options, but some of the most recent ones are:
- Razorback
- Cloud Nine
- Bulldozer
- Police Cruiser
- Ghost
- Fire Truck
- Lots more…
Reports
The reports allow you to enable and disable a wide range of on map reporting. Some of the reports are while driving, and others are just for the map display. This includes:
- Speed cams
- red light cameras
- Railroad crossings
- Police
- Crashes
- Traffic jams
- Hazards on road
- Hazards on shoulder
- Other hazards
- Weather hazards
- Roadside help
- Construction
- Map chats
- Closures
Show other Wazers
This feature lets you see other Waze users (Wazers) on the map. And if disabled, you won’t. When enabled it’ll look like the image below:
This makes the app feel more like a community of drivers and unique from Apple maps.
Show traffic
Disabling “show traffic” stops the display of live traffic and the various traffic colors on the map. We recommend leaving this on.
Speedometer
The speedometer is a live speed tracking that you can see as you navigate using Waze.
Within this setting, you can select whether to show the speed limit or not and alert you when you’re speeded and at which threshold to activate this.
Personale Note: This is one of the best features of Waze and makes it stand out.
(This is a duplicate of the whole speedometer tab: See more in the dedicated speedometer section)
Quick Access
With quick access, you can set up show map controls, zoom controls, compass, and friends that are online (on Facebook).
Google Assitant
Google Assistant allows for a better, more powerful experience than a normal voice control system could offer.
These are the following additional settings:
– Enable Google Assistant
Enable and disable Google Assistant.
Without Google Assistant-enabled, the voice control system will be more limited and less intelligent.
– Show on map (Google Assitant)
The microphone shown on the map screen is Google Assistant. It can be removed from the screen by disabling the “show on map” setting.
– Allow “OK Google” detection
By turning “OK Google” on, it will stop “Hey Siri” from working while navigating, replacing the command with “OK Google” activating Google assistant.
If you are using an Andriod, this isn’t an issue.
– Share current drive info
Enabling “share current drive info” enables you to get Google assistant answers related to your current drive. An example of this could be “Whats, my ETA?”
This data is shared with Google, though if enabled.
– Connect to Google
You can connect your Google (Gmail) account to get a more personalized experience of Google Assistant through Waze.
Voice & Sound
As you’ll see in the coming settings, Waze has lots of unique settings for the voice and sound settings you can choose.
Waze Voice Type
Here you can choose what language, dialect, or character you want.
All the major languages are supported, but in English, there are some bonus voice/characters, these include:
- Boy band
- PAW Patrol
- Master Chief
- Boy George
- Cat
- Dog
- Many more..
There’s even a feature where you can record your own phrases, such as “keep left“, “You’ve arrived“, “in half a mile“, and all the other voice commands.
But be warned, there’s a lot. So if you want to customize them all, it will take a very long time!
Sounds
The sounds option allows you to turn OFF all sounds completely, set ALERTS ONLY, or keep all sounds ON.
In cities where you have to make frequent turns, having all voice commands on can get annoying. So this feature is helpful for that.
Google Assistant (Duplicate)
Google Assistant allows for a better, more powerful experience than a normal voice control system could offer.
These are the following additional settings:
– Enable Google Assistant
Enable and disable Google Assistant.
Without Google Assistant-enabled, the voice control system will be more limited and less intelligent.
– Show on map (Google Assitant)
The microphone shown on the map screen is Google Assistant. It can be removed from the screen by disabling the “show on map” setting.
– Allow “OK Google” detection
By turning “OK Google” on, it will stop “Hey Siri” from working while navigating, replacing the command with “OK Google” activating Google assistant.
If you are using an Andriod, this isn’t an issue.
– Share current drive info
Enabling “share current drive info” enables you to get Google assistant answers related to your current drive. An example of this could be “Whats, my ETA?”
This data is shared with Google, though if enabled.
– Connect to Google
You can connect your Google (Gmail) account to get a more personalized experience of Google Assistant through Waze.
Siri Shortcuts
Siri shortcuts allow you to add custom phrases to Siri, and you can use it to tell Waze to run a shortcut.
For example, you can set it saying, “drive home”, Siri will tell Waze to start directions to drive to your home address (if saved).
You can change this to whatever you’d like, but some recommendations include:
- Drive home
- Drive to work
- Sound on
- Sound off
- Sound alerts only
- …. Any recent destinations
Dictation language / Voice typing
Voice typing allows you to select how it types from speaking to Waze. This is particularly important because of the pronunciation of certain places.
Again, all the major dialects are included.
Guidance volume
You can change the volume of the guidance and how loud it will be played.
Play sound via
With the “play sound via,” you can select from what device Waze sounds are played from. You have the following options:
- Device default (Recommended)
- Play on the phone speaker
- Play as Bluetooth phone call
Mute Waze During calls
Enable or disable Waze sounds while you’re on a phone call through the device you’re using.
Pause spoken audio
Enable or disable the pausing of podcasts or audiobooks while voice directions are being played.
Show audio on map
You can enable or disable the audio icon on the map, allowing you to change your audio on the go easily.
As you can see, there is a huge list of settings. We’re still working on detailing the remaining setting/options you can see below:
- Navigation:
- Avoid toll roads
- Toll passes & Exemptions
- Avoid ferries
- Avoid motorways
- Allow unpaved roads
- Avoid difficult junctions
- Vehicle type
- Vehicle Details:
- Vehicle type
- Preferred fuel type
- Toll passes & exemptions
- Toll passes & exemptions
- Alerts & reports:
- Reports
- Area
- Speedometer alerts
- Petrol Stations:
- Preferred fuel type
- Preferred brand
- Sort stations by
- ask to update prices
- Speedometer:
- Show speed limit
- Speeding threshold
- Alert when speeding
- Audio Player:
- Show next song
- FULL LIST OF APPS…
- Notifications
- Planned drives:
- Timing
- Connect calendar
- Your calendars
- connect Facebook
- Remove saved addresses
- Reminders:
- Child reminders
Is Waze setting for iPhone & Android the same?
This article was written based on extensive day-to-day experience using the Waze settings for iPhone, but the experience and options should be very similar for Android devices.
Final Thoughts
This concludes the majority of the Waze settings. We hope this has been helpful and explained some of the settings you may have been confused with.
Waze has by far the biggest range of settings out of any of the apps CarPlay apps we’ve reviewed, but if you are interested in CarPlay apps for navigation, we also have a contagion of articles surrounding these settings. These include:
