The Need for Custom Route Support in Google Maps

For many Android users, Google Maps is an indispensable navigation tool, especially for those who rely on Android Auto for their daily commutes. However, the lack of robust custom route support within the mobile app presents a significant usability challenge, particularly in heavily congested areas. This article explores the limitations of the current Google Maps system and argues for the urgent need for improved custom route functionality on both Android and Android Auto.

The Frustrations of Navigation in Congested Areas

The author, a daily Google Maps user in a highly congested city, frequently relies on backroads and alternative routes to avoid traffic jams. This strategy, adopted to minimize stress and driving time, is severely hampered by the absence of a native feature in Google Maps allowing the creation and saving of custom routes. While Google Maps provides real-time traffic data (useful when navigating with a passenger who can provide additional observations), the author finds the app’s suggested routes unreliable and prone to directing them into unexpectedly congested areas, especially when driving solo.

A poll embedded within the article shows that a vast majority (96%) of voters support adding custom route functionality to Google Maps on Android. This overwhelmingly positive feedback underlines the significant demand among users for this missing feature.

The Limitations of Google Maps’ Route Suggestions

The main issue lies in the inconsistency between Google Maps’ desktop and mobile versions. While the Google Maps website provides a simple drag-and-drop interface for creating custom routes, this functionality is utterly absent from the Android app. The author highlights this disconnect as a major flaw, rendering the desktop feature essentially useless for mobile users.

The desktop version allows users to manually adjust proposed routes by dragging waypoints on the map, freely designing alternative paths that bypass known congestion points or incorporate personal preferences. However, when attempting to use the custom route created on the desktop by sending it to the Android app, the app ignores the customized route and reverts to its own calculated optimal route, regardless of the custom route created earlier. This means that the carefully planned alternative route is lost. The same behavior was observed even within a private browsing session on the Android device, indicating that this is not a caching issue. The custom route created on the Google Maps website is ultimately inaccessible on the mobile application, rendering the desktop function pointless.

Creating Custom Routes on Google Maps (Desktop Only)

The process of creating a custom route on the Google Maps website is straightforward:

1. Navigate to maps.google.com: Open the Google Maps website in a web browser.
2. Input Starting Point and Destination: Enter your starting location and your desired destination. The author provides an example using two popular locations in Cape Town, South Africa.
3. Manually Adjust the Route: The initial suggested route is displayed. Use the drag-and-drop functionality to manually adjust the route to your liking, maneuvering it away from congested areas or incorporating preferred roads.
4. Copy the Route Link: Once you’re satisfied with the custom route, copy the generated link.
5. Verify the Route: Open a new browser session and paste the link; the custom route should appear exactly as you created it.

The images accompanying this section clearly illustrate the difference between a standard Google Maps route suggestion and a manually adjusted custom route created on the desktop.

Inaccessibility of Custom Routes on Mobile and Android Auto

The crucial difference lies in how the Google Maps app on Android, and by extension Android Auto, handles the custom route link. When the link is selected on the Android app, the app disregards the customized route and calculates a completely new route based on its own algorithms, ignoring the user’s careful planning. Effectively, opening a custom route link created on the desktop is not possible on the phone.

The author emphasizes that the inability to use custom routes within the mobile app impacts users beyond just drivers, including pedestrians, cyclists, and public transport users – who may utilize this feature to carefully plan walking or cycling trails, transit stops, or create custom hiking routes.

A Comparison with Other Mapping Apps

Apple Maps is contrasted as a noteworthy exception. Apple Maps allows users to create custom routes across all Apple devices and seamlessly access them on their iPhones and other Apple devices. This feature’s functionality showcases that creating and using custom routes on mobile devices is entirely feasible and provides a useful benchmark for other map providers to emulate. This contrasts with other popular mapping services like Waze and WeGo which do not offer the same level of customisation.

Workarounds and Conclusion

While the lack of native support for custom routes leaves a significant gap in Google Maps’ functionality, limited workarounds exist. Adding multiple stops using the "Add stops" feature can mimic some aspects of custom route creation, but this is far from ideal and doesn’t enable the flexibility and ease of use provided by a proper custom route creation and management system.

The author’s solution currently involves manually planning routes based on detailed map study, anticipating traffic patterns at different times of day. Clearly, a far more user-friendly solution is needed as this solution lacks the benefits of real-time traffic and re-routing of a dedicated navigation app. This approach, while effective, is vastly less convenient than having the ability to create, save, and readily access custom routes directly within the Google Maps app, highlighting a critical area where Google Maps falls short when compared with its competitors. The absence of robust custom route support on Android significantly hinders the user experience and significantly impacts the usefulness of the platform, particularly for users in congested urban areas where alternative routes are not only essential but often save significant time and aggravation.