Waze is a free navigation app built around crowdsourced traffic data. Millions of drivers report accidents, road closures, speed traps, and hazards in real time, and the app uses that data to reroute you around problems. Google bought Waze in 2013 for $1.3 billion, and in 2022 folded the team into its Geo division alongside Google Maps.

The app's biggest draw is its community. Reports from other drivers give you a heads-up about police, potholes, objects on the road, and stopped traffic before you reach them. Waze also compares fuel prices at nearby stations and integrates with Spotify and other audio apps so you can control music without leaving the navigation screen.

The trade-off for all of this is data. Waze needs a constant internet connection and GPS signal to work. There is no offline mode. Every drive you take is logged: your route, your speed, your braking patterns, your frequent destinations. That data goes to Google, where it feeds into ad targeting across Google's products. Waze itself shows location-based ads while you drive, promoting nearby businesses at stoplights and along your route.

Worth knowing

Waze updated its privacy policy in March 2026 to collect contact phone numbers through a "find friends" feature and to link social network accounts. Background location tracking runs even when you are not actively navigating, for features like planned drive reminders and parking assistance. The app has an "Invisible Mode," but that only hides your avatar from other users on the map. It does not stop Waze or Google from collecting your location data. In early 2025, a threat actor claimed to have stolen 7.7 million Waze user records including GPS coordinates. Waze Carpool was shut down in 2022, and the standalone Waze ad system was merged into Google Ads in 2023.