Newer versions are chipping away at a formerly great app – HERE WeGo Maps & Navigation Review

This app was a great alternative to the other big-name driving apps, but many of its design touches have been traded away so there’s little reason anymore to use it instead of the others. There is a lot more visual clutter in the display now, so the overall map area on the screen has shrunk by at least 20%. Older versions magically switched between daytime and nighttime modes depending on the lighting. The latest version has been stuck on nighttime mode since my last update. Since the map area has shrunk, the developers seem to have also scaled it down, so now I have a tiny, dark map, with really faint lines, in daytime driving conditions. The map also now does that same terrible zoom-in/zoom-out thing that Apple Maps does, which makes it so much harder to intuitively know whether I’m supposed to make the right turn in front of me or the next right. Navigation has degraded too. It now seems to prefer more complex routes, which isn’t great when combined with the new map display. Older versions tended to use the same street names that I saw on road signs, but this version seems to be using a different set of names. (Example from Eugene, Oregon: 6th street is also highway 99 south; road signage is 99 South everywhere, old version used 99 South in its directions, new version uses 6th Street, and NONE of the road signage uses that.) The older version allowed me to keep my device in my peripheral vision and still be able to navigate. I didn’t have to take my eyes off the road, I didn’t have to make last-minute turns or lane changes, I was able to focus on driving and the traffic around me instead of where I was going. It looks like the app now also includes some features I often wished the old one had, like easily finding a gas station. Still though, it’s so much harder and less safe to use now, I’m hoping there’s a better alternative available that behaves like earlier versions of this one. I had been using a pre-4.0 version for a long time, especially after seeing the newer version on a friend’s device, but recently hit “update all” without thinking and now my favorite app is gone.
Review by TenMillionNickNames on HERE WeGo Maps & Navigation.