A huge part of what makes Waze a godsend app for daily commuters is the ability to send incident reports, letting drivers inform other drivers the situation on a given road to alert others in case there's heavy traffic or an obstruction of some sort that's congesting vehicular flow. Thankfully, Google is bringing that feature over to Google Maps, too.
Google is rolling it out now, so Google Maps users should expect to see a new in-app icon. It's a shortcut for opening up the new reporting feature or speed traps and accidents. Much like on Waze, Google Maps can now accommodate accident reports, letting users take part in reporting incidents they see along their route.
Google Maps Incident Reports
Google has been testing these reporting features since last summer. The interface was refined over the winter, which looks pretty close to the current iteration users are seeing now. 9to5Google's Kyle Bradshaw first noticed that it was live last week, then shortly thereafter, several users on Reddit started reporting that it was live for them, too. Some users on the same version of Google Maps aren't seeing it live just yet, which indicates, the feature is being triggered via a server-side switch. Thus far, it's only Android-only, as well.
That also means users shouldn't have to update Google Maps to get the feature, although it's still best practice to have the latest version of the app installed. When it arrives, it'll be marked as "New." Tap it to access the incident reports panel, which will let users post notification about accidents or speed traps drivers encounter along their commute.
Will Google Maps Replace Waze?
Crashes and speed traps are the only types of incidents Google Maps supports at the moment, it seems. Still, though, it's a massive step up compared to not having the ability to report incidents at all. Which is all to say: for smooth daily navigation, Waze is still the app of choice. However, it wouldn't be surprising if Google ports all of Waze's features to Google Maps eventually.
