Google has brought several Waze features over to Google Maps in the past few months, which is excellent news for Waze fans who would like to get a similar experience out of Google Maps.
We saw speed limits, and speed traps hit Google Maps, with Google confirming the new feature. We then saw Waze’s signature feature in testing inside Maps. That’s the the incident reports feature that lets you post updates about your current traffic experience, and warn other users about traffic and accidents ahead.
That incident report feature is now rolling out widely 9to5Google reports, which means more Google Maps users will have access to it. Other users posted screenshots on Reddit that show the feature in action:
You don’t need to update Google Maps to see the new reports button, as this is a server-side switch, although you should make sure you’re on the latest version of the app. You’ll see incident reports inside Google Maps once Google brings the feature to your market. The UI button will be marked as “New,” as seen in the screenshot above.
Tap it, and Google Maps’ incident report panel comes up. That’s where you’ll be able to post notifications about accidents or speed traps that you may encounter along the way:
These appear to be the only types of incidents that Google Maps supports right now, but it’s still a massive upgrade for Google’s main navigation application. You might not want to ditch Waze just yet if you prefer the improved crowdsourced navigation experience the app offers, but we wouldn’t be surprised to see Google bring all the Waze features to Maps in the not too distant future. We’ll add that Waze’s incident reports feature works so well because it’s available to a large number of users. The same should happen for Google Maps once users start taking advantage of it.
