Summary
- Google Maps offers detailed voice guidance to reassure you that you’re on the right path.
- It’s great for those with visual impairments, or for anyone who wants more comprehensive walking directions.
- To enable the feature in Google Maps, go to Settings > Navigation > Detailed Voice Guidance.
I’m constantly using Google Map’s voice navigation to help route me when I’m walking somewhere unknown, but found myself wishing it gave more information. Then I discovered a setting tucked away that does exactly that, and it instantly improved my experience.
Why I Use Google Map’s Voice Navigation When Walking
When I’m traveling somewhere new, I like to walk wherever possible so that I can see the place I’m staying and soak up the atmosphere. To help get me to my destination, I use Google Maps on my phone (Google Maps is great for more than just navigation, but it’s what I use it for most). Within moments, I can see the best route and be on my way.
Thanks to the glanceable directions feature, I don’t even need to unlock my phone to get route updates. The trouble is, sometimes I don’t want to pull out my phone at all, especially in busy cities where phone theft is a real threat. I’ve enabled all my phone’s theft protection features, but it still won’t prevent someone physically snatching it from me.
As such, I tend to pop an earbud in and use Google Map’s voice navigation to help route me. It means I can receive audio directions without touching my phone and looking like an oblivious tourist.
Google Map’s voice should be enabled by default, but you can check it by tapping your profile picture in the top-right and going to Settings > Navigation and setting Mute State to “Unmuted”. Here you can also make the Guidance Volume louder, if necessary.
While voice navigation is reasonable, I often wished it gave more detail and reassurance. For example, I would walk down a long street and Google Maps would fall silent; presumably because I was on the right track, but what if I wasn’t?
I assumed it wasn’t possible to get what I wanted, but then I poked around in the app’s settings and found it: detailed voice guidance.
What Is Detailed Voice Guidance?
Detailed voice guidance is a feature Google released in 2019 that was built for people with visual impairments. It’s certainly beneficial to that group of people, but it can help anyone.
With it enabled, Google Maps provides more vocal information about the route. For example, it lets you know that you’re on the right path, which instantly solved my problem of feeling like it hadn’t spoken to me in a while.
It also updates you with how far it is until the next turn, which means you can cross the road in good time if necessary, and also what direction you’re walking in. Plus, if you go the wrong way, it verbally tells you that you’re being re-routed.
Personally, some of these are more helpful than others, though I understand that, as someone with sight, the feature wasn’t designed with me in mind. A nice improvement would be if I could toggle which of these aids I wanted.
When announcing the launch of detailed voice guidance on The Keyword, Wakana Sugiyama, a blind woman living in Tokyo, said: “With detailed voice guidance in Google Maps, my journey fades into the background and I can focus more on what I’ll do at my final destination. This may not sound extraordinary to those with sight, but for people who are blind or have low vision, this can help us explore new and unfamiliar places.”
Though my experience is different from Sugiyama’s, I relate to the benefit that the detailed instructions provide and I now spend less time worrying about my journey.
How to Enable Detailed Voice Guidance
If you think detailed voice guidance sounds useful, it’s easy to enable it. First, open Google Maps and tap your profile picture in the top-right. Next, tap “Settings”, then “Navigation.” Finally, beneath Walking Options, enable “Detailed Voice Guidance.”
If you decide it’s not for you and want to go back to the standard level of voice guidance, return to the same screen and turn off the toggle—though if you’re mid-route and want to disable it immediately, you’ll need to exit so you can access the settings.
I use Google Maps all the time and only just discovered this, so it just goes to show there are plenty of handy Google Maps features you may not be using.
