Started using the Waze app to get around the city ditching the Google Maps or Apple Maps app for good? Waze is awesome but all those symbols and icons can be confusing. Fret not for we have got you covered. Here is a complete guide to what all the icons and symbols mean on the Waze app.
Waze Home Page
- Music icon – Tap on it to connect to your favorite music apps, such as Spotify, YouTube Music, or Apple Music.
- Microphone icon – Use voice to search for places, report traffic or accidents using Google Assistant.
- Yellow triangle icon – Tap on this icon to report traffic, police, crashes, hazards, roadblocks, bad weather, etc. that you see on the road while traveling.
- White rocket icon – Your car’s icon which can change from Settings (more on that later).
- Vertical bar with mph – Your car’s current speed.
- Three-horizontal bars – That will open a menu to access profile, settings, etc.
Pro Tip: Did you know Waze can be used together with Google Maps? Here is a detailed guide on what icons and symbols mean on the Google Maps app.
Navigation Menu
- Sound or speaker icon – Enable or disable the voice-based navigation or keep only alerts.
- Cog icon – Open Settings.
- Blue arrow pointing right – That’s where you are (real-time position) while navigating showing distance covered so far in the journey.
- Red balloon – That’s your destination showing how much of the journey is still pending.
- Letter P – Tap on this to find where you have parked the car.
- Pump – Tap to find nearby gas stations.
- Fork and knife – Find food joints.
- Magnifying glass – Search anything on the map.
- Blue down arrow – Plan your trip using calendar interface and mark the time when you would like to leave in advance so navigation starts at that time automatically.
Also Read: Here is a detailed legend of what icons and symbols mean on the Apple Maps app.
Navigation Map Screen
Waze app uses a custom set of emojis that first-time Waze app users find confusing while using the app to navigate. Those cute little emojis are other Wazers or Waze app users using it to navigate the city. However, that data is not real-time and anonymized to protect privacy and security. When you use Waze and begin navigation, an icon for you will be added to the map similarly.
Wazers can set their mood while navigating. You may see each car represented by a slightly different Waze emoji. Here is a list of all the moods you can assign to your car:
Go to Three-line bar > View profile > Mood to view what a mood means and set your mood.
This is what the road types marked in different colors mean:
- Purple – freeway
- Blue – major highway
- Green – minor highway
- Yellow – primary street
- White – street
- Grey – ramp
- Olive – private road
- Brown – dirt road | not maintained
- Grey unchecked checkbox – there is a road not paved with asphalt or concrete.
A look at how soft and hard turns are marked in Waze:
- Red arrow pointing up – Restricted turn that prohibits routing from one segment to another through that junction.
- Green arrow pointing up – Enabled turn that permits routing from one segment to another through that junction.
- Letter A inside blue circle with purple question mark– Soft turn
Orange dots or roadblock signs – Roadblocks are marked as a brown dot when you zoom out and a roadblock sign when you zoom into the map.
- Face with blue cap – a fellow Wazer has reported police on that road.
- Brown triangle in a circle – that’s a road hazard like potholes, accidents, etc. And then there are permanent hazards.
Finally, here is a legend of several other icons and symbols in the Waze app that I found in the app itself.
That’s how you can get familiar with the different icons and symbols in the Waze app on your phone.
