You needn't travel besides far to the past to discover a fourth dimension when the first step on a journey involved flicking through the AA Route Atlas. Now, most of usa get into the car, type our destination into Google Maps on our telephone and bulldoze.

Google Maps is i of the almost pop navigation apps around, simply there are enough of rivals that bring their own unique features to the table. For example, Waze uses crowdsourced information to help y'all avert hazards, while the Citymapper app makes public transport networks easier to understand.

Beneath, we've rounded up some mobile apps for iOS and Android that tin can aid you get from A to B without a fuss.

Which? All-time Buy sat navs – if you don't want to rely on your smartphone all the time, invest in a reliable sabbatum nav

Five Google Maps alternatives that you lot tin can download for free

1. Waze (iOS, Android)

At a glance: a free app that uses reports from other drivers to warn you lot virtually traffic, police and hazards.

While Google Maps relies on official information from ship agencies, it has a scrappier younger sibling chosen Waze. Designed with drivers in mind, this costless Google Maps alternative relies on crowdsourcing for identifying traffic jams, road closures and other bug.

According to people who utilize information technology, this makes information technology quicker than Google, considering a jam might not exist immediately spotted by officials.

Waze is also more customisable: if yous've ever fancied being given directions by Morgan Freeman or Jeremy Clarkson, y'all tin can download their special celebrity voice packs to modify the voice to use their familiar tones instead.

Other Waze features include born support for your music and podcast apps (and so you don't demand to get out the app to control your audio), plus alive speed limit information.

  • Download Waze on iOS
  • Download Waze on Android

2. Maps.me (iOS, Android)

At a glance: a navigation app that lets y'all download maps alee of time then you can navigate in areas without indicate.

Mapping apps are not bad, right upward until the moment when you lose a data connection. And this is why if yous're going off the browbeaten rails, or to a country where you lot don't have a data plan to employ, you lot should consider downloading Maps.me before you become.

Maps.me will permit you to download offline maps to your phone. For finding your fashion information technology isn't quite as reliable as Google – it once led this author downward a clay path blocked past cows in Romania instead of sticking to the state highway, for example – but for those situations where you lot're disconnected, it'south certainly improve than getting completely lost.

This mobile app likewise offers upward directions to points of interest and hiking trails, along with a search role that lets you discover nearby restaurants, cafes, hotels and tourist attractions.

  • Download Maps.me on iOS
  • Download Maps.me on Android

3. Citymapper (iOS, Android)

At a glance: compare your travel options and admission plough-by-turn directions when using public transport.

If yous're visiting a major city like London, Paris or New York, regular maps often don't piece of work so well, as ultimately mastering a circuitous public transport system is more than of import.

And this is where Citymapper is excellent: tell it where you desire to go, and it volition show you lot how to get there on the train, bus, cycle, taxi – or fifty-fifty combinations of all four. The app is fed with alive data, and then if a train line is experiencing delays, information technology will know that and suggest a quicker road to take instead. Citymapper will even evidence yous where on the platform to stand if you want a super-quick exit at your destination.

  • Download Citymapper on iOS
  • Download Citymapper on Android

4. what3words (iOS, Android)

At a glance: find, share and save precise locations using a unique code made up of three words.

What should you do if y'all're stuck in a remote location and need to directly a rescue team? If there are no roads or landmarks nearby, this is tricky. One option is to share GPS co-ordinates, but these would be a nightmare to read out over the phone. Another choice is an app chosen what3words.

The idea is uncomplicated: the entire map of the world is divided up into tiny squares, and each foursquare has a unique proper name made up of three ordinary words. So instead of having to laboriously give your location as '10 Downing Street, London, SW1A 2AA', y'all tin but say that y'all're at 'slurs.this.shark'.

  • Download what3words on iOS
  • Download what3words on Android

5. GeoGuessr (iOS, Android)

At a glance: a smartphone game that plonks you in a random part of the world and asks you to guess where y'all are.

GeoGuessr isn't a navigation app – instead, it's an addictive guessing game available both as an app and on the spider web

As a role player, you're virtually parachuted into a random location from Google Street View, and your goal is to guess where yous are by placing a pivot on a map. It's fiendishly addictive, as the more than you play the more than yous discover the subtle differences between places to narrow your guesses down.

Play plenty and y'all'll tell the deviation between Turkish and Greek number plates, and the trees that differentiate Canada from Norway.

  • Download GeoGuessr on iOS
  • Download GeoGuessr on Android

How practise our smartphones rail usa downwardly?

Google Maps knows exactly where yous are when you lot tap the pinpoint icon on the app – It all starts with the Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites that orbit the Globe. Ordinarily, there are somewhere between 24 and 30 in performance at any one fourth dimension to ensure the entire globe is covered.

GPS requires rockets to be launched regularly as older satellites are replaced with new ones. But for all of the infinite-historic period technology involved, the GPS bit in your phone calculates your position using something deceptively simple: time.

Inside each GPS satellite is a super-authentic atomic clock, and this time bespeak is circulate passively by each satellite, along with data on what astronomers call the 'ephemeris' – data on the satellite's orbital path. So when you pull out your phone, the GPS fleck inside isn't making a connection with the satellite: it'due south simply listening and receiving signals, much similar a Idiot box does.

One time a GPS device receives a time point from at least 3 satellites, it can calculate where yous are past comparison the microsecond differences in the time signals it's receiving: if the signal takes longer to arrive, the satellite is farther abroad. Using the combination of three different time signals, knowing the position in the heaven they're coming from, the device uses them to calculate your position relative to them.

Saturday navs in the Which? test lab

If you lot adopt more than of a permanent setup in your vehicle, you may desire to use a mounted sat nav instead of your smartphone.

To run across which sabbatum navs you can rely on, we run a series of tests on every model that reaches the Which? test lab. We consider the quality of onscreen and spoken instructions, forth with how easy the sat nav is to use on a daily basis.

Our experts cheque how well each sat nav deals with route alterations – high-scoring models will advise an culling diversion within seconds.

Thinking of investing in a sat nav? Discover which models from big-proper noun brands we charge per unit highly with our guide on the top 5 sat navs for 2021.

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Additional reporting by Tom Morgan.

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