Waze just shipped five updates at once, with motorcycle mode being the app’s first navigation mode built specifically for two-wheelers. The feature is live now in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru and the Philippines. American drivers don’t get it yet. Malaysian riders do, on both Android and iOS, starting now.
Why Motorcycles Needed Their Own Mode At All
Cars and motorcycles don’t take the same roads, not really. Motorcycles fit through narrower streets, cut through shortcuts a car can’t touch, and feel every pothole a car would just roll over. Waze’s new mode accounts for all of that, routing around two-wheeler-specific restrictions and flagging hazards that matter specifically to riders; potholes, speed bumps, raised crosswalks, shoulder endings, and narrow bridges. None of that shows up on a standard car route.
The hazard data comes from a dedicated group of motorcycle map editors, feeding into Waze’s existing real-time traffic system. It’s a rider-specific layer sitting on top of infrastructure Waze already had, which is probably why it shipped to seven markets simultaneously instead of one test market first.
Routes That Learn What You Actually Prefer
Personalised navigation is rolling out globally, not just in the seven motorcycle markets. Waze now factors in your past trips alongside its usual traffic modeling, so if you consistently pick the highway over a shortcut through side streets, that route gets suggested first going forward.
Don’t want that? It’s a toggle, off in settings, back to standard suggestions.
A Mode For People Who Don’t Want Waze Talking
Less chatty mode does exactly what it sounds like, fewer voice prompts, shorter ones when they do come through. Hazard warnings, turns, and lane changes still get through, Waze isn’t going silent on anything that matters, it just talks less about everything else. Useful if you’re deep into a podcast and don’t need a running commentary on top of it. Also global, also live now.
Talking To The App Instead Of Tapping It
Conversational Reporting already lets you report a slowdown by talking normally instead of hunting through menus. Now it handles map corrections too, say “the road is closed here” and Waze routes that to local map editors for verification before it goes live for everyone else. Simple extension of a feature that already worked.
Gemini-powered destination search is the one still in beta. Tap the search voice icon, ask something like “find me a coffee shop that’s open right now” or “find me parking close to Grand Mall,” and Waze returns a list you can navigate to by voice. This one’s beta community only, globally, so most people won’t see it yet regardless of location.
What’s Actually Live Versus What’s Still Gated
Three of these five updates are live everywhere Waze operates, personalised navigation, less chatty mode, and conversational map reporting. Motorcycle mode is live in seven countries only, Malaysia included. Gemini destination search is beta-only everywhere. If you’re in Malaysia, you’re getting four out of five features before most of the world sees even three.
