How To Find The Best Alternate Routes In Waze

In this tutorial, we will show you the steps to find alternate routes in Waze. This GPS navigation app beholds a plentitude of important features. For example,...

Syed Sadique Hassan

Last updated on June 6, 2022

Syed Sadique Hassan

Author

Did his MBA from Delhi but then something about the Android ecosystem intrigued him so much that he made Tech Blogging his permanent job. And now there's no looking back.

In this tutorial, we will show you the steps to find alternate routes in Waze. This GPS navigation app beholds a plentitude of important features. For example, it provides real-time traffic updates, alerts as well as the ETA for each of your journeys. Along the same lines, you could even share your Waze Location to WhatsApp. Likewise, the app also allows the user to change or edit their location. Furthermore, the easy to use UI also score a few brownie points.

In some instances, the best possible route that it shows might not be what you really expected. For example, it might show a route that you usually avoid for some reason. In that case, you could always go for the ‘road less traveled’ option. That is, apart from providing the primary route, Waze also shows some alternate routes to your endpoint. In this guide, we will show you how you could make full use of this feature i.e. find alternate routes in Waze.

How to Find Alternate Routes in Waze

This guide will be divided into four different sections. In the first section, we will show you how to set your start and endpoint for your destination on the Waze Live Map. The second method discusses how the same could be achieved using the Search feature. Then, we will list out the steps to view all the routes that Waze would bring up for a particular journey. Finally, we will discuss the steps to save these alternate routes. Follow along for the detailed instructions.

Setting Route on the Waze Live Map

Find your starting point on the map.
Tap and hold on that location and you should see a pop-up appear.
Tap on the Set as Start Point button.
Along the same line, find your endpoint on the map, tap, and on that location to bring up the pop-up.
Likewise, tap on the Set as End Point button.
Once you do so, you will see three different routes that appear on your screen. The route that will take the least time and/or is the shortest one will be the primary route and would be shown by default.

Now before moving on to find alternate routes in Waze, let’s first check out how you could set your destination route using the Search feature.

Setting Route via Search Functionality

If you don’t wish to set the route by tapping the desired locations on the map, you could also make use of its Search feature.
Bring up the search bar and type in your starting point. Hit the Search icon.
Then select your desired starting point from the list that appears and tap on Set as Start Point.
Likewise, type your endpoint in the Search bar. Then select it and tap Set as End Point.
You will now see three different routes on the map, with the best one automatically selected and set as your primary one.

View All Routes

So as soon as you specify your start and endpoints (by any of the two methods mentioned above), Waze will show you three routes to that journey.
The first route will be assigned to the fastest one. However, if you don’t wish to take that route, then you could find alternate routes in Waze as well.
For that, tap on the View all routes button and it will then display all the available routes. Tap on the desired route to set it as the primary one.
Now that you are aware of the steps to find alternate routes in Waze, let’s check out the steps to save these routes.

Save Alternate Routes in Waze

So now that you have an alternate route, you could easily save it by clicking on the Snapshot icon.
It goes without saying that all the information in that screenshot (traffic, alerts, ETA) will be of the time the screengrab was taken.
So if you wish to get updated and get real-time traffic conditions, then tap on the refresh icon situated inside the screenshot.
Likewise, to clear all your routes hit the X icon situated at the top left.

That’s it. With this, we conclude the guide on how to find alternate routes in Waze. If you have any queries, do let us know in the comments. Rounding off, here are some iPhone Tips and Tricks, PC tips and tricks, and Android Tips and Trick that you should check out as well.