Corporate Blog

As many of you probably know, we have been working with Verizon and powering their VZ Navigator app since it launched in January 2006. We have always been very proud of VZ Navigator’s position as one of the top navigation apps in the world, and over the last year, we have been hard at work looking for ways to improve it. Starting today, we are excited to unveil the fruits of our labor…VZ Navigator 5.0.

The new version of VZ Navigator is a major upgrade, and we truly believe that it will deliver an improved navigation experience for all Verizon customers who use the app. Since we last updated VZ Navigator, GPS technology has drastically improved, and we have been itching to implement some of these new technological advances into the app. We have also learned some new things about navigation ourselves through our work on other apps like Gokivo, and VZ Navigator 5.0 was an opportunity to bring some of these advances onto the Verizon platform.

There are truthfully too many new features to list them all out here, but we want to call out a couple of our personal favorites, just to make sure you can try them out yourself when you see the new app.

• Facebook Integration – VZ Navigator users can now connect with social networks and share their location at any time. If you are out having a good time and want some more friends to join you, simply update your Facebook status through VZ Nav, and it will also post your location.
• Roadside Service – If you happen to encounter some problems on the road (it happens to the best of us), the new VZ Navigator will give you the option to speed dial roadside assistance. The phone will automatically send your vehicle’s GPS location to the dispatch center.
• Speech Recognition – With the new VZ Navigator, you can simply speak the name of a place, address, or business, and you will have the option to navigate there, or bring up the local search features.
• Improved UI – VZ Navigator 5.0 will be far and away the easiest version of VZ Navigator to use. When you open the app, you will immediately see where you are, and will not have to do a search to see what is around you. We also have included the option to customize your map, so any particular POI categories you are interested in will be displayed on the side of your screen

Verizon is rolling out the new version of VZ Navigator to some select phones today, and over the next few weeks, it will become available to everyone. If you want to read more about the upgrade you can check out the official release at http://news.vzw.com/news/2010/02/pr2010-02-01.html and if you have any feedback about VZ Navigator, just shoot us an email at info@networksinmotion.com.