If you use Google Maps on your Android mobile, the app now includes one of the most useful options for waze: support for tunnel navigation. This allows you to continue receiving indications of the route you are traveling, even when the smartphone loses connection with GPS signals.
To continue working underground, Google Maps will use Bluetooth beacons installed in the tunnels. This will allow you to connect to them and determine their relative location, just as Waze already does.
Of course, for this feature to work, it is not only necessary to activate it in the Google Maps settings. The tunnels through which we are going to travel must also have Bluetooth beacons installed, since, otherwise, we will continue navigating “blindly” or without greater precision.
As mentioned in a Google support page, Waze has its own beacon program installed in tunnels. They are available in Mexico City, Rio de Janeiro, Paris, Sydney, Brussels and multiple cities in the United States, among other locations. It is even explained that cities that wish to join the program can do so for free, receiving specialized help for its installation.
It is still unclear whether Google Maps tunnel navigation uses the same Waze Bluetooth beacons, although it would not be strange if this were the case. After all, both platforms belong to the Mountain View giant.
Although some users began to see this Google Maps option in the last quarter of 2023, as of this year it is already available to users around the world. Of course, for now works only on android and it is not known when it will be added to the iOS version of the app, if it ever arrives.
In the event that you want to activate support for tunnel navigation using Bluetooth beacons, you must follow very simple steps. The first thing is to enter Google Maps and tap on your profile photo, in the upper right corner of the screen. Then you select Settings and you enter Navigation settings.
Once there, scroll through the menu until you reach the section Driving options. There you will find the function Bluetooth beacons in tunnels, which in its description mentions the following: “Search for Bluetooth beacons in tunnels to improve location accuracy in tunnels.” When you activate it you will have to allow Google Maps to find nearby devices, connect to them and determine their relative location.
Once you have completed these steps, you will be ready to continue receiving directions when traveling through tunnels, even if you lose the GPS signal. Without a doubt, a very interesting addition to the maps app and that will be of great help in making trips on unknown roads be safer. Especially when dealing with real-time event tracking on subsurface paths.
As we already mentioned, this option is currently only available in Google Maps for Android. The Californians have not yet mentioned whether they also plan to bring it to the iPhone app version. We will be attentive to the news.