Google Maps for Android finally has voice navigation in India!


Update: Folks are reporting that it is not working on their devices yet. I guess it is going to be rolled out sometime later today considering the video above was posted by Google India team just a few minutes ago.

Update: Video is now private. Google India probably realized that it was not yet ready for public viewing.

Update: It is live now. :)


Google seems to have finally launched voice navigation for Android users in the Indian market. Here is a video showcasing the functionality:

  • Bala

    Wow finally its there, nice work google

  • Sanket Mistry

    Youtube video is private now !!! looks like we have to wait for a while !!!

    • http://sushubh.net/ chromaniac

      Just noticed. I guess Google India forgot to make the video private while uploading. :D

    • Bala

      glad we had a peek in before it went private ;)

    • http://sushubh.net/ chromaniac

      provided they are indeed ready for launch of this feature.

    • Sanket Mistry

      I was missing navigation a lot on Android !!! Finally its coming ! @bala_gamer:disqus I used to have brut map …but it was pain to update once maps gets updated … :(

    • http://twitter.com/Jay_Ssj Jay Gudhka

      what was in it? Please describe!

    • http://sushubh.net/ chromaniac

      Just a demonstration of how the app works with Indian locations. Nothing spectacular. :)

    • Bala

      the video had voice based navigation enabled and showing some route in delhi

  • Pravash

    Great !! I was searching for this since I got my first android phone.

  • Kumar Chetan Sharma

    It works on my S2 and I didn’t update anything today, there was an update a week ago, so I guess Google is rolling out updates in phases.

    • http://sushubh.net/ chromaniac

      Well… Google did not have to update anything really. They just had to remove the block considering the technology already exists. They already offer directions on Maps. Just the voice component was blocked if you accessed it from an Indian IP.

      And yes, it has been enabled for pretty much everyone as confirmed by users on this thread: broadbandforum.in/mobile-apps/81355-google-maps-voice-navigation-android/2/#post662692

    • Kumar Chetan Sharma

      There was an update, don’t remember the exact number of days but may be two weeks ago. Whatever that update was enabled navigation. I have been using NavFree on S2 and have N97mini as well, so navigation was good-to-have but not must-have thing, but still anything Google has to be awesome :-)

    • http://sushubh.net/ chromaniac

      The most recent update of Google Maps for Android was related to biking maps for Europe and America. It had nothing to do with Voice Navigation for India.

      This feature has worked on my Galaxy Nexus since the day I bought it. Surprising? Yes. First I thought Google would disable it in a couple of days but that did not happen.

    • Kumar Chetan Sharma

      >This feature has worked on my Galaxy Nexus since the day I bought it.

      When you was working do you mean you were able to load map and choose destination etc or it gave you a message that its not supported on your handset? If it was latter then this worked on S2 as well, may be on other devices.

    • http://sushubh.net/ chromaniac

      What I mean is that it never gave me the error message that it is not available in my area. Like it showed on my previous devices (One X, Nexus S, Nexus One).

      It worked as expected since the day I got it. I could select a region and use voice navigation to drive to that place. Not just directions, proper voice navigation.

    • Kumar Chetan Sharma

      OOOHHH!!! More reasons to hate Samsung. Samsung quietly released TI chipset based S2 handsets in India, though they have better battery life but they were hard to root. I bricked my phone twice. Anyway, good to know. :-)

    • http://sushubh.net/ chromaniac

      Right. We had a thread about how Samsung was cheating Indian customers by labeling the new variant of S2 as the original. broadbandforum.in/mobile-devices/75373-samsung-selling-gt-i9100g-gt/

    • Kumar Chetan Sharma

      My cow-orker got his handset exchanged for S2 with Exynos chipset. He got it done easily by sending some mails. I first thought of upgrading to Note instead of exchange but then decided to stick with TI. One can never have the latest electronic gadget.

  • Harsha

    Finally its working! Thank you for this blog post and heads up!

  • Harsha

    It’s finally working now! Thanks for the blog post and heads up chromanic!

    • http://sushubh.net/ chromaniac

      thank you thank you. it is probably the first ‘news’ i ‘broke’ that cheered up folks!