Someday, I want to experience the gorgeous salt flats of “Salar di Uyuni, Bolivia“. (Google for images if you haven’t heard of the place! Its out of the world). Lets assume I am in Uyuni. When the dusk casts its cold dark blanket, how do I find the nearest shelter? Can someone help me out? Odds are that my phone would be more reliable and helpful, than its creators!
More specifically, I am talking about the creatures called Digital Navigation Assistants(ah! the short form sounds cool. Lets call it DNA from now) who dwell in these phones.
So, lets find out, which DNA is better in what aspect, and appeals to whom!
There are quite a few DNAs out there. But today, I will limit myself to “Google Maps“(GM) and “Here Maps“(HM). This selection is not based on any analysis, but just the simple fact that, I have spent time with only these two.
First, let us ask what are the basic qualities we would like to see in a DNA?
- Point of Interest (Of course, I should be able to search the name of the shelter in Uyuni, my friend recommended)
- Routing (I am too tired exploring Uyuni whole day. It should show me the shortest path)
- Navigation (Cycling on Uyuni’s salt flats would be memorable. Listening to audio navigation while cycling would be a nice touch)
- Map (Today is done. What places shall I visit tomorrow. I need a map of my vicinity)
Point of Interest
This would enable me to search the shelter in Uyuni.
But for simplicity, let us search places in Bangalore now.
Search for nearby airports:
Search for a niche establishments:
Both GM and HM have scope for improvement here. Both seem to directly show the location, if search result has only one entry.
Notice that in the first case (Gopalan sports center), HM couldn’t find the place and in the second case (Mandovi Motors), GM couldnt find the place.
Partial name search:
This is another high frequency need. Most of the time, I don’t remember the full name of the establishment to search.
Though GM didn’t report partial match, it did report contextually related POIs; which is nice, but only after reporting partial match.
And HM was able to provide search results even without an internet connection. (check Offline section below)
Overall, both seem to be neck to neck in POI search.
Routing
Get me my shortest route!
Alternate route list:
HM has a better interface with more efficient use of screen space. Notice that HM displayed three routes in the screen while GM displayed only two.
HM also reports possible traffic delay in minutes (though it is not accurate I heard. Shout out: Here team, you need to get more accurate on this)
I couldn’ think of any use of GM’s miniaturised map preview.
Selected Route overview:
Regarding interface, I find HM’s reporting to be less noisy than GM’s, with focus on the route.
GM’s interface has redundant information too. Eg: It says, from “Your location” to “Airport”. “Your location” is redundant. Of course I am going to drive from my location.
HM gives a polished treatment by saying just “To: Airport”.
During the drive:
HM has both 3D and 2D route display, but GM lacks 3D
Like GM, HM too displays the next turn in large letters at the top, in driving mode. On zooming, HM removes the large display temporarily till we click back, but GM doesn’t. The pictures shown here are captured when in zoom state.
In this area, HM has quite a few capabilities which GM doesnt
HM’s Night Mode
You can ask HM to auto switch day/night mode too.
Above is HM’s 3d night mode in action
HM’s Route Options
You can configure HM to pick only specific kind of roads (e.g. don’t take unpaved roads, or toll roads etc).
HM’s Speed Limit Alert
Photo courtesy: 360.here.com
HM knows your road’s speed limit signs and alerts you when you overshoot the limit.
Overall, in this area of routing, HM beats GM hands down, with several capabilities missing in GM.
Navigation
Could you please provide me turn by turn voice guidance?
Both GM and HM provide equally good english guidance.
However, HM provides guidance in other languages too, and without internet connection too.
Hmm,so your grand-mother or grand-father could listen to the navigation in hindi, while travelling with you, and suggest some short-cuts or course correct you!
Again, HM has an upper hand in this area.
Maps
What does my surrounding look like?
HM seems to have a sleeker interface here.
In HM, traffic info is neatly embedded without calling for attention, whereas in GM it is almost on the face. Also notice that in GM, traffic lines appear over the road names, whereas in HM the road names are not clouded.
HM also seems to have a better progressive disclosure of info than GM.
Accuracy of traffic data(especially red lines and missing data from some roads), is better in GM. Regarding red lines, one possibility is that HM has a higher threshold than GM. Even if we discount that, there are couple of roads where HM doesn’t have traffic data.
Indoor maps
Both have this capability, but HM seems highly polished in this area, including 3D rendering.
On zooming close to the shopping complex, HM shows a 3D view, whereas GM starts showing the floor selector, as seen in the image above.
Entering inside the building
Search Inside Building
Thanks to additional capabilities and more refined interface, HM wins in this area.
Exclusive capabilities
GM’s POI search in voice
It is quite accurate, even for non-native english accents.
HM’s offline capabilities
HM can search POI, recommend routes, provide voice navigation in many languages, explore indoor maps etc etc, all without internet connection.
It requires internet only to report traffic data.
In addition, these offline map data occupies very reasonable disk space. Eg: Data for entire Indian country would be just 1491 MB!
So, here we have the two DNAs shredded into pieces.
Now, you pick the one compatible with you, and lug it around.
PS: This comparison was on the updated versions of both apps, as available in google play on 14th – Feb – 2015
Y A B P 
Good one..well written 🙂
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Great writeup. So, finally what's the conclusion, GM or HM for you?
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