This Help file describes waze touch screen version. There may be slight differences between the versions for different phones, but most features will look and work the same.
Starting waze and creating an account
To open the program – press the waze icon on the phone desktop. ’’’If you are a new user, you will get a welcome message and a request to accept waze's terms of use. Click the Accept button to continue to use waze, or the Decline button to exit the program.’’’ If you have accepted the terms of use, you will next get a form to create your account. You are asked to provide a username and password, an email address, and optionally to choose a waze nickname, which is used to identify you on the map and in reports you send, should you choose to be identified. (You define how far you want to be identified in your Profile – see the Settings section).
- Tap the first line of the form (Username). A virtual keyboard display will come up.
- Enter the username you'd like. Then tap the Next button to be prompted for the next line of the form (password).
- After you have proceeded to fill in all the form in this way, waze will display the filled-in form (your password will be displayed as five stars no matter how long it actually is).
- If the information is the way you want it, tap Create to create your account. If not, tap the line you want to change.
After creating your account you will be asked to sign in. You only have to do this once: your phone will thereafter be logged in automatically. You will only have to log in again if:
- The required user name is already taken.
- You are using the user name and password you created on a different phone, and you made a mistake when logging in. Then you'll get a "wrong login" message and will be returned to the screen displaying your username (and hidden password) so that you can change them as necessary. (Note: to change your username you should first log in to the waze.com site and change it there, then update your phone).
- Someone else using another phone is logged in to your account. In this case you will not get an error message; your internet connection will keep going on and off. (We suggest you avoid giving your login details to friends – they can create their own accounts.)
Once you have an account that you've previously logged in to, starting waze will bring you directly to the main screen. To save battery consumption, it's a good idea to close waze when you leave your car and to minimize it or shut off the display whenever you don't need it.
Overview: What do you See?
The Waze screen has the following main sections:
- A top status bar
- the main screen where the map is displayed
- A side bar with 2 icons: a compass File:Compass.png and a map edit icon File:Map edit.png
- A green ticker symbol on the right hand, which accesses information about your current points gained
