Waze ditches its iOS widget in latest updates

Google-owned Waze is removing its iOS widget for the left-most homescreen, with the feature being removed in the latest updates rolling out now.

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First introduced all the way back in 2014 for iOS 8, the Waze widget for iPhones has long allowed users to quickly jump into navigation to their home or work directly from the left-most homescreen. The feature has survived through the years, even as iOS introduced much more advanced widgets, but it’s now being deprecated.

Quietly announced in a forum post earlier this month, Waze confirmed that it would be removing its iOS widget due to “significantly low” usage.

The removal appears to now be rolling out, as the latest updates to Waze on iOS strip the feature. A few users on Google’s support forums for Waze noted that the feature was removed from their devices and expressed how it was a useful tool for them. Waze 4.92 appears to be the app version that removes the widget.

It’s unclear if Waze plans to bring back this functionality in any way, though at this point we’d assume that would take the form of a full widget for the platform, or perhaps a lockscreen widget following changes in iOS 16.

Meanwhile, Google Maps has iOS widgets with very similar functionality, and also rolled out support for lockscreen widgets last year.

More on Waze:

• Waze update aims to fix Android Auto freezing, ‘Coolwalk’ support is still in beta
• Google Maps and Waze teams to merge, apps will remain separate
• Use Waze to find the cheapest gas prices near you – Here’s how