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Genuinely set HERE as default mapping app ?

A

AndroidHusband

Member
For various reasons, Google maps is rubbish. (We'll start with the non-display of local speed limits, but there is plenty more to find fault with).

This means - for me - HERE "Wego" (I hope whoever saddled them with that "amusing" name has sobered up and regrets it) is the mapping app of choice. (If you could persuade it to start in Driving Mode, it would be perfect).

This unfortunately means that whenever a Google search on my Android phone returns a location, no amount of messing around with "defaults" in "Apps" will persuade Android to open HERE when "Directions" is selected. It's Google Maps - or nothing.

So, I have disabled Google Maps (nothing :) ) in "Apps".

Now I can get HERE to open if I click on "Maps" in the Google search. But when click "Directions" - nothing. Clearly it wants to pass them to Google Maps (despite my default app setting).

Anyone else (a) know what I am talking about and (b) have a fix ?

Alternatively, if Google have a few days free, I can explain to them just how bad Maps is. Remember, lots of "users" - especially when they have no choice - doesn't make your app the best.
 
Well good luck getting Google to listen - they are not a company famous for that!

Just to check: you say that if you click on "maps" in the Google search it opens HERE. But if you click on "directions" it doesn't work. So in what app are you clicking on "directions"? If it's in HERE then that's very strange. If it's in the Google Search app it's possible that it is hard-coded to use Maps (another Google app), or that it doesn't recognise HERE as being able to handle that intent (I've not had HERE installed for a couple of years so can't easily test that). But if it is that, then a workaround would be to open the location in HERE and then tell HERE to give you directions.
 
Tx for the quick reply. It's when I click "Directions" as shown - nothing happens.

I can workaround - by memorizing the post/zip code from the Google search, and then entering that into HERE. But then another work around is to use a road atlas ... I'm not a massive fan of workarounds in the 21st century.

Also, it's clear that - for all the "Settings" android has some baked in/hardcoded ideas about how it will let people use it. Fair enough - Googles circus, Googles monkeys. But for how long ????

Screenshot (6 Mar 2017 16-37-22).png s
 
Well if that is the Google Search app you are using it's not part of Android, it's just an app that Google try to bundle with as many phones as they can. So I look at it as one app developer arrogantly/sloppily leaving a hard-coded link between two of their apps rather than using the operating system's "intents" system to select an app to handle an action. But it's not part of the Android platform, it's just an add-on app, and Android itself works just fine without it. I know because it's one of the apps that I remove from my phone (along with the majority of Google apps and a few other things I don't have a use for).

So if you find that search app too restrictive you can just use a different one, which won't have that particular flaw. Personally I don't have a search app at all, I just use a browser if I want to search for something (which means I also get to choose which search engine I use). And if I want to search for a location I'll use one of my navigation apps and start the search from in there rather than going to a search engine.
 
The thing for this application is that a browser most likely won't link to any navigation app. Getting that exact functionality, search for location, press button for directions, then choose navigation app, relies on there being a "directions" button that will invoke the necessary "intent" (Android jargon for "a particular task that another app can handle"), and that's got to be designed into an app.
 
Seems you're right - browser is a wash out too :(

Yes, when I had a high-level view of Android, I remember "intents" as how apps can link together.

Luckily I don't drive too many places in a week, so this is an irritation, not a showstopper. I wouldn't even have encountered it if Google Maps were not so shite ...

Tx for the steer again - at least I can put effort into something more rewarding !
 
AndroidHusband said:
Seems you're right - browser is a wash out too :(

Yes, when I had a high-level view of Android, I remember "intents" as how apps can link together.
Luckily I don't drive too many places in a week, so this is an irritation, not a showstopper. I wouldn't even have encountered it if Google Maps were not so shite ...
Tx for the steer again - at least I can put effort into something more rewarding !
Click to expand...

I keep a list of business contacts and addresses in my phonebook. A click on the address field there will connect to the designated mapping program. You can also add an address in HERE's collections but I find using my contacts far easier and better organized.
 
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