I won’t deny it; I rely on my phone and Google Maps every day to navigate or find locations to save time.
It saves time and lets me navigate efficiently without wasting too much time on the road.
But some days I feel my life is too reliant on technology, and I like to challenge myself to see if I can live without it.
That’s when I decided to go a week without using any navigation apps.
How I went a week without any navigation apps and Android Auto
Old-school way of navigating
As an experiment, I wanted to see if I could navigate roads and find businesses without any navigation apps.
You’re probably saying, “Why would you do that?”
It was a gargantuan and unnecessary task, but I wanted to test myself and see if I could survive without any navigation apps.
It’s also a great experiment to show what sort of friction I could expect in an area with a spotty network or without offline maps installed.
If you’ve navigated when your navigation app went offline, that’s what I planned to do for a week.
The rules were simple: I could not use Google Maps, Waze, or any other navigation app to find my way on the road or on foot.
This also applied to using any offline maps with the internet turned off on my phone.
When I started, navigating my neighborhood wasn’t too hard. I’ve been living here for the past 26 years, and I know every back road, store, and eatery around me.
But I started to struggle when I had to go just 1.3 miles away from home. I had to get my computer repaired and find a business in one of Asia’s largest computer markets.
We’re talking about four massive buildings with multiple floors, all full of stores selling PC parts, repair shops, and other electronics.
If I had used Google Maps, I could have found the store’s address and contact details and made my way there.
I could also simply follow the walking navigation prompts and reach the store in 10 to 15 minutes.
But since I was doing this experiment, it took me 45 minutes to find the store. I had to ask around and hoped to find someone who knew the store or the building.
After 30 minutes of searching, I found someone who had done business with the store and pointed me in the right direction.
Without Google Maps, I also couldn’t look up eateries in areas I wasn’t familiar with. I had to wing it; I wasn’t aware of their opening hours or if their food was any good.
But I noticed one positive outcome from not using Google Maps. I discovered more hidden cafés and eateries with incredible food that I would have otherwise ignored.
If I were using Google Maps, I would have picked one of the top-rated restaurants near me and eaten there, leaving no chance for discovery or exploration.
Discovering new spots without using any navigation maps is a sort of adventure I’m always up for, but only when I’m in the mood for it.
A week without navigation apps gave me a reality check
My patience started to get tested
I faced similar issues while in my car. While my phone was connected to Android Auto for streaming music, Google Maps and Waze were off-limits.
I wanted to run the same experiment when I was going to an unfamiliar neighborhood. I quickly realized how much I missed Google Maps.
Without real-time traffic and turn-by-turn directions, I arrived late at my friend’s home. I missed crucial turns and exits and circled the neighborhood countless times before I asked for help on the road.
The directions I got from people on the road were either inconsistent or so vague that they didn’t really help.
Needless to say, I was definitely lost.
I also got the occasional question, “Don’t you have Google Maps?”
Shortcuts only added more confusion, and I was still hoping to find someone who actually knew the neighborhood well.
I eventually arrived at my friend’s home, but the whole experience increased my stress levels and tested my patience.
Frustrated, I tried to make my life easier by finding a physical map of the city to use for navigation.
My hopes of navigating the old-school way with a physical map were quickly shattered when I couldn’t find one to buy.
For the rest of the week, I stuck to my daily commute, but one time I got stuck in a traffic jam and missed Waze’s aggressive rerouting.
While my experiment was primarily limited to on-foot and car navigation, I realized that other forms of navigation would also be affected.
For example, if I wanted to use public transport, I couldn’t look up train schedules to plan my day, let alone find the station easily in an unfamiliar neighborhood.
I couldn’t share my precise location so someone could find my home, nor could I give an ETA to someone who wants to know how far I was from their location.
It goes to show that navigation maps have become an essential tool we can’t live without, and that life would be highly inconvenient without them.
I’ll stick to my navigation apps, thank you
Using Google Maps or Waze is no longer a choice but a necessity for navigating modern roads.
Whether you want to go to a new restaurant or use public transport, having access to a navigation app makes everyone’s life easier. My experiment was almost a total failure, and I don’t recommend anyone trying it.
Saving time, in my book, is a very valuable form of currency, and thanks to navigation apps, we save a ton of it.
