MapQuest almost made me abandon Google Maps—until I started to drive

Published Sep 9, 2026, 9:00 AM EDT Adam has a degree in Engineering and has a life-long interest in technology. He has been writing for over a decade for various print and online publications, with a focus on consumer tech. He joined How-To Geek in 2024 while working at Pocket-lint. As well as being a long-term fan of Apple products, he also has a strong interest in smart home tech, running a Home Assistant server at home to automate all his smart home devices. He believes that the ideal smart home should work with minimal interaction from the user, with automations running as if by magic rather than requiring you to push buttons on a control panel. You can find more of his work on Muck Rack. For a long time, the navigation app debate has fallen into two main camps: Waze and Google Maps. Recent events have brought MapQuest back to public attention, so I decided to see if it could genuinely replace Google Maps. MapQuest offered an alternative to Google Maps Like many, I was nudged to look elsewhere MapQuest has been around a long time, far longer than Google Maps. It launched online in 1996, a full thirty years ago, and its roots are in a map company that had been printing maps since the 1960s. You may not even have heard of MapQuest, at least until recently. A single event has thrust MapQuest back into the spotlight and made it one of the most downloaded navigation apps in recent weeks. On August 27, President Donald Trump signed an executive order renaming Lake Ontario to "Lake America" in retaliation for what he perceived as Canada "ripping us off" over trade. Google Maps and the Google-owned Waze both updated their apps to reflect this change, as did Apple Maps. MapQuest, however, refused to do so. In a post on X (formerly Twitter), the official MapQuest account posted an image of one of its maps showing Lake Ontario with the message reading "We're not changing it." This was followed by a surge in MapQuest downloads, with the app climbing the app-store charts. MapQuest is much better than I expected It does (almost) everything I need I decided to see what MapQuest was like to see if it could work as a true replacement for Google Maps. I was genuinely surprised by how good it was. MapQuest has come a long way since those early days of getting directions in Netscape Navigator and then printing them off. Despite being in the UK, and MapQuest being mainly focused on the US and Canada, I was able to sideload the app on my Android phone and get UK navigation routes. I recently raced Waze against Google Maps to see which was best, so I decided to give MapQuest the same routes that I used for the races. MapQuest gave me the exact same routes that Google Maps had given me, and although some of these were less optimal than the routes Waze chose, they were equally as good as what Google Maps offered. MapQuest offers many of the core features of Google Maps for free, including walking and cycling directions, live traffic, alternative routes, multiple stops, and nearby restaurants and gas stations. Most of the key features you need for navigation are there. It lacks some things that Google Maps does offer, such as public transport information and Street View, but these aren't things I use when driving. The app is ad-supported, although you can pay to remove ads. There's one huge flaw with MapQuest right now Android Auto isn't fully supported Credit: Joe Fedewa / How-To Geek Playing with MapQuest is fine, but if you want to use it as your driving navigation app of choice, then there's one very significant issue. MapQuest has full support for CarPlay, so if you're an iPhone user, you can happily replace Google Maps, Waze, or Apple Maps with the MapQuest app and use it for navigation. If you're an Android user, then there's some bad news: Android Auto support is currently only available in beta. This is obviously a major and slightly embarrassing omission, and MapQuest clearly realizes that it's missing out on a huge number of potential customers. On September 1, MapQuest released an updated version of the app which includes Android Auto support, although it's very much a beta. Users have reported the app crashing on some phones and voice instructions getting cut off. In its current form, MapQuest still isn't good enough to be a legitimate replacement for Google Maps on Android Auto. If you're a CarPlay user, however, then it's a good enough app to become your daily driver, if you'll pardon the pun. MapQuest came close to winning me over Android Auto support would tip the balance Credit: Patrick Campanale / How-To Geek MapQuest almost won me over. It's a perfectly usable navigation app, and whatever your opinion on the name of the lake, you have to admire the company's willingness to stand up for what it believes in. The Android Auto issue is obviously a deal-breaker. The company must be kicking itself that it didn't already have Android Auto support in place, because if it had, it could have picked up even more users thanks to all the recent publicity. When robust Android Auto support finally arrives, there are really very few reasons not to give the app a try. It's always nice to have another alternative to the navigation apps owned by the biggest tech companies. MapQuest shows that choice is a good thing When the best apps are owned by a handful of companies, it restricts your choices a lot. We'll never know whether Waze would have made the name change if it wasn't now owned by Google. Because it is, both apps made the same changes, giving users very few options if they want a navigation app that gives a lake its original name.