Are these features really missing from Drive?

[poddie]

I used to have an HTC Trophy and used the Garmin app. I always found it pretty capable and easy to use, but I looked forward to the day that the angels would come down from on high and bless me with what everyone seems to tout as the ultimate Navigation app: Nokia Drive.

I finally have a Nokia 920 and have had a chance to play around with Drive a bit. I love the downloadable maps, and the voices are nice (the Garmin app has a weird split personality where all of a sudden sometimes it will give you a direction in a completely different voice and it is always jarring). The map looks beautiful.

However, I am finding several things that I used all the time seem to be completely missing from the Drive app. Are these features really missing? Or am I not sure how to activate them? Or have they temporarily been deactivated from the Win8 app while it is beta? They seem like incredibly basic functions that I can't imagine a GPS app not having, and given the way Drive is always held in such high regard it doesn't seem possible that they don't exist!

(1) How do I specify my "Home" address?

(2) Where is the "Go Home" command?

(3) How do I access the list of directions (in text form) that it is going to take me on?

(4) How do I pull an address from my Contacts into the app as a destination? (I have found that I can go to a contact card, get to maps from there, and then get to Drive but this seems really silly)

As I said, extremely basic functionality for a Navigation app... surely these must be in there somewhere?

Thanks!

 

[Al_2]

To set somewhere as 'Home' you could try this:

- Go to Set destination
- Type your home address
- Hit the Add to favourites icon (star)
- Go into your Favourites (under set destination)
- Long hold on your address and hit pin to start

Then you can immediately hit the address from the Start screen and start.

Not called 'Home' but essentially that's what it is...

 

[poddie]

Thanks for the response... I had hoped others would chime in as well. It seems Drive is as incomplete feature-wise as I thought it was.

Thankfully ms fixed the redownload without paying issue, so I have been able to install Garmin on my 920. It is a much more complete solution. I hope they will update it for Win8, adding background routing and better resolution.

Perhaps Nokia will continue to work on Drive and provide some of these really basic features in the near future.

 

[unkleknuklefunk]

Yes I found I was disappointed in Nokia drive also lacking most of the things I took for granted with navigon

 

[iHeartInfoTech]

I too find the feature set a bit bleak and had hoped for richer environment. Hopefully, since we are in a Beta release these user enhancements will be added future updates. I'll be sure to post on their FB site, send a few tweets their way and send an email voicing my/our concerns.

 

[androidtoWM]

2,3 - Don't think there's a way to do it. Would love those features.
4 - Sort of a workaround. Go to People and then if you click on an Address, it opens up the maps and you can click on the drive icon to open up the Drive app.

 

[vlad0]

Most of those things are available in the Symbian version of Nokia Drive, so its only a matter of time before they get ported to WP.

 

[bachthejock]

For number 3, you can get the list of directions in the Maps app. So if you start there, punch in your destination, it gives you the text directions and the option to open up Drive for navigation. To get back to the text directions, just long press the back button and you'll be able to toggle back and forth between the Maps and Drive apps.

 

[casab1anca]

To set somewhere as 'Home' you could try this:

- Go to Set destination
- Type your home address
- Hit the Add to favourites icon (star)
- Go into your Favourites (under set destination)
- Long hold on your address and hit pin to start

Then you can immediately hit the address from the Start screen and start.

Not called 'Home' but essentially that's what it is...

This is pretty much what I do, except that I use the favourites in Nokia Maps instead -- the pinned tile for Nokia Maps actually shows a real map instead of a static car icon. Also, you can rename the favourite to whatever you want, so it can actually be called "Home".