More than a million have already taken HERE for Android beta for a spin, with the most active downloaders coming from Germany and the USA. Today, the playground gets bigger with the beta version of HERE for Android arriving for free on the Google Play store across the world.
Installing the new version from Google Play is simpler and more straightforward than ‘sideloading’ HERE for Android from here.com. Google Play will also make sure that your phone notifies you to update the app, so you can be confident that you will always have the latest version. There is no need to uninstall the existing version, and there will be no need to reinstall downloaded maps or voices.
The app you can download from Google Play brings voice-guided navigation for 18 new countries and territories: Algeria, Angola*, Bangladesh*, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Cyprus, Iraq, Libya, Mauritania, Mauritius, Nepal*, Paraguay, Saint Helena, Senegal*, Sri Lanka*, Suriname*, Zambia*, Zimbabwe*. The addition of these 18 new countries brings the total number of freely navigable countries to 118. Additionally, we improved the stability and performance of the app, and fixed a voice-related navigation bug.
To help you get started with HERE for Android, we’ve posted a series of stories to take a closer look at the app’s voice-guided navigation, how to manage your offline maps and getting around the city with up-to-date public transit information. We often travel to meet colleagues, friends and family, which is why you can share your real-time location temporarily and safely with integrated Glympse messaging.
We are continuing our work to make HERE for Android even better. Your feedback has already helped us fix bugs and prioritize new features. Talk to us below in the comments section and on Twitter if you have any questions or feedback for the development team. And of course you can rate us in the Google Play store.
Two more things: new here.com and an update on HERE for iOS
here.com also takes its spot in the limelight this week with a new design and cool features that some of you have already tested over the past few weeks. Read more about the new search, focused traffic view and other improvements.
Following the positive reviews of HERE for Android, a lot of people have expressed their interest in an iOS version of our app. We really appreciate this interest and demand. Our iOS app development team is working hard on this and we plan to officially launch HERE for iOS in early 2015.
Elie Chahine 