How to turn off the voice in Google Maps, Apple Maps and Waze
Spoken turn-by-turn directions are useful on an unfamiliar road and tiring on the daily commute. Every big navigation app lets you mute the voice completely or keep only alerts about traffic and hazards.
Here are the steps from Google’s, Apple’s and Waze’s own help pages, plus how to silence directions during calls and how to swap the voice instead of muting it.
Google Maps
Start navigation, then tap Sound at the bottom right. Choose Mute to silence everything, or Alerts to hear only traffic, construction and crash updates without turn-by-turn directions; Sound turns full guidance back on. To make the voice quieter rather than silent, open your profile picture, Settings, Navigation, Guidance volume and pick Softer.
Apple Maps
Start driving, cycling or walking directions and tap Go, then tap the Audio Control button on the map and choose the option you want, including one with no spoken guidance. To change the default, open Settings, Apps, Maps, Spoken Directions and choose an option under Voice Volume.
Waze
Open Waze, tap the menu, Settings, Voice and sound, and next to Sounds choose Off, Alerts only or On. During a drive, tap the sound icon next to your arrival time and pick Sound off or Alerts only.
During phone calls
In Google Maps on Android, open Settings, Navigation and turn off Play voice during phone calls. In Waze, Settings, Voice and sound has a Mute Waze during calls switch. In Apple Maps, Spoken Directions also has Directions Pause Spoken Audio, which pauses podcasts and audiobooks while a step is spoken.
Change the voice instead
If the problem is the voice itself, swap it. Google Maps on Android speaks with the phone’s text to speech engine, chosen under Preferred engine in the system settings; Apple Maps uses the Siri voice. Waze goes further and lets you record every phrase yourself, which is where our guide to a custom Waze voice comes in.