Updated 14:02 31 Jan 2012 by Chris Smith

Community-driven navigation app Waze goes social with the addition of social apps like Yelp and Foursquare

Waze, the traffic app which combines the knowledge of its 12 million users in order to tackle delays, has an all-new iteration which brings listings and reviews from Foursquare and Yelp.

The free app brings a navigation experience fueled by live updates from the user-base who both actively register delays, police traps and accidents and passively contribute to the traffic data pool. The idea is to outsmart the traditional GPS app with actual reports from users.

Waze 3.0 for Android has been completely redesigned from top to bottom with an all new interface which aims to make use of the larger screen real estate on some Android phones. There’s also speech-to-text functionality for the ultimate hands-free experience.

The headline new feature however is the integration of social apps like Yelp and Foursquare to give those pit-stops a little more pep.

“Traditional GPS systems are built on static, old world maps and points of interest, which never reflect real-time information about new businesses, pop-up shops, or live local events,” said the company in a press release.

“The new social eco-system provides a combination of consumer-generated data from people driving, checking in, and reviewing locations in real-time. This layer of social location information is now available to drivers in a navigation setting.

“With community-curated data from Waze, Foursquare, and Yelp, drivers can now search for real-time events as easily as they would find their local Walmart.”

Some of the new features are initially for US and Canadian drivers, but will soon be integrated into the UK version of the app.

Link: Android Central