Start turn-by-turn navigation on Google Maps?

H

hendis

Member
Hi, again. Wanted to ask for everybody's help on this, and also to say thanks for the help and/or suggestions.

Does anybody know how I can reliably start turn by turn directions in Google maps? I have already tried using an intent, but found that it's "carrier" macro frequently refused to fire.

I find that I am repeatedly going to the same destinations from the same starting points, and I wanted to automate the whole procedure with MD. I guess what I'm looking for is a macro that fires with the Bluetooth trigger (when I get in my car and start the engine) and simply makes an interactive turn-by-turn map pop up. No start button, no typing in a destination, no anything.

I'm getting both frustrated yet curious. Anybody have any ideas?

hendis
 
MacroDroidDev

MacroDroidDev

Administrator
Staff member
If you have a fixed set of destinations you could use the Android shortcut action to launch the directions shortcut to a specific destination. There is an option when configuring the shortcut to launch turn by turn navigation automatically.

Alternatively you might be able to use the launch website action to launch directly into the maps navigation. I haven't tried this but I think it will likely work. You can find info on the url you need and parameters here: https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/urls/get-started
 
H

hendis

Member
I am not quite understanding what you mean when you say use the Android shortcut action. Can you explain more about how I can do that?
 
H

hendis

Member
Just before I wrote my initial post, I tried using a "crafted" URL, like what you describe in the second half of your post. I got everything that I needed, except that nothing would start until I tapped a start button, too. That's all well and good but I don't want to deal with a start button unless it is necessary. I can always use the UI interaction to click the start button, but I'd like to avoid that if at all possible.
 
D

Dm114

Well-known member
hendis said:
Hi, again. Wanted to ask for everybody's help on this, and also to say thanks for the help and/or suggestions.

Does anybody know how I can reliably start turn by turn directions in Google maps? I have already tried using an intent, but found that it's "carrier" macro frequently refused to fire.

I find that I am repeatedly going to the same destinations from the same starting points, and I wanted to automate the whole procedure with MD. I guess what I'm looking for is a macro that fires with the Bluetooth trigger (when I get in my car and start the engine) and simply makes an interactive turn-by-turn map pop up. No start button, no typing in a destination, no anything.

I'm getting both frustrated yet curious. Anybody have any ideas?

hendis
Click to expand...
Here is what I use for my favorite destinations (stored in a variable called Dest).20240506_070735.jpg
 
H

hendis

Member
Dm114, your reply puzzles me. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but from your post, it looks as though you're using ONE intent and changing the data in it by using a variable ("dest") and changing the data in the variable.

This is something very similar to something that I have already tried. Let me explain. The trips that I want to automate with MD are between work and home. Everything else is set up in Maps manually. I used an intent for each destination and put each intent in its own macro. I now intended to use a Macro Run action. Everything was great.

Until the macros wouldn't fire.

To test, I created shortcuts directly to my home screen. The macros still wouldn't fire! Why? I don't know. I can only assume that something was wrong with either (or both) of the intents that I built. Before my initial post, I decided to abandon my efforts regarding intents. Now, I will give it another try and report back.

I guess that my question has changed -- now, my question is how to build an intent so that it works properly... (I will use your post as a template).

More soon...
 
H

hendis

Member
MD Dev, I just tried your suggestion about using the "Launch Shortcut->Directions" action. It's giving me what I want, but it's too soon to figure that the problem is solved. Yet.

And now, we will see what we will see...
 
D

Dm114

Well-known member
hendis said:
Dm114, your reply puzzles me. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but from your post, it looks as though you're using ONE intent and changing the data in it by using a variable ("dest") and changing the data in the variable.

This is something very similar to something that I have already tried. Let me explain. The trips that I want to automate with MD are between work and home. Everything else is set up in Maps manually. I used an intent for each destination and put each intent in its own macro. I now intended to use a Macro Run action. Everything was great.

Until the macros wouldn't fire.

To test, I created shortcuts directly to my home screen. The macros still wouldn't fire! Why? I don't know. I can only assume that something was wrong with either (or both) of the intents that I built. Before my initial post, I decided to abandon my efforts regarding intents. Now, I will give it another try and report back.

I guess that my question has changed -- now, my question is how to build an intent so that it works properly... (I will use your post as a template).

More soon...
Click to expand...
I've been using this Waze Intent for years and it works flawlessly.

As far as I understood your need, mine is a bit different: when launching my MD Waze shortcut, it opens a kind of menu with the 4 to 5 favorite destinations of mine. Then the macro sends the Intent with the Dest local string variable containing the Waze name of the selected destination.

In your case, you'd probably prefer having several MD shortcuts each one calling a unique Action block feeded with the name of the destination corresponding to the shortcut and sending the Intent.
 
H

hendis

Member
Dm114, in the interest of simplicity, I'm going to try the shortcut suggested by MD Dev. Too soon to say that I'm definitely going to continue using it, though, but it looks OK for now. (Time will tell.) I'll come back to your suggestion if the shortcut doesn't work out...

hendis
 
D

Dm114

Well-known member
hendis said:
Dm114, in the interest of simplicity, I'm going to try the shortcut suggested by MD Dev. Too soon to say that I'm definitely going to continue using it, though, but it looks OK for now. (Time will tell.) I'll come back to your suggestion if the shortcut doesn't work out...

hendis
Click to expand...
I fully understand as I didn't notice that you are using Google Maps and not Waze. Sorry, my bad!
 
H

hendis

Member
I would like to say thanks for the education (makes me glad that I posted to the forum).

I didn't know about either the shortcut in MD ("Launch Shortcut" action -> Directions) explained by MD Dev or the shortcut from support.google explained by mapriex, above.

(I'm starting to think that ya'll are slightly wonderful...)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top