Newsletter 
Popular navigation app Waze now features integration with the music streaming service Deezer. With this integration, users may now access their favorite music and control the playback of music without having to leave Waze and switch to Deezer’s dedicated application.
When playing music available on Deezer, the Waze app will show its audio player at the upper part of the smartphone’s screen, and through this interface, users can pause and play songs as well as proceed to the previous or next music titles on the users’ playlists. The interface also enables users to quickly save their favorite music without leaving Waze by tapping the heart icon found below the album art.
Aside from accessing the 53 million different tracks available and controlling the playback of songs without leaving the navigation app, Deezer’s integration with Waze also brings several other useful features. For example, people may access their recently played tracks from any device where their Deezer account is signed-in, and they may also run the streaming service’s curated playlists directly within Waze.
The integration also allows users to stream podcasts and radio broadcasts without opening the Deezer app. Furthermore, Deezer subscribers may still access the service’s signature feature, Flow, within Waze. Flow is a feature that creates a personal playlist that plays the user’s favorite songs and recommends new and current music with the help of an algorithm and the listening history of the subscriber.
To start playing music from Deezer through Waze’s audio player feature, users should first tap on the pink music button. A list of supported streaming services will then appear, and from this lineup, users will then select the icon for Deezer. The streaming service also announced that this feature is now rolling out to users around the world, and it should become available soon for users in every country where both Waze and Deezer are available. Users should also update their applications to the newest version to fully take advantage of the new feature.
Background: Integration of music streaming services with Waze is not new, with Spotify already incorporated into the navigation app since 2017. This collaboration allowed users to access the music tracks available on Spotify directly within Waze, and it also permitted the streaming service’s subscribers to choose among curated playlists and save favorite songs to their libraries.
Meanwhile, Waze users may also obtain directions to their destination directly within the Spotify app. Despite the integration of Deezer into Waze, it is not yet clear if Deezer will also allow users to get Waze directions within the music service’s app in a future update. Aside from Deezer and Spotify, Waze also integrates several streaming services through the app’s audio player feature. Other services supported by the application include Pandora, iHeartRadio, NPR One, Scribd, Stitcher, and TuneIn.
Impact: The integration of music streaming services directly into Waze could help prevent road accidents by compelling users to keep their eyes on the road, since they no longer need to switch applications when getting directions and playing music. It would be interesting to see if the developers of other popular navigation applications will follow suit and adopt similar features into their software.