Can you add multiple stops in Waze?

One. Waze lets you add a single stop to a drive that's already heading somewhere, per Waze Help. It suits a detour: fuel, coffee, a quick pickup. There's no way to line up three, five or twenty stops in a list the way Google Maps or Apple Maps allow.

Start the drive to your final destination first, then add the stop on the way. Waze routes you through the stop and then on to the destination.

1. 1

   Start navigating

   Search for where you're going and start the drive as usual.

2. 2

   Search for the stop

   With the drive running, open search and look up the stop's address, or a kind of place such as a gas station.

3. 3

   Choose Add stop

   Pick the result and choose Add stop. Waze reroutes you through it before your destination.

Plan it outside Waze and drive it inside Waze, one stop at a time. Something else has to hold the list and decide the order; Waze takes you to whichever stop comes next. There are two ways to keep that list:

• A list on paper or in your notes, in the order you've chosen. At each stop, type the next address into Waze. It works, but typing 20 addresses in a parked van is slow and easy to get wrong.
• A route page with a Navigate button. Plan and optimize the route on a computer, open it on your phone, and tap once per stop to send the next address to Waze. No typing on the road.

Here's the second way with EZRoutePlanner:

1. 1

   Optimize the stops

   Paste the day's addresses into EZRoutePlanner or import your spreadsheet, set your start, and press Optimize Route.

2. 2

   Open the route on your phone

   Share the route as a link or QR code. It opens in the phone's browser with no app to install and no login, and shows every stop in order.

3. 3

   Choose Waze once

   The first time you tap Navigate, the page asks which app you navigate with. Pick Waze. The choice is saved on that phone, and you can change it in the page's settings.

4. 4

   Tap Navigate at each stop

   Waze opens with the next stop as its destination. When you're done there, switch back to the route page and tap Navigate on the stop after it.

If someone else plans the route, the page updates when they edit it, so a stop added at noon shows up without a new link. More on this in how to send a route to a driver's phone.

Yes. Waze has a documented link format that opens the app and starts navigating to an address. Make one link per stop, put them in the order you'll drive, and tap them one after another. It's a handy option for an emailed or printed list.

https://waze.com/ul?q=ADDRESS&navigate=yes

https://waze.com/ul?q=412%20N%20Walnut%20St%2C%20Springfield%2C%20IL&navigate=yes

Spaces become %20 and commas %2C. Waze describes the format in its deep links guide. In Google Sheets or Excel for Windows, a formula builds the link for the address in cell A2:

="https://waze.com/ul?q="&ENCODEURL(A2)&"&navigate=yes"

The catch: links don't put the stops in order, and in a long list of links it's easy to lose your place. A route optimizer fixes the first problem, and a route page with a Navigate button per stop fixes the second.

Work from the stop number, not from memory, and open each next stop while you're parked. With Waze holding one destination at a time, the list on your phone is the only record of where you are in the day, so keep it easy to get back to.

• Keep the route page open in one browser tab. Going from Waze back to the list is then a single app switch, not a search through your messages for the link.
• Check the number before you tap. On a long day it's easy to skip a stop by tapping the one below it. Glance at the stop number and the street first.
• Tap Navigate before you pull away, not at the first red light. The few seconds parked are the safe time to pick the next stop.
• Plan the drive home too. If the day ends back at the shop, make the route a round trip when you plan it, so the last leg is part of the plan and the mileage.
• Ask for changes in the route, not in a text. When the person planning edits the route, the page updates for you; a stop added by text message is one more thing to remember.

Only if you want the whole route in one navigation session. Google Maps holds 10 places and Apple Maps about 15 (reported), so a short route can run start to finish without returning to a list. For anything longer, every maps app ends up leg by leg or stop by stop anyway, so you may as well keep the one you like driving with.

• Stay with Waze if it's the app you trust on your roads and you're fine tapping once per stop.
• Use Google Maps if you want up to 10 places on screen at once. See how to add more than 10 stops in Google Maps for longer days.
• Use a shared route page if your drivers use different apps: each one picks Google Maps, Apple Maps or Waze on their own phone.