How Long Does It Take For Smartphone Apps To Get Road Changes?
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    19 years
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When changes are made to roads near me and when certain new businesses are opened, I check to see how long it take Google Maps, Waze and Open Street Maps to update. One of the projects near me this summer has been near 44.779760, -93.062299. The project was an update to the intersection that had been a T intersection, but now has a smooth directional curve.
The road had been closed, but reopened almost two weeks ago, even though the entire project isn't finished, yet. A couple of days ago Open Street Map was the first one I was aware of that showed the update. Today, Google Maps also showed the change.
Waze still does not show the update, but I suspect it won't be too much longer before they show the update.
Several years ago a roundabout was added near me. I was favorably impressed by how quickly the online maps showed the change.
I Googled to see how they accomplish this. Here is the reply I got:
Google learns about road changes by combining official government data, automated AI imagery analysis, crowdsourced user reports, and anonymous movement telemetry from millions of mobile devices.
Here
And yet it takes 2 or 3 Garmin map updates for these changes to post. Some road changes made over 10 years ago where I live still haven't showed up. I assume Garmin still uses the Here database. I wonder why it takes so long?
Hard to say
I don't know how anybody could generalize about how long it takes smartphone apps to update, they all march to their own beat! FWIW, this is what the USGS National Map shows for the coordinates you posted. Looks like it probably hasn't been updated, which doesn't surprise me. That might take years (especially after all the DOGE cuts).
https://boydsmaps.com/#16.00/44.779760/-93.062299/usgsTopo/0...
This is the USGS national map aerial imagery. That might be more recent?
https://boydsmaps.com/#16.00/44.779760/-93.062299/usgsImager...
But generally speaking, I'd guess their imagery is two or three years old (maybe even more?). It is based on USDA NAIP (National Agriculture Imagery Program) data. They have a rotating schedule of photographing counties in each state and it takes multiple years to do a full state, although they strive to do it as fast as possible since farmers use it. But even if the NAIP has updated the imagery, that doesn't mean the USGS will immediately add it to the national map.
I have my own version of recent aerial imagery at boydsmaps, which is based on the newest available NAIP. That ranges between 2023-2025, depending on the state. I only cover the mid-Atlantic US however (it's a LOT of data) but my version is twice the resolution of the National Map. Don't hold your breath for me to update these, that is a huge project and I just don't have the resources to keep it up to date.
This is my map of Philadephia, for example, which uses 2024 NAIP - the newest that was available when I made the map last January. I wouldn't expect them to release anything newer for a couple more years in this case.
https://boydsmaps.com/#17.00/39.952381/-75.163618/naip2025/0...
boydsmaps.com
How Long Does It Take For Smartphone Apps To Get Road Changes?
Google Maps tweaked it more today.
https://www.google.com/maps/@44.7787041,-93.0622064,16.82z/data=!5m2!1e4!1e1?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI2MDgwNC4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D
Open Street Maps looks the same as yesterday.
Waze hasn't done anything with it, yet.
Crowdsourcing for this!!
Google learns about road changes by combining official government data, automated AI imagery analysis, crowdsourced user reports, and anonymous movement telemetry from millions of mobile devices.
The big surprise there is anonymous movement telemetry. I've always thought that the only viable traffic data source, but your post suggests they use it to actually learn of some road position changes.
Great stuff!
personal GPS user since 1992
How Long Does It Take For Smartphone Apps To Get Road Changes?
There are some new housing developments near me. Every so often I compare maps to see which streets are shown and if the map names the street. HERE We Go, which licenses its core map data to Garmin, gets criticized frequently, has the street names. Google also has street names, but OpenStreetMap does not.
OpenStreetMap gathers new street data primarily through crowdsourced human input from millions of global volunteers, alongside satellite imagery tracing, GPS tracking logs, and authorized imports from open government or corporate datasets. So, if nobody has contributed data about those street names, they won't be shown. The streets are shown, just not the street names.
My take away from this is not all maps will have exactly the same information and to have more than one map available, if it might be critical.
So, for my wife and I driving our RV, I plan to continue using a Garmin, with native Garmin City Navigator Maps, as well as both OpenMap Chest and USA OSM Auto map. We will supplement with a smartphone running Google Maps/Apple Maps/Waze, etc.
https://wego.here.com/?map=44.7272%2C-93.08075%2C17.7
https://www.google.com/maps/@44.7272113,-93.080759,17z/data=!5m1!1e3?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI2MDgwNS4xIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D
https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=17/44.727196/-93.080753&l...
I also check Dakota County GIS from time to time to see how they compared.
https://docaccess.com/docviewer.html?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgis.c...