If you useWazeto navigate, you might already be familiar with some of the celebrities Google has brought on board to voice directions. From Hasan Minhaj to Roger Federer, it seems like the tech giant knows how to pull strings when it needs some star power. Now, it’s made another call to Santa for the holiday season, and he’s bringing along a friend.
As announced on the Waze blog byGoogle, Santa Claus will now be a navigation voice you can choose to use. If enabled, the holly, jolly man himself will give you the directions you need to get to your destination. However, he isn’t the only option that was revealed by Google this season — a Spicy Gingerbread Man has been added this year. Voiced by Peloton instructor Matty Maggiacomo, you can also now choose the cookie to give you directions on the go. To enable either of the options, you can set either “Snappy” (Spicy Gingerbread Man) or “Santa” as your Mood in the app. Using Santa Claus for navigation will also transform your car icon into his iconic sleigh.
As previously mentioned, this isn’t the first time Google has brought on celebrities to give its products and services a boost. Aside from Hasan Minhaj and Roger Federer,the Jonas Brothershave also been a part of Google’s efforts in the past. However, the initiative was to promote the musicians’ album at the time, rather than the holiday season. By enabling the feature, Kevin, Joe, and Nick Jonas all lent their voices to provide navigation instructions in the Waze app.
In the past, Google has been known to integrate themes into Waze as well. Rather than sticking to celebrity voices, themed navigation instructions were added —zodiac-themed voices, for example, were offered for astrology enthusiasts. To entice gamers, Master Chief from the Halo video game franchise was added as an option. When some of these features have been rolled out, they’ve been exclusive to the US version of the app, which has a “Customize Your Drive” setting. Few details have been offered in terms of when (or if) Google intends to make the customization feature more widely available in the future.
Whether you can’t get enough of the holidays or you typically can’t wait for the end of the season, these Waze options may just bring you some cheer. Generally speaking, holiday travel can be a pain, and listening to the same navigation voice can become a bore. If you know you’re going to be on the road during one of the busiest times of the year, Santa can liven things up.
