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How to Add Waypoints to a Route in a Navigation App

Adding a waypoint lets you route through a gas station, a restaurant, or any other stop along the way, without ending navigation and starting a whole new route once you get there.

  1. Enter a destination and start directions

    Search for your final destination and start route guidance as usual.

  2. Find the "add stop" option

    In the route screen's menu, look for "Add stop" (sometimes tucked under a three-dot menu).

  3. Search for a place to visit

    Search for and add anywhere you'd like to stop along the way, like a gas station or a restaurant.

  4. Reorder your stops

    If you've added several stops, drag them into whatever order makes the most sense for your route.

  5. Start navigation for the full route

    Once every stop is set, tapping "Start" begins guidance through all of them in order.

One continuous route instead of several separate trips

Without waypoints, running an errand mid-drive means ending navigation, driving there manually, then starting a brand-new route to the original destination -- losing the running ETA and ongoing traffic-aware routing each time. Adding a stop as a waypoint keeps everything as a single trip, so the app keeps recalculating the whole journey, stops included, as traffic conditions change.

Order matters more than it seems

A navigation app usually optimizes turn-by-turn directions between the stops you've set, but it won't automatically decide which stop to visit first unless you tell it to. Dragging stops into a sensible order -- or using an automatic reorder option where available -- can meaningfully shorten a multi-stop trip versus visiting them in whatever order they were added.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is there a limit to how many stops I can add to one route?

Most navigation apps cap the number of waypoints per route (commonly somewhere around 8-10), which is generally more than enough for typical errands but worth knowing before planning a route with many stops.

Can the app automatically pick the most efficient order for my stops?

Many navigation apps offer an "optimize route" or "reorder stops" option that automatically arranges your waypoints in the most efficient order rather than the order you added them.