Garmin Releases viago Navigation App For $0.99, Pay In-App to Unlock Features that Google Maps Does for Free

Besides Gmail and Search, the other service that has become synonymous with Google has got to be Google Maps. Since it comes pre-installed on almost all Android phones, it has become the go-to mapping and navigation service not only because it is convenient, but because it is also very good. If for some reason you do not want to opt-in to Google’s great maps service, though, there are other options out there. A new option with a brand name attached to it has launched today in the form of Garmin’s viago. 

Unfortunately for viago, as previously mentioned, Google Maps does a lot of things, and does them very well. Viago costs $0.99 just to download from Google Play, but if you want to unlock some of its “premium features” you must pay to unlock them through in-app purchases. These premium features include downloading maps to your device so you don’t need a data connection to access them. Or Live Traffic updates which shows you how the roads are ahead of you in real time. Or the Sound and Buildings purchase which unlocks spoken street names and 3D buildings on your map. Is this all sounding familiar? Because they are all things that Google Maps does for free.

It wouldn’t be so egregious if you paid once to unlock all of these features, but paying $0.99 up front to download the app and then having 17 (yes, seventeen) different in-app purchases to make a complete app is completely ludicrous. Unless you work for Garmin or are heavily invested in their ecosystem already, there is absolutely no reason to install this application over Google Maps unless you are keeping your information out of Google’s hands. But then, why would you have an Android phone in the first place?

Follow the link below if you are still interested in this app.

Play Link

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