Gogo Navigator - JAPAN App Reviews

It is extremely frustrating (much more than just disappointing) for an app this price to have everything in Japanese, while it was supposed to be meant for travellers and foreigners - who do not read Japanese script. Actually menus can be in either Japanese, English or Korean, but the maps and all indications are in Japanese only, including metro and train stations, POI and everything else! Then it becomes useless for someone like me - I cannot even ask it to take me to the Tokyo Station, the Tokyo Dome, Tokyo Tower, Yasukuni Jinja... (very famous Tokyo POI) as I would have to write it in Japanese! The free maps coming with the iphone are just so much better - it is not only in English but any Language you want, and the navi device allows you abc type in. Ok, no 3D, thats all. I wasted my money, do not waste yours.

It doesnt work anymore. I used it for almost a few years. The loading screen is all I get and then it exits. Gogo had good graphics and decent GPS accuracy. Finding locations by train station, google maps, address or phone number was decent enough. However, during the few years I used gogo I had several complaints: 1. Often the suggested routes are completely awkward and inefficient. "as the crow flies" pretty much sums it up. (try from Toki city in Gifu to kozouji in Aichi. The roads arent wide enough for two lanes and there are CLEARLY easier, safer and faster routes) 2. Sometimes Im driving under a highway and suddenly out of nowhere Gogo thinks Im on the highway above... Or vice versa. This is absolutely the worst thing that can happen while you are on the expressway. 3. When I choose "faster time" for my route options it often tells me to transfer between 4 different highways. (for example from Toki-city, Gifu to Nagashima, Mie) I have to pay a separate toll for each highway! Google maps instead suggests I do it using one highway. Gogo should have a "fast + cheap" option or it should at least assume nobody wants to pay several different tolls to various private highway companies. Its almost twice as expensive that way! Obviously 2500 yen is more important than saving 5 minutes. 4. Renaming and finding my previously saved "favorites" is difficult. There should be more options for organizing saved destinations. When I save a new "favorite" it doesnt give me the option to name it right away. I have to search for the "New Favorite" and rename it afterwards. This can be confusing if many "New Favorites" have been saved without being renamed. 5. Shouldnt the app close or stop using so much battery once youve reached your destination? If you forget to close the app properly and leave it running in the background your battery dies in a few hours. 6. Why doesnt it tell me the toll prices? Thanks for a few good times and many bad times gogo. I stuck with you because you were expensive but luckily iOS 6 will have turn by turn navigation this fall! Did any of the developers actually use this?

The software is no so bad but when you buy a licence (expensive 50.00$) you can use only one year and after one year you pay must AGAIN !!! Dont buy this one

When driving navigator points me to get out from the highway, when i get out it still keeps the highway mode on; so i have to touch the map button. Shouldnt be this feature automatic? Secondly, when navigator shows me the way it didnt tell me to get out from the exit(kamitoba) but it was the true exit! (driving from wakayama-shi to kyoto-shi nakagyouku) So i think u need to update again. Thanks for now!

Works great! Telephone number search is nifty.

You still have to know some Japanese to search for where youre going. A lot of good features.

This app is awesome! Navi systems in Japan run about 450$. This app is perfect all the commands are in English. Only improvement I could ask for is to make all searches in romanji such as the stations.

I decided to download this app just in case I would get lost on my first big adventure out in Japan. The app helped, it provided turn by turn directions. I would recommend this to anyone looking for a GPS while in Japan. It took me a few minutes to figure out how to use it. You do need to know the location of your destination and recon the route with google map prior to departure.

Well worth the price!

I loaded the app on my iPhone and it worked once before licking ms out an now it shuts off while loading. I deleted the app and reloaded it, same problem!

I didnt know how to rate this app. It is simultaneously a 5 star perfect app, and only deserving of 1 star. My 5 star review? Its one of the only Japanese navigation apps available in English, but it doesnt sacrifice features just to rely solely on that. Very user friendly interface, with lots of options for customization of routes and preferences. It even has phone-number entry for looking up addresses (a real life-saver for those of us who cant read kanji). For a cel-phone navigation program, it is very responsive and accurate. It even includes different routing options for motorcycles. I would insist this is a must have for anybody who speaks English as a primary language and is brave enough to drive in Japan (especially Tokyo). However... my 1 star review: I thought the price was a *tad* on the high side when I purchased the app. Imagine my surprise one year later when I find out that the purchase price is for a one-year license on the app. Nowhere on the apps page do they make this information clear; its buried deep, deep in the EULA. Personally, I feel thats an incredibly shady and highly dishonest approach to doing business. As I will only be in Japan for one more month, I did not repurchase this app. If I were staying for over another year, its so incredibly useful Id seriously consider it, though be loathe to give any more of my money to such dishonest developers. Given my driving habits, it might be more worth my while to rely on Google maps. So I dunno: if you purchase this app with the mindset that youre getting the best English language navigation program there is in Japan for a yearly subscription of $50, its a service that warrants consideration. Cant deny the usefulness of the program, but cant stand the deceptive business practice of the developers either.

Stops working after one year. To continue the service, they force you to purchase the app again. Would give it 0 starts if that were possible.

I was so in love with this app until I found out the hard way that it will stop working after a year. If I knew that beforehand, I would have skipped this app. Its ok if it just stop working, but it wont even let you in to get your saved locations. It is insisting that you get a new license before it will let you go past the first screen. Im ready to delete this app and switch to another one. But the app is holding my saved locations hostage! What a sly way of dealing with customers!

Unfortunately, this appears to be the only turn-by-turn routing game in town when it comes to a GPS device for Japan. On the plus side, the maps seem accurate, and the controls are in English. On the downside... 1) The app crashes. A lot. It crashes on a 3GS iPhone. It crashes on a third-gen iPad, and it crashes on a iPhone 4. Saving favorites is one way to make it crash (about every third time). 2) Yesterday, while I was driving, it crashed and wouldnt restart. Neither killing the app nor restarting the phone brought it back. So that was fun. I had to delete it from my phone and then redownload it when I got back to the hotels wireless, which for a 2-GB app took all night. Yay. And then all my favorites were, of course, lost. 3) Good luck trying to use a lat/long. I finally figured out that you can google search a lat long from within the app, then save it as a favorite. But if you ever try to view that favorite on a map...the app crashes. 4) If you try to save a location thats not close to a street (eg, on a military base, which the app knows nothing about) to the favorites, you wont actually be able to ever get it to navigate to it. Itll just crash. 5) The app is poorly coded. Occasionally, itll just start drawing big brown flashing polygons over the display, obliterating the map. Great fun when youre driving! Also, you can tell whoever wrote it made a bunch of errors when coding array sizes, as if you bring up a list of POIs or something that have English in them, then scroll down in the list, and then back up, all the English will have vanished, and the list is now entirely in Japanese. I really cant recommend this app. What I can recommend is that its sellers be arrested and charged with fraud for selling such a shoddy product for $50. Youd be better off with any of the free apps that use OpenStreet map data and just learn to live with it not calculating routes for you. Just use the maps app on your iPhone. Im going to look into getting a refund for this, but Im not hopeful. An app that becomes unusable while youre using it to navigate is a safety hazard. It would be great if the creators would step up, do the right thing, and refund the ridiculous purchase price to anyone who has bought it, but you know thatll never happen. If they dont care enough to produce an app that works, they wont care enough to take care of their customers.

Live this app but there are issues with deleting and replacing the points of interest once you place them in the map. If theyre placed within the same screen the app becomes rendered unusable and shuts down. Any attempt to reopen fails. There should also be an option for copy address that were inputtef to copy them to favorites since trying to create favorites crashes. These improvements will drastically make the app above many others.

Ive had this app on 4 devices, iPod touch, IPAD, iPhone 4S x2, and iPad mini. The google search and adding favorites is awesome. It did take a little bit to adjust to the turn voice being a little early. But never failed by this app.

Further review: After 1 yr when licence expired, youre asked to download new version from app store or it wouldnt work. I deleted the app & downloaded again and its working again! --------------------------------- Previous review: Easy to use interface & accurate map & gps performance. Theres no need to know Japanese to use this app at all. My Japanese is very limited & I have no probs entering addresses. However, if youre not familiar with Japanese address system, you could alternatively enter phone number of destination or enter point on map (use google map to help planning route). The fuel estimate & walking mode are very handy! Just to correct my earlier review that no re-calculation of route available, this program does re-calculate route, my mistake in not paying attention.

Wont stay open. After the update to iOS 8, the app no longer works.

I couldn’t even manage to find Narita and Haneda airports, even tried to type in Hiragana, no luck. Just read other comments also before you purchase, I was thinking that others exaggerating about negative thoughts but no they were right. And since it is 1.9GB, each and every update will be at that size, keep that in mind, data plan already sucked up. Have a nice day.

This is the only offline navi app for Japan I can find. I emailed the developer and they told me they are going to terminate this app soon. Please dont remove it. I really like it because this is the only choice.