Google Maps

Google Maps is the app most people reach for before they leave the house, and often while they are already on the road. Type in a destination and it offers routes for driving, walking, cycling or public transport, with an arrival time that updates as traffic changes. If a road closes or a jam builds up, it can reroute you automatically, which saves the awkward moment of discovering a delay only when you are already stuck in it.

Navigation itself is calm and clear. Turn-by-turn voice guidance tells you where to turn before you need to, lane guidance helps at complicated junctions, and the map shows your position in real time. For buses and trains, it can show departure times and connections, while walking directions help in city centres where a car route would be useless. Offline maps are also available for areas with weak signal, so a downloaded map can still guide you when data cannot.

Maps is just as useful before a journey as during one. You can search for restaurants, shops, petrol stations, hospitals or parks, then judge them from photos, reviews, opening hours and prices. Street View lets you look at a street, an entrance or a car park in advance, which takes the guesswork out of arriving somewhere new. Busy-times information hints at when a place is crowded, and saved lists let you collect favourite places and share them with friends.

The app covers most of the world, and its details are kept up to date by a mix of official data and contributions from users who add places, photos and corrections. That breadth makes it a daily tool for commuters and a travel companion for holidays alike. It is free, it works on phone and desktop, and its real strength is how it quietly answers the small questions — which way, how long, what is nearby — that come up every time you go somewhere.