How to adjust turn-by-turn navigation volume in Apple Maps and Google Maps on iPhone

When using turn-by-turn navigation in Apple Maps or Google Maps, your iPhone announces upcoming turns and alerts you to be aware of them without looking at the screen.

However, if you don’t find it useful, it’s easy to turn off voice guidance, and in this quick guide, we’ll show you how. We’ll also look at how you can adjust the volume of these walkthroughs in both Apple Maps and Google Maps.

Controlling navigation sound in Apple Maps

Turn voice guidance on or off

1. From the turn-by-turn navigation screen, touch the speaker button.
2. To turn off voice alerts for all directions, tap the speaker mute button.
3. Or, you can choose to receive audio announcements for important driving alerts only by pressing the speaker button with the warning triangle icon.

Increase or decrease navigation volume

Previously, you could go to iPhone Settings > Maps > Navigation & Guidance and select Silent, Low Volume, Normal Volume, or Loud Volume for spoken direction cues. Unfortunately, the latest versions of iOS no longer have these handy options. So, now if you want to change the volume of voice guidance in Apple Maps, use the volume up and down buttons.

Setting up voice routes

1) Open the Settings app and tap Maps.

2) Scroll down and click Voice Guidance. From here, you can enable or disable the following options:

• Directions Pause Spoken Audio: With this, you can pause currently playing content such as podcasts, audiobooks, music, etc. when Apple Maps on your iPhone says directions.
• Wake-up Device: During a long drive, you can lock your iPhone screen to save battery power, or minimize interior lights while driving at night. However, even after the screen is turned off, Apple Maps continues to navigate, and turning on the Directions Wake Device toggle ensures that when you need to turn or something, voice directions will wake up your iPhone’s screen for visual assistance.
• Radio directions: In supported vehicles, you can hear voice guidance through the car speaker.

Set up audio navigation alerts in Google Maps

While the screenshots here are taken from an iPhone, the same applies if you’re using Google Maps on an Android phone.

Enable or disable voice turn-by-turn navigation

1. On the Google Maps navigation screen, tap the speaker button.
2. Tap the speaker icon with a diagonal line to mute all voice direction commands while navigating.
3. Or tap the speaker icon with an exclamation mark to only receive specific voice alerts.

Personalize your conversational navigation volume

When using turn-by-turn navigation, use the physical volume buttons to increase or decrease the volume for voice guidance in Google Maps.

Alternatively, you can swipe up on the bottom card and select Settings. From here, set the prompt volume to quieter, normal, or louder. In addition, you can change other related settings on the same screen, such as playing voice prompts through a connected Bluetooth device.

Now you know how to set up voice directions in the Maps app on your iPhone. Depending on your needs, feel free to set up Apple Maps or Google Maps to announce every turn loudly, only speak warnings, or mute the sound entirely.