Google Maps Navigation comes to Canada and mainland Europe, remains free as a bird

Patience has had to be your foremost virtue if you were eager to use Google Maps Navigation outside the US or UK, but you might be in luck today as a sizable new batch of countries is getting the free turn-by-turn nav service activated. Googleites in Canada and most of mainland Europe will now be able to hear their Android (version 1.6 and above) giving them voice directions, and as an extra bonus, some nations are also seeing voice search activated, with Canada and German-speaking countries among them. Google's clearly not sitting on its laurels here, so why not power up your phone and let us know how well it finds its way around De Wallen?

Update: The full list of countries has been made official now:

"Today we're launching Google Maps Navigation version 4.2 in Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and Switzerland for Android devices 1.6 and higher."

Google Search by Voice has also been confirmed, it's rolling out in French, German, Italian, and Spanish versions today -- with iPhone and BlackBerry compatibility to boot!

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

[Carnival Posted Jun 9th 2010 9:57AM]

What about Norway!!!!!??????

[JohanLG Posted Jun 9th 2010 12:32PM]

@Carnival Yeah, we deserve it more than Denmark lol :P!

[bricktop Posted Jun 9th 2010 6:41PM]

@JohanLG
Not more than Sweden;)

[Zhuzhu Posted Jun 9th 2010 10:26AM]

My bird's not free...

[Fishos Posted Jun 9th 2010 10:37AM]

With: "German-speaking countries" which coutries do you mean?... SO... In Belgium we have 3 spoken languages: Dutch, French and German...
Do we have google voice activated then? If it is, only in German i suppose... Belgium gots only 73.675 people living in that german part...
Doesn't it exist in French?

[anthony13 Posted Jun 9th 2010 10:43AM]

Nokia`s OVI maps offers coverage of the whole world for free. The application is unfortunately available only to newer models. Free maps should indeed be the standard, Google is headed to the right direction.

[gollu Posted Jun 9th 2010 11:23AM]

Engadget, you have to know that the mentioned countries hardly account for most of mainland Europe. It's more like Western Europe.
Check the globe.

[Auouywonz Posted Jun 9th 2010 12:01PM]

What Android phones in Canada are running past 1.5? I'm still stuck on 1.5 on my Magic :(

[bjtheone Posted Jun 9th 2010 6:51PM]

@Auouywonz

Root the phone.... Rogers will never update the Dream (aka G1) and has just started talking about "testing" 2.1 on the Magic (aka MyTouch/Sapphire).

Had Nav for quite some time on my Canadian Magic running 1.6, thanks to XDA developer Brut's brilliance. Only thing the "real" version does better is shorter/more concise nav directions.

[lerxst Posted Jun 10th 2010 12:53AM]

@Auouywonz The Motorola Milestone on Telus has been updated with 2.1.

[JohanLG Posted Jun 9th 2010 12:31PM]

Damnit! Not Norway? Hell, even Denmark is on the list! :P! Well, i am a lot in France, guess i can benefit from it there :)

[nIcon Posted Jun 9th 2010 1:04PM]

Hurray!

[Aruba4608 Posted Jun 9th 2010 1:05PM]

WTF, DENMARK before Sweden....come ON...WHO can get lost i that tiny puny land? ;-)



Yeah...im a Swede (jag är inte bitter jag inte)...

[bricktop Posted Jun 9th 2010 6:43PM]

@Aruba4608
Yeah, seriously.
You can walk to one side of the country to the other in no time. Why even use a car?
Dom borde ta ut potatisen ur munnen in dom snackar också..

[nrcole Posted Jun 9th 2010 1:11PM]

Now if Rogers would actually update my Magic beyond 1.5...

[jazz4ivo Posted Jun 9th 2010 2:48PM]

What about Sweden, Norway and Finland are they not part of Western Europe. Come on Google get it on there too!!

[manwhorocked Posted Jun 9th 2010 3:14PM]

ok, that's fine, now middle europe please, my nexus can't wait any more for it's navigation..... pleaseeee

[Zeroexe43 Posted Jun 9th 2010 3:39PM]

Wow thats bullshit, since Rogers wont upgrade the G1 or HTC magic past 1.5 i guess we are fucked thanks Rogers

[Johnny Rockets Posted Jun 9th 2010 5:15PM]

Aside from the countries/languages, are there any new features in 4.2?

[bjtheone Posted Jun 9th 2010 6:53PM]

@Johnny Rockets
Nope... Google did not change anything on the app side (4.2 is not new). They just flipped the switch server side to allow Nav to work in more countries.

[zerotheloner Posted Jun 9th 2010 7:18PM]

Where is Norway?! ah!?

[techtroll Posted Jun 9th 2010 9:24PM]

Asia please?

[Joelllle Posted Jun 9th 2010 10:57PM]

Awesome. Got it on my Milestone!

[lerxst Posted Jun 10th 2010 12:54AM]

@Joelllle Is voice search on there? I had to find the separate apk online when I first bought it and it runs perfectly. If they've updated it I might as well use the correct version.