Feedback and TomTom app: The partnership that makes maps and navigation experiences better for all

It’s 2025 and TomTom just released a new navigation app. The eponymous smartphone app uses TomTom’s latest products, NavSDK and Orbis Maps, to bring together the best of what the company has learned about navigation and maps over the past 30 years in a completely free, easy-to-use driver-centric satnav. But there’s more to it than that.

The new TomTom app isn’t just a navigation app, it’s proof of how good Orbis Maps is. It shows off what can be done with TomTom NavSDK and, as the most direct connection TomTom has to drivers, it serves an important role in gathering feedback. Feedback that helps the geolocation company keep its maps, and driving experience and automotive services, as fresh and innovative as possible.

TomTom was the first mapmaker and navigation provider to start gathering feedback from drivers to improve its map and portable navigation products. Back in 2007, it added the MapShare function to its all-in-one consumer navigation devices. This allowed drivers to highlight locations where they saw something in the world that wasn’t represented correctly on the map — new roads, street name errors, speed limit changes and so on. It provided a level of detail and accuracy that other sources struggled to match. As the world continues to change at an ever-increasing pace, community feedback continues to be not just relevant, but increasingly important. Over the past two decades, it’s become a vital tool in making the freshest map and delivering the best driving experiences.

Today, the TomTom app is one of the most accessible way to experience the best of TomTom. Drivers can navigate and share feedback about the map and navigation experience — the app is free and easily downloaded from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store. For enterprises or carmakers interested in TomTom, it’s the best working example of what TomTom-powered maps and navigation could look like in-vehicle.

At launch, the TomTom app allows drivers to quickly report road dangers, closed roads, traffic, road works, speed cameras and stationary vehicles, using a button on the main interface. Users can also provide more detailed and complex written feedback about the app and navigation experience in a dedicated feedback section of the settings menu. There are plans to expand feedback functionality further as the app’s user base grows.

“The new app is another way to experiment and learn,” Tomas Cafferata, Director of Product Management for Web and Mobile Solutions, explains. "It helps us see how people really use navigation, so we can test ideas quickly, improve them, and later bring the best ones to our carmaker partners."

“By enabling the community to share feedback with us, the TomTom app enables us to continuously test and innovate,” Leo Sei, Product VP Software and Applications, says. “From NavSDK features to map validation to UX design principles, we have a virtuous cycle of feedback that leads to better products and more users, which leads to even more feedback and further-improved products.” And so it goes on.

Cafferata says that, on average, most users are submitting at least five edits or instances of feedback per month — that amounts to well over 2 million pieces of feedback each month. So with the TomTom app, the team is ensuring they make the most of this, while also making the process of giving feedback easier and simpler for the user.

But what do drivers and users get?

That’s not to say the app is focused primarily on gathering data from drivers. TomTom is also striving to give drivers the best experience possible and build on its history as a navigation provider. “They get the best navigation, built on 30 years of experience, the best traffic information with alerts, and it’s free, with no ads and is respectful of people's privacy,” Cafferata explains.

Indeed, it’s worth noting, due to the nature of and the insight that can be derived from the Big Data created by millions of users and GPS traces, it gathers everything anonymously. It doesn’t need to know who or what was being driven, or where someone was traveling to or from. No personal details are attached to movement data.

How does feedback work?

Feedback in the new app comes in two formats: active and passive. While MapShare only allowed active feedback, the TomTom app can facilitate both active and passive.

Active feedback is where a driver directly takes action to share feedback with TomTom, such as pointing out when a speed limit has changed or, confirming that a mobile speed camera is still in place or a road is still closed. In these cases, the driver takes action to actively participate in sharing feedback that keeps the map up to date and benefits other drivers.

In the app, the driver can click the report button, and select from a pre-defined list of hazards or features, to indicate something that needs to be reflected on the map. They can also provide active feedback in response to a prompt from the app. For example, when driving past a mobile speed camera, the app can periodically ask a sample of drivers if it’s still there. Their response helps keep the map fresh.

Passive feedback is gathered through secondary research conducted by TomTom on how drivers use the app and where they are driving.

“By using the app while driving, the user gives us feedback implicitly,” Leo Sei, Product VP software and applications, explains. “For example, if we have a lot of people driving in an area where we don’t have a road mapped, this is a signal to us that there’s a new route and we need to investigate and potentially add it if it’s a permanent change to the infrastructure.”

“The same thing goes for speeds and driving behaviors, if drivers are consistently exceeding what the TomTom map thinks is the speed limit, we need to check and validate we have the most up to date data.”

Additionally, if many users do not complete their planned route, consistently miss an exit or if they are having trouble finding a location, it can highlight an area where the app experience might need to be reviewed, and improved.

In these cases, the user doesn’t actively report or tell TomTom anything, but help stress test it simply by using the app and map., they are helping stress test it.

Making feedback meaningful

For many users, contributing to the map and seeing the impact of their feedback is a big reward, and motivation enough to encourage more feedback. Recognizing the value of feedback, and letting users know when it’s implemented, is a crucial part of the TomTom app’s feedback loop.

When a driver shares feedback, it will be triaged and aligned with similar feedback from other drivers. It’s common for many app users to submit feedback relating to the same feature. Collating all of the feedback that relates to such an individual change is step one of turning feedback into a map edit. Following this, the edit is sent to the maps team to assess and prioritize. If it passes TomTom’s rigorous validation processes, it will be absorbed into the map, and reflected as quickly as possible.

When it comes to building features and improvements to the app’s user experience, that feedback will take longer to work on — requiring feature development and testing before a full-scale deployment. But the principles remain the same, those that provide feedback will be kept up to date with how their time and effort is helping improve TomTom’s app.

In some cases, like reporting traffic or road closures, this feedback will be visible on the map quite quickly. In other cases, where extra investigation and validation are required, it will take longer. However, TomTom plans to keep those that report errors or changes in the loop with regards to the progress of their feedback. They’ll receive updates as it progresses and when it makes it to the map.