Google Maps Navigation (Sort Of) Released For European Androids [Hack Enables Google Maps Nav For Canadian, European Use]

When the Google Maps Navigation software was announced for Android phones just a few weeks ago, those of you who carry Android phones outside the United States probably quickly realized one thing – that Google Maps Navigation doesn’t work for you. Until now, that is.

The European forum XDA Developers featured a post where a cunning user posted a series of codes that need to be input into your Android device that will enable Google Maps Navigation, the turn-by-turn TomTom killer software on phones outside the United States.

Google never released any reasons why the Google Maps Navigation software was only limited to the United States, keeping Canada and Europe in the cold, but non-Americans across the blogosphere have confirmed that the workaround works.

XDA’s forum went down in all the buzz surrounding this release, but Gadget Venue posted a clip of the code needed to enable this functionality. It appears to work by some ROM modifications, followed by a hacked version of the app being installed.

Edit: XDA Developer’s forums were down today to scheduled maintenance, not webload. Props to Flar.