Offline Here Maps Updates Are Now Incremental on Windows Phone

Good news for all the Windows Phone users who depend heavily on Offline Maps for navigation. Next time you get an update for Maps ( Settings > Maps > Check for Update) you will be able to just download the changed content instead of re-downloading the maps which sometimes are big pain when it counts in GB.  Nokia Here team just announced this feature for all Windows Phone 8 users who have the GDR2 & Nokia Amber update already on their phone.

The best part of Here Maps is that they work offline and I had an amazing experience when I was in London last week. I had all my locations bookmarked and was using Lumia 920 which was on roaming but data off. It just worked perfectly. Now with this update, it makes sure that you will be spending lot less on data even if its WIFI.  This also means you would spend lot less waiting for the maps to update.

How do you check for the update. Go to Settings > Maps. This is central to all maps in Windows Phone and you can manage all your downloads and update, delete new ones. Just hit the check for update in here and if there is an update, you will be notified.

To figure out if this is an incremental update, you can compare the size of the update with the already installed maps. As an example, I have the Map of England which occupies 256 MB but the update is just 56 MB.

Most of the devices have the Amber update but if you haven’t, check with the Amber Update Checker. | Via Nokia Conversation