Driver app enables the user to create personalized routes for friends

Mapkin lets friends send each other personalized directions, with custom instructions and voice recordings.

While apps such as Waze have harnessed the crowds to provide quicker routes for drivers, Mapkin is a new platform that lets friends send each other personalized directions, with custom instructions and voice recordings. Once users have created a route from one point to another, they can begin to add elements along the way. Choosing from a list of popular stop-off points or creating their own, they can include points of interest such as restaurants, gas stations and parking spaces. Mapkin enables users to also add their own comments along the way – directing friends to avoid a particular junction or simply making instructions clearer or more fun. To replace the limited selection available with standard GPS navigation devices, directions can be complemented with users’ own voice recordings. Maps can then be saved and shared with friends over email, SMS or social networks. Waze can help drivers get from A to Z with ease thanks to help from expert mappers, but – similarly to the automated Roadtrippers platform – Mapkin is more about finding parts of a route that others may not necessarily know about, making sharing directions fun. Could these two strands of community-based direction-giving be integrated? Spotted by: Leo von Wendorff