Nokia Updates HERE Apps for Windows Phone

Nokia this week detailed major updates to the HERE location and navigation apps for Windows Phone—HERE Maps, HERE Drive+, HERE Transit and HERE City Lens—that offer a variety of improvements. The firm also announced that these apps will help users migrate away from their old Nokia account to a new HERE account for syncing purposes. And that the HERE Transit and HERE Drive+ apps will be free all users with Windows Phone 8.0 or newer.

In other words, good news all around.

Here's (ahem) what's new:

HERE Drive+ picks up voice-guided navigation for 18 new countries and territories, including Algeria, Angola, Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Cyprus, Iraq, Libya, Mauritania, Mauritius, Nepal, Paraguay, Saint Helena, Senegal, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Zambia and Zimbabwe, bringing the total number of freely navigable countries to 118. This update is available on both Windows Phone 8 and 8.1.

HERE Maps, HERE Transit, and HERE City Lens has been updated on both Windows Phone 8 and 8.1. Each provides access to the new HERE account (see below) and includes "a range of stability and performance improvements."

HERE Maps has been updated on Windows 8.1 too. This update presumably brings the HERE account integration, but I've not checked that out yet because it keeps crashing in Windows 10. You can grab HERE Maps for Windows 8.1 in the Windows Store.

HERE Transit and HERE Drive+ are now free for all users of Windows Phone 8.0 or newer. (Previously they were free only on Windows Phone 8.1.) Note that this is all Windows Phone handsets, not just Lumia handsets.

HERE account replaces the Nokia account for syncing your Collections across all HERE-powered apps and the HERE.com web site. Nokia is helping users migrate their synced Nokia account data in two ways. If you're already logged into the app with your Nokia account, you'll be prompted to create a new HERE account and then migrate your Collections. Or, you can go to the Account Settings page HERE.com and start the import process there. Nokia recommends doing this soon, and it will only take a few minutes for the import to complete.