Sneak Peak: Waze Android widget predicts traffic for your commute

Waze, the smartphone app that uses crowd-sourced data from their network of smartphone-savvy users to determine traffic levels on highways and side-streets in your area, will soon make it even easier to check up on traffic density with a new Android widget that serves up at-a-glance traffic info. Waze was at Google’s Android booth at Mobile World Congress 2011, and we stopped by to see what the innovative crowd-sourced navigation app had up its sleeve.

The new widget lives on the Android homescreen. It monitors traffic levels in your immediate vicinity to determine approximate commute times to your home or work. The widget has access to your geo-location data, so it always knows where you are, and it uses that data to figure out what commute times are likely to be at a given moment in time. But, it doesn’t end there.

If you tap the graph on the left side of the widget, you’ll be greeted with a pop-up “Commute-O-Meter” that shows you commute time predictions for the next few hours. The idea is to help you decide when you should hit the road to avoid the worst traffic. You’ll want to avoid driving at times when the graph shows traffic in the orange or red zones. And, when you’re ready to head home, just tap the right side of the widget and Waze will automatically fire up and give you real-time driving directions and traffic information for your journey.

Waze says that the widget will be available in a couple weeks in the Android Market. For the time being, hit up the HD video below to see the widget in action!