Is there a way to minimize the voice directions in Navigator?

[ChandlerCallison]

We're using Navigator to route water meter readers, and we have hundreds of meters per route. The meters are read via radio, so getting out of the vehicle isn't necessary, they simply have to drive by. The voice turn-by-turn is nice to avoid having to look at a screen while driving, but with so many stops to make in one route the voice navigation NEVER stops. You're constantly arriving at a destination, and then the voice navigation can't keep up. You miss turns because it's still announcing a destination you passed up 20 seconds ago. Is there a way to disable announcing each destination so you're only told when you need to make turns? Or is there a way to load a route and not the stops, so that the whole "you have arrived at your destination" hundreds of times can be skipped altogether?

[BrentPierce]

HI Chandler,

There is a switch to turn off the voice orations if you slide the panel up when you are Navigating. With respect to solving your workflow in a different way, in the Navigator beta we support the concept of Routes: https://community.esri.com/groups/navigator-for-arcgis-beta/blog/2018/09/28/routes-in-navigator 

You can use waypoints instead of stops for each meter when creating a route. This would define the geometry of the route but would not affect the announcements the drivers hear while following the route. Simply put, it would still help the driver drive by the meter and hear important announcements like where and when to turn but the orations would not get cluttered up with announcements for every stop (meters in your case).

Here is a link to the beta site you can join here: https://community.esri.com/groups/navigator-for-arcgis-beta?et=invite.join.sgroup.unmodifiable

Hope this helps,

-Brent 

[ChandlerCallison]

Brent,

I changed all the stops to waypoints in ArcGIS Pro, re-ran the network analyst route, shared as a route layer, and opened the stop list in the Navigator beta. It's still telling me when I've arrived at each stop though. I need the voice orations on so that drivers will know when to turn without getting distracted staring at the screen, so I can't simply turn off the voice navigation. Announcing every stop means the voice is still lagging behind and announcing turns way too late. Am I missing a step? We're currently on a trial version of Navigator through our ArcGIS online count rather than through our portal, if that makes any difference.

[BrentPierce · Accepted solution]

Hi Chandler,

I think the problem is that you're opening a stop list and not the route directly. The best way to consume a route is to share it with a named user and then open the route in the Navigator app directly. You will notice that there is a routes tab in the search tool in the Navigator beta. When that tab is active all the routes that have been shared with the named user you are logged in as should be listed. Tapping on any of these will load the route and only narrate the turn by turn directions when navigating because your route only has waypoints and not stops.

Alternatively you can use the Navigator URL scheme to reference the route layer by referencing the RouteItemID. When the driver tap on a link of this type Navigator will launch and load that route directly.

[ChandlerCallison]

That was the problem! Before opening the route was giving me an error so I had to load the stops list, but the route is working now. Thank you so much!

[BrentPierce]

Great to hear. The difference between route layers and stop lists is a little subtle but pretty important. 

Stop lists are literally just a listing of stops and Navigator uses this to create the route on the device.

Routes are pre generated on the platform and include waypoints which are used to define the route geometry. The nice thing about waypoints is that we don't narrate arrival at those points along the network in Navigator. Route can also include barriers which is a pretty interesting feature if you have those.  

[BrentPierce]

Here is an example of what the URL scheme might look like here: https://navigator.arcgis.app/?routeItemID=6865ca0c6c764ba6bf33ef9839cf5953

[GéomatiqueVRN]

Hi Brent,

I followed your suggestion by loading the stops as way points, solved a route then shared it to our account on ArcGIS online. When I tried to open the route in Navigator (Beta version) I had an error message "There was an error during the creation of the route". When I shared the route with using ArcGIS Pro 2.4 there was no error.

Any help will be appreciated.

Thanks