It’s been less than two weeks since HERE announced that its Maps application and service is available for download to all compatible Samsung Galaxy smartphones.

Even though the application was still in beta, Samsung may have paid a lot of money to Nokia for a two-week exclusivity period which has ended today.

HERE confirmed today that its Maps application for Android is now available for download on all compatible smartphones. Initially released in Samsung Galaxy App Store, HERE Maps is now available for download via the developer’s website and can be sideloaded with ease.

Speaking of which, HERE confirmed it has received lots of useful feedback from smartphone owners, critics and media, which helped them greatly in fixing lots of bugs and making the application run much smoother.

One such issue has been discovered after the application was released on Galaxy smartphones and is related to the “cache cleaner” apps, which accidentally delete the navigation voices in the HERE app in some cases.

Although the issue hasn’t been fixed yet, the developer confirmed that they are working hard to deliver a patch in the coming weeks.

In the meantime, in order to avoid this issue, HERE recommends smartphone owners not to use these “cache cleaner” apps until a patch is released if they want to continue to use voice-guided turn-by-turn navigation.

More importantly, you can take advantage of HERE Maps services for free and you don’t even have to be connected to the Internet. Thanks to the Offline mode, you will be able to navigate without any data charges, assuming you have already downloaded the offline map.

The application is available for download via HERE's official website

Judging by the positive feedback after the application’s release on Galaxy smartphones, HERE Maps seems to be a great alternative to Google Maps. Even if the application is still in beta, it shows great potential.

Those who wish to download and install HERE Maps on their smartphones should make sure they run Android 4.1 or higher on their devices.

Simply visit here.com/beta/android from your Android smartphone and click on “Get the app now” and the download should commence. You will find the APK file in the Downloads folder using a file manager.

Tap on the HERE Maps APK file and it should start the installation. Make sure you have the “Unknown sources” box in the Security menu checked, so you can install applications from third-party sources.

If you’re using the PC to download HERE Maps for Android, make sure you then connect your smartphone via a USB cable and copy the APK file in the Downloads directory.

Then disconnect the phone from your PC, and using a file manager, click on the APK file to install HERE Maps on your Android smartphone.

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