Offline questions
Whether it really works with no signal, what it does with the network, and what is not built yet.
Does it really work with no signal?
Yes, and that is the whole design. Once a region is on your device, drawing the map, searching for a place, planning a route and running turn-by-turn all happen on the phone. There is no tile server to reach and no routing service to call.
The way to convince yourself takes a minute: download a region, put the phone in airplane mode, and use it. Nothing changes.
Does it use data in the background?
No. Downloading a region is the only thing the app does over the network, and it only happens when you start it. There is no background sync, no usage reporting and no ads, so there is nothing to send.
Does GPS need the internet?
No. GPS is a receiver: your phone listens to signals from satellites and works out where it is. That works in the middle of Algonquin exactly as it works downtown.
What phones normally use the network for is a shortcut — a rough position from nearby cell towers and Wi-Fi networks, which helps the receiver find satellites faster. With no signal, the first fix can take longer, sometimes a minute or two in a valley or under heavy tree cover. It still arrives. Start your route while you can still see sky, and the fix is usually ready before you are.
Does it track me?
No. There is no account to create, no telemetry, and no analytics in the app. Your location is used to draw the blue dot and to follow your route, and it stays on the device. Your favourites are a file on your device. Nothing about where you went leaves the phone.
Is it available in French?
Not yet. Planned. The app and this guide ship in English first; French is on the list and the app is built so that translating it is a translation job and not a rebuild.
Can I route across two provinces in one trip?
Not yet. Planned. A route is planned inside a single region today, so a trip from Ottawa to Montréal cannot be planned end to end while Ontario and Quebec are two separate downloads. You can install both regions and switch between them; you just cannot get one route that crosses the boundary.
Does it do CarPlay or Android Auto?
Not yet. Planned. Today the app runs on the phone’s own screen, and on macOS and Linux on a laptop.
Can I search for a street address?
You can search for names — a town, a lake, a park, a street, a business. Search by house number is planned and not in the app today. See Search for what is indexed and how to get to a specific spot in the meantime.
Does search cope with a typo?
Not yet. Planned. Search matches from the beginning of a name, so the first few letters have to be right — “alg” finds Algonquin, “algo” does too, “alqo” does not. If a search comes back empty, try fewer letters rather than more.
What about traffic, satellite imagery and weather?
None of them, and none are planned in the near term. All three need a live network connection, which is exactly what this app is built to do without.
How current is the map?
Each region is a snapshot of OpenStreetMap taken on the build date shown on the Maps page. It does not change until you delete your copy and download a newer build, and the app does not yet tell you when there is one — an in-app update check is planned. That is the trade: a map that cannot go stale in the middle of a trip, in exchange for one you update deliberately. See Download a map.
What if the map is wrong?
It sometimes will be — OpenStreetMap is very good in most places and thin in some, and no map of the backcountry is complete. Fixes belong in OpenStreetMap itself, where they help everyone; Support explains how to make one and when it will show up in a region.