Maps and offline maps

Choosing a map

The layers button, at the bottom right of the map just above My location, switches the background; it is in the same place while you follow or record a track, and it lights up when the map is not the plain street map:

• Map — roads, paths and place names, from Esri; when Esri's service is unavailable, the OpenStreetMap map takes over.
• Satellite — photos from above (Esri), with the date of the imagery when it is known.
• Hybrid — the satellite photo with roads and place names on top (Esri).
• Terrain — OpenTopoMap: contour lines, hills and slopes.

Below them, the map catalogue offers official maps, checked one by one against their terms of use: Plan IGN and IGN aerial photos (France), swisstopo (Switzerland), basemap.at (Austria), IGN España, Kartverket (Norway), PDOK (Netherlands), USGS Topo and USGS Imagery (United States), GSI (Japan), and CyclOSM for cycling.

In the dark theme, the street map and the official maps of the catalogue turn dark at night and the terrain map is dimmed, never the satellite, the hybrid view or aerial photos; you can turn this off in Settings › Map.

Your own maps

• Map servers. In Settings › Map › Custom map sources, add a TMS address (with {z}, {x}, {y}, and {s} or {-y} if the server needs them) or a WMS server (1.1.1 or 1.3.0). Export and import your list to move it to another phone.
• MBTiles. Open an MBTiles map you prepared with MOBAC or QGIS: it is copied into the app and works without a network.
• Overlay. Any source can replace the background or be laid over it, with its own opacity — a hiking layer over the satellite view, for example.

Check each server's terms: many forbid apps with ads or bulk downloads. A map from a server is shown online only.

Offline maps

Offline maps work without a connection, in the mountains or in airplane mode. The GPS, following and recording never need a network.

• Download an area. In Offline maps, tap Download an area, frame it on the map, then choose the map and the level of detail. The number of tiles and the size are shown before you start.
• Along a track. From the track's ⋮ menu, keep a corridor of 500 m on each side of it.
• Which maps. Only official maps whose terms allow it can be kept: IGN (France), USGS (United States) and basemap.at (Austria). Each has a limit per area, to spare its servers: a larger area is refused before starting, never stopped halfway.
• Pause and resume. A download goes on when you leave the page. Pause it and resume it later: tiles already there are not downloaded again, even after the app was closed.
• Update. Update downloads the area again; the old tiles stay readable until the new ones arrive.
• Zooming in. Beyond the detail you downloaded, the map enlarges the finest tiles it has.

The street map, the satellite and hybrid views and the terrain view can't be kept: their rules forbid downloading in advance. The maps you have already looked at stay in a cache for a while. Anywhere else, open an MBTiles map you prepared.

Searching and reading coordinates

• Place search. The magnifier finds a town, a summit or an address. The text you type is sent to OpenStreetMap's search service (Nominatim); your position is not.
• Coordinates. Type coordinates in the same box, without a network: decimal degrees, degrees and minutes, degrees-minutes-seconds, UTM or MGRS.
• Long press. Hold your finger on the map to copy the coordinates of a point, share them, add a waypoint there, or go to that point with a compass arrow.
• Format. Choose the coordinate format in Settings › Units and formats.

Relief

The Relief switch, in the map backgrounds or Settings › Map, draws hill shading and contour lines over any map, satellite included. They are computed on the phone from public terrain tiles (Mapzen Terrarium, about 30 m of detail, sharpest up to zoom 14); the contour interval follows the zoom, from 200 m down to 10 m, every fifth line thicker. An opacity slider sets how strongly it shows.

Slopes over 30° can be colored too: yellow from 30°, orange from 35°, red from 40°, purple over 45°. It is a guide, not an avalanche assessment. Relief is off by default: it downloads the terrain tiles of the area on screen, which stay a while on the phone. The sources of the terrain data are shown on the map; touch them for the full list.

Turning the map

By default, north is up. In Settings › Map, the map can turn with your heading (the phone's compass) or your direction of travel. Two fingers turn it by hand; the compass, shown as soon as the map turns, puts north back up.