This is amazing. Now things like Garman have no real purpose (offline maps was their niche as Google Map's version of the same was terrible).
Now who do I need to bribe at Google to get Google Maps to support Mirrorlink so it works with a quarter of a million vehicles? And to give Google Now a fake telephone number?
Google would prefer vehicles implement Android Auto. I'd prefer that too. The reality on the ground is that about a dozen vehicles in the 2016 model year support Android Auto, while four times that support Mirrorlink (a Android Auto/Car Play competitor). That's a lot of vehicles who for their ten-twenty year lifespan won't have Google Maps without MirrorLink app support. So they're stuck using wonderful Android apps like "BringGo" and "Sygic" that are MirrorLink compatible.
As to the Google Now fake phone number issue. Microsoft's Cortana does this, it rocks. A lot of vehicles totally botch Bluetooth. On a $20 Bluetooth Headset you can push and hold the call button and it opens up a audio stream to your smartphone, you say "OK Google" and Google Now works. Unfortunately many vehicles lack this very simple functionality. They outright refuse to open up a blank audio stream over Bluetooth, instead they want a specific phone number to call (that is stored on the vehicle's contact list). With no telephone contact in the directory the vehicle won't even pretend to start a call. Once you ask your vehicle to call someone, it opens up the Android dialer app and "OK Google" does not function (since you're now in a voice call). Cortana's fake number solves this outright, you "call" Cortana, she answers and you conduct your query. Your vehicle cannot know it isn't a real voice call, it is amazing.
PS - No, Tasker does not solve the bluetooth thing. You can intercept the call and start Google Now, but as soon as it hangs up the call the bluetooth cuts out.
> Now things like Garman have no real purpose (offline maps > was their niche as Google Map's version of the same was
terrible).
I see you've never used a GPS in the back country for days at a time.
Things that are still wonderful about my eTrex 20 [0] is that it's cheap, it takes AA batteries, those AA's can last for 16+ hours continually, and it's not my phone. (phones are great, but I need it to operate as a phone, when I do need it).
And yes, I know your phone can do may wonderful things, and I am as grateful for that as you are, but of the few things they still are not getting right is: use in incremental weather. Like: winter outside, in a snowstorm, on a mountain. Or, being dropped onto things, like rocks. They seem to be allergic to those.
The best thing about the eTrex is that it has a much more accurate GPS than in a phone, at least an iPhone.
The worst things about the eTrex are it's utter crap screen, how bulky it is, how expensive it is (they start at $250), the fact you have to spend a significant amount of additional money on maps and map updates, the added bulk due to the fact it uses AA batteries, and the poor battery life (I know this contradicts your experience, but that is MY experience using one 12 hours a day mapping plants).
I think for many people buying something like the Gaia GPS app and a waterproof case for their phone will be a much less expensive and more flexible option. If you are worried about running down the battery, buy a rechargeable lithium ion battery with a usb jack and take along your charging cable. If you need more accuracy, get a GPS puck for your phone. Garmin sells one.
I just sold my Garmin 62s. iPhone 6s in low power mode has a longer battery life, and Gaia has always been superior to Garmin software.
A better purchase today might just be a Delorme Inreach and their cheapest subscription. It gives 2-way communication and has an emergency beacon function.
> the added bulk due to the fact it uses AA batteries,
Again, I'm not sure if I'd call AA's "bulky" (compared to what?) but one of the merits of only needing AA's is you can find AA's literally anywhere, which is important to me, as I'm sometimes found in the middle of nowhere.
> and
> the poor battery life (I know this contradicts your
> experience,
Lithiums work incredible on this thing. The majority of the time, I use rechargables, as my use is < day, but if I'm out for a few weeks, I bring along a few pairs of lithiums, and life is good. The refresh again had improvements in battery life. The eTrex literally has the best battery life of all the Garmin consumer models.
> think for many people buying something like the Gaia GPS > app and a waterproof case for their phone will be a much > less expensive and more flexible option.
My use case is different than yours (backpacking, mountaineering, bicycle tours across the country). Ever have a phone shut down because it's too cold? Ever use a touch screen with enormous gloves on? Ever needed to use your phone, but its dead because of an app? All of the above in a storm?
Phones are great. I have one! They are also very fragile. I could throw an eTrex across the room in an attempt to do harm to someone and it would work just fine, once I find it again.
You think I'm going to put my phone, in a cradle, and mount that on the handlebars of my mountain bike, then go out and ride a singletrack trail across Colorado? (because that's what I do)
Nope. Batteries not going to last, screens not going to be visible, the thing will get damaged the first time I go over the handlebars (because again, that's what I do).
Dropping my phone off a cliff is something that's happened to me in the last week. I dropped an eTrex down a cliff, and I searched for it, for like an hour, because I knew it was still on, still functioning, and damnit, it's been working for 4 years, no way did I want to lose it. The phone, when found, was destroyed.
I think auto makers, gov't agencies with fleets of vehicles, private companies with fleets of vehicles, public transit agencies, etc., should contribute to OpenStreetMaps, which would then let them all incorporate any features they wanted in their navigation systems without ever having to worry about what Google might or might not decide to do or stop doing from one year to the next.
I had no idea, I got a 2011 car recently and it plays bluetooth audio and does calling as a separate functionality. I had issues getting it setup at first, but once I did, I haven't really thought of it sense. My only issue is I think Google should let you pick a default music software somehow, when I first started using it, it would open up the stock music player instead of Google Play Music (which is what I use by default). Now I go into my car and it autoplays, but I have to have the app open. Hopefully there will be progress in future versions of Android.
The sad part is that older vehicles used to work correctly.
We have a 2014 and a 2016 model year vehicle (by two different vehicle manufacturers, but they both use Fujitsu-manufactured infotainment systems under the brand "Eclipse"); they have voice activated calling. So you have to sync your contacts and then say "Call Bob" for it to call that contact.
If you hold the handset up/handset down button it just brings up the contact list on the infotainment unit, if you hit the listen button it just listens for a voice command, unfortunately in either vehicle there is no possible way to just start a pass-through Bluetooth connection, and from forum posts it is unfortunately common.
As I said above Microsoft have solved this by giving Cortana a contact and a telephone number. You just hit the voice command button and say "Call Cortana." For many people we're stuck not being able to use Google Now until something changes, and it is unlikely the manufacturer will improve the infotainment system (if history is any indication).
Odd, whenever I walk into my car it auto pairs and my only issue is when I turn on the car the default app it chooses to play. I'm not aware of my cars radio manufacturer though. Maybe someone should create a device for your particular scenario, bluetooth into a device that has fake numbers that just bluetooth back into your phone? Just power it on when you're on your car. I'm curious how you could do that with a Raspberry Pi come to think of it...
And then tries to act as the dialer (rather than just passing audio to the phone like a headset). With the voice features built into phones now, the car dialer is probably not the better thing to be using. Windows Phone/Cortana have a workaround:
Not sure if you were being sarcastic when you described Sygic as wonderful or not but I use and quite like it when I'm travelling abroad. I think the UI is much nicer than Google Maps and features like the HUD and night driving mode are great. It's not free of course, but IMO it's worth the money if you travel a lot to different countries and just want to have the all loaded up once and not worry about remembering to cache maps each time you travel.
It's great they brought this back, but this is far from a new feature, just one that was gone for a few years. Previous to the redesign of the google maps app this feature did fully exist with navigation and all as I used it myself when visiting Canada. Anyway glad to see it back but how quick the Internet forgets.. this isn't new, they just fixed the broken feature, heh.
You are mistaken. What existed before (and the redesign did not remove) was the ability to view cached data offline. You could specify a region to cache, then zoom and pan around that area without a data connection. It would also automatically download your route when you started navigation, and if you subsequently lost your data connection there was a limited offline ability to give directions back to the cached route.
What is new, and never existed before in any version of the app, is the ability to search and start navigation completely offline.
"My Maps" was and still is the name of a feature which allows you to add your own places, lines, etc. on top of the base Google map. It has never allowed you to search the base map or start turn-by-turn navigation offline.
As long as you had internet connection at the start of your journey it worked for navigation, even if you dropped offline during your trip. Therefore downloading maps was useful at the time because if you didn't do this, you could be driving blind for a while in areas where there was no internet connection. You could only download small sections of the map at 1 time for offline use (e.g. an area just bigger than Manhattan). Still it was a total PITA given that most other navigation apps at the time allowed you to download maps and start navigation even if you were offline. Of course, if you did that all the time Google wouldn't be able to collect data on you to support its business model, which is probably why they've taken so many years to get around to implementing this.
Offline maps have been supported for a while, but I used to work on Google Maps, and to the best of my knowledge offline navigation has never been supported before.
HERE Maps - Has all of the Offline capabilities and is available Multi-Platform.
In addition it has Speed limits and warnings, all for free on Android.
The one reason to use the Google Maps app is the updated Traffic info and slightly nicer turn-by-turn (mentions specific lanes, etc) and slightly more updated maps.
WAZE also had it from day one but it's a very specific navigation platform, HERE doesn't find the correct address for businesses (and if we are talking about actual businesses e.g. not coffee shops, stores, restaurants etc. then 100% of the time it will fail you) most of the time, fuzzy search isn't going to work, public transport is almost out of the question, Google Maps just beats pretty much everything when it comes to coverage, information, and commute options.
HERE is very good as an actual map I would call it a Garmin GPS replacement more than anything else, but it's navigation and city living/POI location features are kinda lacking.*
I was in Europe without a data plan for two weeks, and offline HERE (which has transit directions, unlike this release) was a lifesaver. Anecdotally, the directions were more accurate too.
Indeed, HERE has been doing this for such long time, it seems quite comical that Google is now coming out with this "new" feature – especially since offline maps were already in GMaps Android before they did the latest design overhaul. They don't seem to be giving much weight to users downloading maps for offline, so bets are off that they are gonna again dump this feature next time they do a new "design language" or such.
I do agree that the maps in HERE are great. The indoor maps are nifty too though unfortunately it doesn't seem to be able to cut across buildings while navigating, which is a pity...
The HERE needs definitely backup. I have country maps downloaded there for travel, and phone is always offline, but often I see white map for the downloaded area. Initially it is always white. Sometimes it helps if you get online for a moment, but even then later on I have still got white map. Similar issues with both Android and iOS versions. Unreliable stuff
Just installed HERE and searched for the hotel I'm about to stay at while in Casablanca. It dropped a pin that was wrong by about 30 miles. Neat idea, but clearly not reliable.
I've had good luck with OSM apps like MAPS.ME, and it lets you download entire states or countries if you wish: http://maps.me/en/home
You're probably not going to get the same detailed place/business data, but there are some things where it is more useful (finding public restrooms in Europe, for instance)
Also used OsmAnd+ for offline car navigation in the past. Had very good experience with it although I liked the handling of Google Maps more. Seems still relevant to use because Offline Google Maps is still restricted in area size. No limits with OSM based maps or HERE.
I discovered maps.me app only this summer, but it's my favorite, so far - also, I had the chance to dive a bit more into the OSM community. I hope they continue to grow and produce more open map data in the future.
Bought both the maps.me and pocket earth pro apps for iPhone - for use on data-less vacations. maps.me has slightly better map rendering, pocket earth has more features (things like offline Wikipedia/wikitravel entries overlaid on a map is a great way to discover a place). OSM is surprisingly great for hiking, it has a lot more trails/footpaths than Google maps has marked.
MAPS.ME is the best free OpenStreetMaps apps I found this summer. One can download countries or even a few continents of map data and stay offline with GPS-only. Older OSM map apps got crippled or were not updated for recent OS versions The quality of the OSM map data varies more than Google Maps, but often OSM is more detailed.
Not sure if everyone on HN is aware of it, but HERE Maps has been supporting offline maps for a while, for Windows, Android and iOS devices. You just first download a package over WiFi to your phone / SD card (one package per country, or for big countries, one package per region) and you can access the maps offline.
That's super useful when traveling within Europe for instance.
The main reason I sometimes use Google Maps is that it has better traffic coverage (shows also minor roads while HERE only major ones).
If I know I'm going some where with poor 3G/4G coverage and might get lost, I'll install HERE Maps and get the offline maps for the region, but otherwise I like Google, so this will be nice to have a single map app.
The Navigon GPS app is also offline. It's really a key feature, not only for driving but also for any activity where you're in the woods. It saves me from getting completely lost several times a year.
Didn't this feature already exist and then disappear? I seem to remember being able to select a roughly 20 mile square area to download to my phone but the data and the feature disappeared after either an Android update or a Maps update.
That has existed for a while and never went away (you can access it by clicking on the search bar and scrolling down). What is being announced now is that offline maps can be used for routing/navigation and business info.
It always downloaded and cached the area around your location and route. What new here is that you can control it and it also sounds to be persistent, it also will probably download POI and local businesses info as you've mentioned and allow you to use navigation while offline.
This is quite good for my android phone because it seems to try to connect to every metro wifi out there and doesn't fall back gracefully and quickly enough for it to be seamless.
The iPhone has a better UX when it comes to this but still would be quite good especially when I go to out of the city and get edge or poor 3G connection, it also will work great when roaming and I won't have to worry about closing the navigation app or pressing anything that will trigger a new search when I'm out of the hotel and don't have wifi.
Which is super handy. One of my gripes with Google Maps is that (until now) it will navigate you to a place that is out of service, but as soon as you get there it says "You've arrived!" and then takes away the route you just used without a way to get it back. Really poor usability, especially when the app knows you have no service.
"Whereas before you could simply view an area of the map offline, now you can get turn-by-turn driving directions, search for specific destinations, and find useful information about places, like hours of operation, contact information or ratings."
This adds support for navigation, which I believe has never been possible before.
That said, the ability to download maps for offline viewing was supported years ago, then removed, then added back (hidden in a hard-to-find corner of the app).
I've had it for the past couple of years on my Republic Wireless phone (which has wifi but no data plan) and it does work for navigation as long as you download the map and start the navigition while on wifi, which is a little cumbersome.
My other complaint was that the area it allowed you to save offline was too small to cover a trip to another city. So you'd have to save separate areas all along the route, and try to make sure they all overlapped a bit.
Hoping that this allows larger saved areas and starting or changing navigation destinations while offline.
I'm really curious why Google maps seems so .... neglected?
Maybe all these ideas have been considered but rejected for one reason or another.
* Why can I not annotate the map with my own comments? I can mark a place but I can't label it or put any notes. Seems like for google it could a great source for big data (opt in). Would also seem like a possible lock in feature as in an incentive not to switch to another map system since you probably couldn't easily import your notes)
* Why does search on maps suck so bad? I search for things and it gives me massively irrelevant answers halfway around the world even though it knows where I am. Why is actually searching so hard? Quite often I type something in, I want to "search" as in (show me markers on the map that match this query) but no search option appears, only a list of results which is not useful to me. I want to see them on the map. I don't know where 123 brown street is vs 567 red street but I would know if it would show me all of them on the map. That option is only available sometimes, not always. No idea why.
* Why haven't they started selling ads on the maps? Or at least letting businesses register more info. I'd personally like to see logos/signs (small) instead of just generic markers. I'd also like to be to search for items and have it tell me where I can get them. Not just generic items but specific items. eg. not where can I buy appliances but where I can I buy/see the LG LSXS26466S
* Why are the maps still so bad in so many parts of the world? Google maps does not know how to get from downtown Paris to Paris Disneyland by public transport. Google maps does not have public transportation info in Istanbul THE LARGEST CITY IN EUROPE!
4) Public transport info generally relies on there being a competent transit authority that can provide a solid GTFS feed. You'd be surprised how hard even big, 1st-world cities can find this (here's looking at you, Melbourne).
> 4) Public transport info generally relies on there being a competent transit authority that can provide a solid GTFS feed. You'd be surprised how hard even big, 1st-world cities can find this (here's looking at you, Melbourne).
Sometimes the authorities get into exclusive deals with other companies. Which is infuriating, because while I understand competition, et al., it's Google Maps (and by extension Google Now) we're talking about! I don't want to use that stupid startup that provides public transit navigation in my city. I want Google Now which is properly integrated with everything else on my phone.
> I'd also like to be to search for items and have it tell me where I can get them.
If I recall correctly this feature was actually implemented for a short time. You could search for "milk" and see listings directly on the map with prices. I believe the reason it never took off was retail stores aren't actually interested in letting people comparison shop in this way, so they didn't let Google have the data. Also store inventory data is pretty terrible in general so you'd likely drive to a store and find that they were out of stock, or the item was slightly different, or the price was wrong, or whatever. That's just speculation, though.
> * Why are the maps still so bad in so many parts of the world? Google maps does not know how to get from downtown Paris to Paris Disneyland by public transport. Google maps does not have public transportation info in Istanbul THE LARGEST CITY IN EUROPE!
I know that there's a lot of deals that need to be made for public transportation data. I think the philosophy is if google can't get high quality data (notably: real time data that has things like delays and line shutdowns) for times of public transportation, they won't integrate it.
The goal being to make sure that all the content is as high quality as possible, and not send people down the wrong way
I'm particularly eager to see offline hi-res satellite imagery become available on a mobile device. I lead extended off-road desert driving trips [1] as a hobby and navigation is the biggest challenge. I strive to avoid commonly used roads and trails and seek out old, disused mining roads and cattle paths whenever possible. I currently use offline USGS topo maps [2] which is a big help but satellite imagery is far better for evaluating the potential driveability of a route.
Please, Google--anybody--let us use or buy offline satellite imagery!
I traveled full-time in a motorhome for about four years, and I literally can't count the number of times I have furiously shouted "Goddammit, Google, cache your shit!" at my phone. I don't frequently get angry at inanimate objects (or faceless corporations), but this is a uniquely infuriating problem.
I had other map and navigation apps, including quite pricey ones. And, I had a dedicated Garmin GPS. All could navigat and provide maps without a network connections. But, they all suck in other ways. Google Maps is clearly superior in every regard except that it will leave you on your own when you get off the grid, which is a pretty big deal...made more frustrating because it's difficult to guess when it's going to fail completely and make driving really stressful for a little while.
They allegedly added caching of routes a few years back, but it never worked very well. Any change, addition of another destination along the route, changing zoom level, searching for gas and then trying to go back to your original route, would all cause it to lose the cached information. It was pretty much worthless because it would invalidate the cache at the drop of a hat.
I'm hitting the road again, in a travel trailer, and I gave away my GPS because I have less space for extraneous things. I also assumed that things are better on the Android app GPS front (when I started traveling back then, I was using a Google dev phone, the first one based on the G1...so, all things Android have improved a little bit).
> You can download an area by searching for a city, county or country
I'm curious what states or countries actually work with this feature. The first thing I did was type in "United States." Too big. Eventually I had to zoom into an area half the size of the SF peninsula before I could download anything. It's better than nothing, but still not as good offline as the Garmin I had a decade ago. I guess this data has lots of stuff that my Garmin didn't, like business hours, but I care a lot more about navigation than about the rich maps data Google wants to deliver me.
Are you sure you have the new version of the app? That sounds like the current version of "offline" maps, which just downloads the static geometry, not routing, POIs, etc.
Google can direct me to the front door of an apartment in a dense city. As well as provide me with opening hours of businesses and detailed transit information. How big is the download, to grab "The whole USA"?
Can I thread hijack and ask what in the world happened to plain old satellite view in google maps ?
As in, go to the maps.google.com website, and the little icon in the corner to see things in a satellite view doesn't exist anymore ... there is only a choice for google earth and streetviews and blah blah blah things I never used.
Although on an old mac running snow leopard, satellite view option is still there.
What is going on ? Why would I not want the option of satellite view ? It seems like I would...
I believe the earth view is suppose to be the what was the old satellite view, just now by default having 3D rendering. Some people like it, some people don't If you're annoyed by the 3D rendering you can turn it off. Go to the same menu after selecting the Earth view and you should now see a '3D on' label. Click it and the 3D stuff will turn off and you'll get normal looking satellite images again.
Doesn't look like it, but you can build and export your own prints at high resolution through Mapbox Studio Classic [1], and you can order nice prints for the U.S. from the USGS [2].
I'm surprised Nokia Here Maps [1] hasnt got a mention here. I did a multiple day roadtrip covering yosemite and death valley and Nokia Here Maps was the only thing that worked and it worked brilliantly.
This has been around for a couple of years unofficially. If you typed "ok maps" into the search bar in maps, it would offline the area currently onscreen.
>we’re gradually rolling out the first set of these improvements with the latest version of Google Maps on Android //
Wouldn't it be nice if there was a version number so one could tell if it was worth updating yet. This is a big plus for me, the old option to cache a region of maps was very useful and this seems the moreso.
It's really something all businesses building apps (native or otherwise) should be concerned with. Until we have one global network provider (haha), I don't see them cooperating with each other any time soon in any way that doesn't line their pockets. There are some EU roaming laws progressing in that direction, but I don't expect that for North Americans in the near future.
Latest example I had while I was travelling - the AirBnb "app" couldn't show me my accommodation details without internet access. Really, what's the point of the app then if you can't cache the data locally?
Browser caches should also be less aggressive about getting fresh data too. Caching is hard, but not everybody stays in one place with access to the internet until later. Do I have to continue printing on paper? Most web apps and pages don't pay enough attention to those cache headers.
I used Maps.me while in Europe and it worked well except for the occasional crash, and the offline routing was very welcome for navigating the cities.
Another one that barely works offline, incredibly: TripIt. WTF? Theoretically TripIt would be the bee's knees, and then you stand in line at the checkin desk and you want to show them the pdf eticket they emailed you - 'oops just hold on while this app starts - uhoh can't connect - uh it was here just a while ago - just wait a bit - yeah I'll be back later'.
A travel app that doesn't work off line? Never doing that again.
Better late than never. I stopped using Google maps for anything serious. Was driving to Point Reyes lighthouse once and lost the connectivity, and spent the next half hour aimlessly driving and came back. Felt like an idiot.
like with any assisted navigation system you shouldn't blindly follow it, memorizing the route, POI's, and looking at road signs is well kinda mandatory....
Bought the Garmin GPS for a hundred bucks and it is so much better. Will never trust any server based GPS app. Why cant they just download all the map data (basic should do, if not all of it) of USA. How much memory does it need ?
I love to have this and long for this for a long time. Downloading Data while on the go is very battery consuming, in places where you are not familiar running out of battery tends to bother me a lot.
Ten years ago you could have bought a Nokia Internet Tablet, download maps to SD cards, and used Maemo Mapper for offline maps (not navigation nor points of interest, back then). But essentially nobody did that, because it was hard. Bringing applications to a wide audience is valuable, even if the exact same things have already been achieved for or by a narrower audience.
They've had experiments offline for a long time...
Gmail, Google Calendar and Google Reader used to have offline mode through Google Gears - though a while ago they yanked it from all browsers apart from Chrome to foist the latter onto people. Of course there is also POP3 and IMAP for Gmail. Also, Google Maps used to have a prominent offline caching mode, but the hid it away more and more.
If you don't go outside of a major city perhaps, but I find myself outside of cell service very frequently (in the mountains, radios don't work too well and there aren't many people anyway).
I have had to use navmii which uses openstreetmap data on all 4 of my recent vacations. The fact that bandwidth is abundant and freely available breaks down as soon as you step outside urban areas.
Now who do I need to bribe at Google to get Google Maps to support Mirrorlink so it works with a quarter of a million vehicles? And to give Google Now a fake telephone number?
Google would prefer vehicles implement Android Auto. I'd prefer that too. The reality on the ground is that about a dozen vehicles in the 2016 model year support Android Auto, while four times that support Mirrorlink (a Android Auto/Car Play competitor). That's a lot of vehicles who for their ten-twenty year lifespan won't have Google Maps without MirrorLink app support. So they're stuck using wonderful Android apps like "BringGo" and "Sygic" that are MirrorLink compatible.
As to the Google Now fake phone number issue. Microsoft's Cortana does this, it rocks. A lot of vehicles totally botch Bluetooth. On a $20 Bluetooth Headset you can push and hold the call button and it opens up a audio stream to your smartphone, you say "OK Google" and Google Now works. Unfortunately many vehicles lack this very simple functionality. They outright refuse to open up a blank audio stream over Bluetooth, instead they want a specific phone number to call (that is stored on the vehicle's contact list). With no telephone contact in the directory the vehicle won't even pretend to start a call. Once you ask your vehicle to call someone, it opens up the Android dialer app and "OK Google" does not function (since you're now in a voice call). Cortana's fake number solves this outright, you "call" Cortana, she answers and you conduct your query. Your vehicle cannot know it isn't a real voice call, it is amazing.
PS - No, Tasker does not solve the bluetooth thing. You can intercept the call and start Google Now, but as soon as it hangs up the call the bluetooth cuts out.