We’ve taken our time with the new version of your favourite outdoor navigation app – we wanted to give it a proper polish and bring some major improvements before the start of the 2024 season. And we’ve done it – we’ve got a brand new route planner with an integrated dynamic itinerary linked to the route navigation, the ability to put the app directory in a freely accessible storage area, and lots of other nice touches.

Navigate with the planner

Sophisticated route planning is one of the cornerstones of Locus Map’s features. That’s why we’ve done a lot of work in recent months on the planner as well as routing, profiles and other setup parameters. However, the “Navigate to” function could not use this potential in its original design and defacto duplicated the planner function in a somewhat clumsy way. So we decided to combine these two functions into one. 

So how does it work now?

• Choose a destination – via “Navigate to”, by direct selection on the map (point of interest, your own user point, long-tapping any place on the map…), in your library, from a search result…
• Tap on the navigation button – the route planner will start and a route will be generated in the last used profile from your current location to the selected destination. Now you can change the profile (activity, means of transport), add waypoints on the route, check the elevation graph, and surfaces, and just take full advantage of the comprehensive route planner. Or don’t, and go straight to the next step:
• Start the route navigation – the button in the top bar starts the selection between navigation and guidance, and then you’re ready to go.

What are the advantages?

• Removing a redundant route planning interface for navigation
• Simplification of the user interface
• Linking fast navigation from A to B with a comprehensive planner while maintaining the speed of its launch
• Quick possibility to edit the route, add waypoints, recalculate in another router or profile (large selection of profiles and their customization through many parameters) plus other benefits of the route planner (elevation graph, types and surfaces of roads…)

Plan routes with an itinerary

The itinerary has been part of the route planner for a few years now. However, until now it has been somewhat neglected, with extra input from the top bar. And since it is a live part of the UI in the web planner, we decided to make it more visible in the app as well. 

How is the itinerary in the planner used now?

• The bottom slide-up panel, the so-called “bottom sheet”, now contains two tabs that are switched by a button on the top right: charts and itinerary. The default is to display the itinerary, even though there is nothing in the planner yet. This is because you can also select the start and finish directly in the itinerary.

• You can choose the start as before directly on the map or in the itinerary – tapping on start will display a menu of all options: 

• You can add additional waypoints (shaping or via) either directly on the map or in the itinerary:

• Use the itinerary to reorder, delete or reposition waypoints quickly.

• Tap between waypoints in the itinerary to see intermediate route segments that can be recalculated in another profile:

• Of course, on the map you have a fully editable route in addition to this.

So what are the advantages?

Route planning options are now more handy (they used to be hidden in menus), there are “more” options and something different suits everyone. You can plan on the map, in the itinerary, or combine both. The Itinerary is now an equal planning tool to the map.

Plus a little bonus – you can view a detailed route graph directly from the planner:

Photos from Locus Map in Google Photos? YES!

And not only there, and not only photos. Thanks to the new option to move the app’s main directory to the Android/Media sector, the system gallery gets to them too. And you can easily access other app data, the geocaching folder, local exports of geocaching logs, and so on.

It’s a refreshing breeze of freedom since the fateful moment in Android 4.4 when apps were forced into the impenetrable private Android/data sector. While Android’s recommendation is still to use the Android/data sector, you can easily set your main directory to “Private folder in Android/Media” in Locus Settings > Backup & File System > File System Manager and forget about the nightmare of inaccessible app data.

You also have this option on an external SD card, but we don’t recommend it due to data vulnerability and unreliability of the cards.

GPS auto-off is back

This feature, which made life easier and saved the battery for long-distance travelers and wanderers, had to go, as it didn’t work properly on many phones – a lethal combination of battery optimization and a number of system permissions for location access made it impossible to exist.

Fortunately, we’ve managed to discover a way to restore the feature so that it’s fully functional on Android 12+ phones. However, you still need to have Locus Map excluded from all battery optimization options (but Locus Map can’t do without that now anyway). If you don’t know how, this site will give you the details directly on your phone.

However, we’ve placed the option in the Expert settings section. Its use is really specific and has no justification for normal day trips.

More improvements for geocachers

In the previous version of the app, we’ve made a lot of geocaching features available that were originally only accessible through the Geocaching4Locus add-on. However, experienced cachers immediately threw a few things at us that we had forgotten in the rush. We hereby apologize and add the missing options to the app:

• the ability to update a cache directly in its details
• filtering of owners’ caches
• filtering of unpublished caches
• badge for downloaded caches

And don’t worry, it’ll get to the labs one day too, we’re working on it!

So we wish you all a beautiful spring and a nice start to the new season with your favorite outdoor navigation!

Featured photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash