Best Android Sat Nav App

[Deleted User]

Interesting thread.

I have a Garmin satnav for the car, but could use one for navigating on foot, so, ideally, it wouldn't need to be connected all the time.

dynamic9

I have used Navmii for some time and find the speedometer and offline route planning useful, especially when I've saved my destinations as favourites. A few minor mapping errors are there.

But now at last Google Maps also provides offline route planning and rerouting when you divert if you have downloaded the areas for offline use.

The only trouble is that offline areas expire after about 30 days and must be reloaded. The quality of the mapping should be the same as Google online. But it takes a while and quite a bit of storage to download enough for long journeys. Also it insists on storing maps on internal memory, not sdcard1, which means I have to be selective on my current phone. Navmii doesn't impose those restrictions. However, it's a good and worthwhile improvement to Google Maps for which I applaud them.

DavidP24

I am interested in this thread because I want to use ANYTHING BUT WAZE.

Waze was developed by some very smart people in Israel and bought by Google for around a billion despite the fact that they had Google Maps...WHY?

Well if you have read "in the plex" you will understand that Google wants all the data in can get (it will figure out how to exploit your data later).

Waze did something that Google would never have got away with, it spies on you, even when you are not using it and before you think this is some consipiracy theory, this has all been confirmed by Waze and they give the whole "want to improve customer experience bull" line.

So first some subtle differences, when you authorise most apps to use Apple Locations services they usually offer 3 options,

Always
When the app is in use
Never

Waze only offers 2

Always
Never

but even then it does not respect these because when you think you have closed Waze IT STILL HAS WAZE STUBS IN MEMORY, hidden programs that can launch the app and do stuff in background.

One of the things they do "in background" is record your movement in your home, they call this Geofencing, they literally record the boundaries of your home and how long you spend in each room to figure out your habits. Expect an ad from Google advertising Andrex when you next take a dump!

When a company does this kind of thing you have to wonder whether they are recording your audio and what else they are monitoring.

Waze is written to be completelely useless unless you grant it full access to your life, you have to disable it in two places and even then to make sure you have to reboot your Iphone to kill the stubs (there may still be hidden processes but you would have to jail break your iphone to find out).

Another trick they do is that when you turn off wifi data and then go into waze they show things as disabled as if they are disabled in waze itself but when you turn wifi back on they turn waze access back on. You have to go into waze and disable wifi access. This also applies to location services and all other things you want to deny waze access to.

Of course Waze would love you to share your friends with ETA and use it actively so it can collect as much data as possible.

In my opinion Waze is as pervasive as a virus, we all trade data for free apps but this goes too far.

In the US Waze got in trouble by making Waze like a game where you drive over certain things, people said this caused them to have car accidents because they were not concentrating.

When driving, I only use Waze audio, where I keep the iphone in my pocket and use headphones to receive instructions, this takes some getting used to because unlike TomTom which tells you at every junction where to go, Waze will say something like "take A1 for 6 miles north" and then not say another word for 6 miles.

Waze IS very accurate but for me the loss of privacy price is just too high, I have learnt to lock it down but I am looking for a replacement, I used to use TomTom on a different device and it was pretty good, I will probably go back to it so I can eradicate Waze completely.

Conan

Been using Nokia's Here since it was introduced. Can't find a fault to it.
It allows to download whole countries or, for bigger ones, single regions or even cities (Paris for example).
I can choose to store the maps on the memory card and update them all at once with a tap.
Navigation is accurate, with traffic alerts (this obviously needs data connections for live feed), day/night view and speed alerts.
Quite surprised it's considered 'relatively untested' on MSE, in its various incarnations it's been around for longer than most other software.

gerrywac

just an update to my post #95 on Navmii/Navfree.

turned out they were updating the Euro maps and I was able to download all the mps I needed (France, Benelux, Austria, Germany, Poland) a few days later, all fitted onto space left on the 8Mb micro Sd in my smartphone.

Used it as a self contained unit (off-line) on my Euro car-camping holiday in October and it was brill for a free App.
Took in 2200 +miles and it barely missed a beat all trip.

Was particularly impressed when it managed to get me from one side of Berlin to the other right through the centre on a Saturday afternoon when they had the largest demonstration ever seen (couple of 100,000 people!) and there were street closures and diversions all over the place.

It took re-directions in real time in it's stride bar a couple of times it lost Sats amongst tall buildings but quickly recovered.

as a simple satnav it did everything I wanted and for free it's a keeper!

I was using the older Navfree version on an elderly (7yo) Samsung Galaxy Ace, latest Navmii versions use same maps but have a lot more features, also worked fine on a my Sons newer phone taken as a back up

Dazzle69

I use HERE on a pretty much daily basis. I'm a trade plate driver and collect and deliver various cars all over the place. HERE shows me my current speed, speed limit for road I'm on, distance and eta plus delays in landscape mode. Directions are pretty clear and exits on roundabout are shown well in advance. Favourites are easily stored in collections and as I also have a work phone sync across effortlessly. Maps are downloaded so can be used offline saving data costs. My choice for driving satnav. Public transport satnav I still use Google maps as more third parties seem to share with Google.

henm2

I use waze most of the time. It works very well and is easy to use.

However when driving in the summer in the Czech Republic I used Navmii (formerly known as Navfree) and had a good experience with that also (waze was not available).

Either app is free and I usually set up the route via wifi and they both work without eating up any data allowance. However if you do use your 3G data you will get instant traffic report warnings in addition to the regular routing.

kitinfrance

I think that the HERE app is magnificent. Not perfect of course (software updates often turn the voice direction off) and the roundabout offering exit number (but the junction map is v.useful) but my main concern is how they can offer such a full featured system for nothing. Who is paying? Our car came with a top end Pioneer stereo/satnav and we paid huge sums to upgrade the discs. HERE updates regularly and shows new roundabouts in small rural France (watch your battery on overnight downloads) and we have all of EU maps on the phone plus an extra mini-sd card. In France and the UK we have data connection on 3G but it seems to work perfectly well without and has maps of Albania and all sorts.

I can't imagine how Garmin and the like will stay in business. Why would you buy one of theirs when HERE is free and only needs a windscreen or ventilator mount?

jblessing

if your finding that your GPS is a little laggy you can always change the GPS servers internally

Eh? An ntp server tells your device the time. Nothing to do with GPS signals which the phone picks up direct from the satellites. The gps signal also includes a time.

carlaj

Following the MSE recommendations, I have tried to install Navmii on my new Android Phone. When I came to download the basic UK & ROI maps, I find it will not install them because it wants 1.5Gb of memory. Even though I have pointed my phone to use my SD card for storage and there is plenty of space there, it only seems to recognise the internal storage, of which there is only 450Mb free due to all the built-in Android apps.
I've disabled and uninstalled everything I don't use but it doesn't make any difference. Shame, it sounded like a good app, but looks like I will have to make do with Google Maps after all.