I’m testing Glympse on my sin locked iPhone 6 with Gaia. It appears as though Glympse needs cellular or Wifi to send locations. It’s no different than iOS location sharing in text message.
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Glympse is live and continuous hands-free position sharing, as opposed to text sharing where u have to keep sending texts with your location. And Yes it needs some way to communicate, ie. data.
There is no device that can share information without some kind of way of transmitting and receiving data.
There is no device that can share information without some kind of way of transmitting and receiving data.
Member III
So how is this different than me using a Garmin inReach device. I believe it has a feature to send out location updates via satellite to a predetermined list.
Influencer I
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The difference is it's continuous versus the InReach which sends at intervals. That said, Glympse appears to be useless without cell service or wifi if what's being stated above is correct.
The InReach will work anywhere you have satellite reception. I use the InReach and find it priceless.
Smartphones don't. The problem with any of these features in an app is as soon as you lose cell coverage they do not work. Meaning if you really want a reliable safety net you need a device that can work without cell coverage.
Off-Road Ranger I
I'll take this opportunity to pimp this pending Gaia feature request we've been pushing for 7months now: https://help.gaiagps.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/115008857887-APRSdroid-integration-
The request is for Gaia to add APRSDroid support to the Android app so that we can use APRS to track real-time location of other local vehicles on the map, no cell service required, only a ham radio
If this is something you are interested in, please voice your support on that ticket
The request is for Gaia to add APRSDroid support to the Android app so that we can use APRS to track real-time location of other local vehicles on the map, no cell service required, only a ham radio
If this is something you are interested in, please voice your support on that ticket
Off-Road Ranger I
nope, just a radio. APRSDroid acts as the encoder/decoder and GPS on your phone. i suppose if we want to be technical, you also need an audio cable to connect your radio to your phone
I personally use a bluetooth TNC as well, but i'm 98% certain it's not required.
I personally use a bluetooth TNC as well, but i'm 98% certain it's not required.
Off-Road Ranger I
Out of curiosity, I checked the docs and it does support AFSK audio directly between the phone and the radio. the downside to this is that if someone doesn't have their phone in silent, and they get a text or something, the notification sound will be sent over to the radio and broadcasted. So use with caution.
Doesn't have to be built in. There are some external solutions but to go further down that worm hole please post it in the ham section vs this Gaia GPS thread. I will say the portable solutions using a 5 watt radio do not work well. I have tried it.
Traveler I
iOS vs Android? This is why I searched this thread. I found exactly what I needed.
1). I am buying an iOS tablet that will be dedicated to my rigs (FJ40 and JK). I may even get two....one for each.
2). I will shorly be a member of Gaia. They offer stronger support for their product than any other app company I have ever seen.
1). I am buying an iOS tablet that will be dedicated to my rigs (FJ40 and JK). I may even get two....one for each.
2). I will shorly be a member of Gaia. They offer stronger support for their product than any other app company I have ever seen.
Traveler I
Dis'ing on Gaia for 'better support of iOS" is ..... ?????....childish. Gaia is in business to stay in business. If you had a business and were trying to stay in businees, you would support the customer that spends more money in your store and helps the most to keep your "Open" sign in the window from being flipped over. This also enables Gaia to keep the cost as low as possible for users like me. To run parrallel app development teams (iOS and Android) would mean doubling your overhead (OK, maybe not double, but significantly increasing it). The most efficient plan of action would be to develop one app for one operating system, then tweek what needed tweeking so it is adaptable for the other operating system. It seems to me that is exactly what Gaia is doing. It is exactly what I would do, as well.
I want the app to work.....so I am buying an iOS system. It's more pricey, but I want it to work when I need it.
I am loyal to efficiency. I don't care if it's an iOS or Android.
A Shout Out to Gaia: I have been researching the purchase of a device and Off-Road Nav App for most of a week now. I have come across countless threads and reviews that included responses from your Customer Support team. All I can say is "Well Done." I am specifically sold on Gaia's Nav App (in spite of any shortcomings-they all have those.). Your support of your product means that I will be using your app effectively well into the future. And I am buying an iOS device.
My seach is over. Expect my membership dues shortly.
I want the app to work.....so I am buying an iOS system. It's more pricey, but I want it to work when I need it.
I am loyal to efficiency. I don't care if it's an iOS or Android.
A Shout Out to Gaia: I have been researching the purchase of a device and Off-Road Nav App for most of a week now. I have come across countless threads and reviews that included responses from your Customer Support team. All I can say is "Well Done." I am specifically sold on Gaia's Nav App (in spite of any shortcomings-they all have those.). Your support of your product means that I will be using your app effectively well into the future. And I am buying an iOS device.
My seach is over. Expect my membership dues shortly.
Off-Road Ranger I
As a guy who very heavily uses Gaia on both Android and iOS platforms (in addition the the web version), it's essentially the same experience across both mobile platforms. There are some major flaws present in all three platforms (to include web). I think anybody kvetching about it not working in Android has this perception that it somehow works perfect on iOS. Here's some truth: They are both broken, especially the critical feature of being able to download maps locally. I love Gaia, it's definitely the best there is at the moment, but not an all around great experience yet on any of the three supported platforms - Android, iOS, and web. There's nothing more frustrating than getting ready to leave for a trip then noticing that the maps never downloaded for the area, then you see that they are "downloading" but you can't tell if they are hung or if they are actually downloading, because there's no progress indicator (or it's not showing an useful information), then you think it's downloading, bit it's not. Then you see some maps finally downloading, but realize it's downloading the maps that you deleted yesterday for some reason. Really frustrating. I've been stung by that at least a dozen times now. Almost every single trip i take. Then theres this issue where the maps will download, but if you zoom out to check something, then zoom back in (or vice versa), the map layers will disappear and you'll have all these blank grey map sections, so then you have to fiddle with zooming in and zooming out until you hit whatever magical zoom level allows the maps sections to reload. I've hit that on both Android and iOS as well and it's extremely frustrating, especially if you are driving.
Like I said, I love Gaia, but I really want to see them start getting these issues under control. I don't think i have a non-standard use case, but I also don't know where Gaia's priority is. Is it an app for hikers/hunters? Is it an app for day trippers? Is it an app for Overlanders? Is it a 'social' platform for exploring routes recorded by somebody else? Is it geared towards people in the wilderness without cell coverage? Is it all of those? Is it none of those? I can't figure it out.
TLDR; the experience/bugs are basically the same on both mobile platforms, neither of them are great, neither of them are terrible.
Like I said, I love Gaia, but I really want to see them start getting these issues under control. I don't think i have a non-standard use case, but I also don't know where Gaia's priority is. Is it an app for hikers/hunters? Is it an app for day trippers? Is it an app for Overlanders? Is it a 'social' platform for exploring routes recorded by somebody else? Is it geared towards people in the wilderness without cell coverage? Is it all of those? Is it none of those? I can't figure it out.
TLDR; the experience/bugs are basically the same on both mobile platforms, neither of them are great, neither of them are terrible.
Since most map downloads come directly from 3rd party servers it causes an issue with the speed of downloads. This topic has been discussed a number of times in the Gaia Community forums. What might be nice is a method to have a download request sent to a Gaia server. Then when complete the user would receive a notification and could download the packet from Gaia. No idea if that is possible though.
I also agree with @brien that Gaia is still the best app out there. I have used and tried a variety of apps over the past 6 years.
I also agree with @brien that Gaia is still the best app out there. I have used and tried a variety of apps over the past 6 years.
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Off-Road Ranger I
Yeah, anything would be an improvement. The main issue I have with it right now is with the messaging, or actually, the LACK of messaging about what the state actually is. "Download requested" "Download in progress" "3 hours remaining" "4 days remaining" "Download failed" "Download timed out". Literally anything is better than just continually showing me a "Download now" button and no status/progress after i've requested a download.
I have implemented your suggested solution for other products i've architected, so it's technically possible, but who knows, Gaia may have some licensing terms for some/all of the map layers that may prevent them from being able to store maps on their side even temporarily. They may also be doing that already, and the slowdown exists somewhere else in the system, or more possibly, in a system they don't control (like say a USGS map server or something) without being able to look under the covers it's really difficult to see where bottlenecks are and where some possible improvements could be made.
I recently discovered that the twirling wheel icon when a download is in process is clickable and brings up a useful Download Status window.
Off-Road Ranger I
Yep, but often those status bars on the "Download Status" are empty or completely full (but not actually downloaded/available yet), or appear to be hung, or there will be nothing shown where it shows the download data rate. On Android the same thing happens, but in a slightly different way, since Android shows download progress as part of the Android system status pulldown and not in-app. It's frustrating
Enthusiast III
I just got back from an eight day trip I created using a Montana Benchmark map and Gaia GPS (USFS Topo 2016) exclusively. It was a real adventure in that due to a knee operation I was not able to check out any of the routes I made beforehand. Six vehicles and eight people total. Gaia worked perfectly. The only glitches, if you could call them that, were Gaia wanted us to use a bridge that had recently been converted to pedestrian traffic only, and I had picked one USFS road that had also been recently closed. Both issues were easily overcome in the field. We were not able to use two of the created routes because of fire issues, all the more reason to go back again soon.
Gaia is the first gps program I've used that was really, really easy to learn. I've taken the other apps off my iPhone and iPad already.
Dale
12405
Gaia is the first gps program I've used that was really, really easy to learn. I've taken the other apps off my iPhone and iPad already.
Dale
12405
Off-Road Ranger I
@WU7X If you are premium user, consider installing the MVUM overlay as well. I find that the combo of USFS Topo and MVUM (where it draws a green line on all the forest service roads) is magical. I usually have USGS topo underneath those two to cover non USFS managed lands as well. Like you did, I often find myself in need of finding new/different routes while out exploring due to locked gates, fires, etc, and it's so awesome to be able to just poke around Gaia for a few minutes and then be off on a new route.
