Does Google Maps Depend On Cell Service To Work
While navigation is one of the most of import uses travelers have for their smartphones, how often practice you remember almost exactly how a telephone knows where y'all are and where you lot're going? You might not know that in improver to connecting to cellular towers, your phone is constantly tracking GPS signals from satellites circling the planet—and that yous can apply your telephone GPS without data for more purposes than you might expect.
If you've e'er tried to navigate in a place where your phone has weak or no celluar service, you probably wished you lot could take advantage of offline phone GPS. Fortunately, you lot can: GPS signals are raining downwards effectually u.s. at all times, and your telephone can connect to them without whatsoever existent reliance on your cellular company, bear on on your data plan, or dependence on the telephone mode you are in. These signals are gratuitous for all of u.s.a. to utilise, and so long as we have the correct apps and a device with which to connect.
In fact, yous can even use an older, retired phone as a GPS unit, so long as the apps will still run on the operating system. Then, in one case y'all get back to civilization, your regular smartphone will all the same exist fully charged and ready to go.
How Accurate Is My Phone GPS Without Information?
Virtually of the apps I have used measure out GPS coordinates to tenths of a second, which is authentic inside 4 to 11 meters, depending on where on the planet you lot are plotting (accuracy improves as you move toward the poles).
If that isn't close plenty, within the side by side year engineering is coming that will make some phones accurate to within 1 foot.
You Don't Have to Be Offline to Use a Phone as GPS
Many of the most popular uses for GPS are for folks who are off the grid without access to Wi-Fi or cellular connections, but the technology's usefulness is not limited to the backcountry by whatever means. Beginning, we all know that jail cell coverage is hardly ubiquitous even in developed areas; heck, my child's central New Jersey soccer practice field shows "no service" and so often that some parents drive a mile down the route during practice to connect.
Another do good is preserving battery life; GPS uses are specially beneficial when you are doing things in areas where cellular service is bachelor but poor, which causes your phone to burn upward battery life trying to connect. Using offline phone GPS tin can also help you conserve data. This is useful when traveling abroad, where data plans are often costly and limited.
Finally, many location-based apps gobble upwardly information voraciously. Your phone's GPS tracking allows you to utilise them in offline mode, incurring no data penalisation so long as y'all preload maps and information while connected to Wi-Fi.
Certainly, your cellphone tin practise more than without a cell connection than you might think; here are five of the best.
Track Your Flight in Real Time
Let's start with my favorite fashion to use telephone GPS without data: to runway the flight I'm on in real fourth dimension. There are a few apps that exercise this, just I utilise Flyover Country, created by University of Minnesota researchers and funded by the National Science Foundation.
The app offers options to view road maps, terrain maps, and satellite maps, including information on geology, underwater core samples, mammal and dinosaur fossils, and landscape features for various destinations as you pass over them in flight.
To use the app you need to input and preload all the data along the route while all the same on a Wi-Fi or cell connection. And so, in one case you go into airplane style, all that data is available as you fly, along with your ground speed and distance.
You'll need a window seat for this to piece of work well; in fact, on some flights I have found that I had to have the phone about against the window to obtain and hold a reliable GPS point.
Go Backcountry Hiking
Smartphones are becoming go-to tools for many hardcore backcountry travelers, who can spend days or even months out of range of cellular signals. Many notice phones more than infinite- and weight-efficient than dedicated GPS units, particularly since phones can have photos, too.
This excellent how-to guide makes a compelling case for a smartphone as your go-to GPS tool. Information technology includes some very adept battery life management tips, noting that some phones tin can last five to 10 days without a charge with careful use.
A few of the best backcountry navigation apps include Gaia GPS, AllTrails, iPhiGeNie, and ViewRanger.
Track Your Fitness
A booming number of fitness applications piece of work with offline GPS, including MapMyRide, Strava, MapMyRun, Runkeeper, and MapMyFitness. For nearly of these, using your telephone GPS without data will allow you lot to track your run, walk, hike, or other outing offline. While yous need a connexion to take advantage of some of the apps' features, using them on GPS-just fashion preserves on battery life and data usage, which tin be a helpful upside when you are tracking long wheel rides or runs.
Fitness Armband for Your Phone
Tune Belt Armband for iPhone
The well-nigh quintessential fourth dimension to salve information and money is during your conditioning- complete with a robust armband of class.
Annotation Your Exact Location
There are all kinds of ways this can be useful, such as saving your spot in an aerodrome parking lot or sharing your location with someone else to facilitate a meetup. I know folks who have used GPS coordinates on their phones to mark and/or share things like trailheads, campsites, turn-offs for dirt roads, fishing spots, waterfalls, and abandoned ruins.
The gratis My GPS Coordinates app (bachelor for iOS and Android) has functions to email or text your coordinnates directly from the main screen, and even shows the accurateness of the GPS betoken (information technology tracks my office desk within 16 to 33 feet depending on signal admission).
To share locations you lot plainly demand connectivity, simply you can log them using GPS and then share or think them later.
Use Mapping Apps Offline
Finally, there are heaps of total-featured offline mapping applications, including the ubiquitous Google Maps and Apple Maps. Many of these are unfortunately somewhat express when it comes to GPS-simply navigation; Google Maps, for instance, allows you lot to pre-download a l-square-kilometer map for temporary offline use, which will assistance in some situations but isn't much use on a longer road trip. To find alternatives, run across 10 Best GPS App and Navigation App Options for Android and four Best Offline Maps Apps for iOS, Android, and Windows Phone.
Did nosotros miss any other great means to use your phone GPS without data? Let united states know in the comments.
Prison cell Phone Motorcar Mountain
Make navigation a niggling safer with a automobile mountain stand- adjustable to nearly all smartphone sizes.
More from SmarterTravel:
- 8 Helpful Travel Apps You Can Use without Wi-Fi
- eight Best Wellness Apps for Travelers
- The 27 Best Apps for Solo Travelers
Ed Hewitt is a seasoned globetrotter who brings you a biweekly glimpse into the latest travel news, views, and trends—and how they could touch your travel plans.
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