Offline Maps and Routing in Suunto App

safari

An app update has just arrived. The Maps section now says “Update available.” “Download to watch time” and “Offline download” options have also appeared.

JebClydeNC

@Nelson-Diogo I was hoping for this—if its paired with processing activities into file exports offline as well (posted about that a few weeks ago), every Suunto watch compatible with the app turns into a backcountry powerhouse

Stefano M64

Another nice improvement would be to add a low resolution map of the whole country, so that it would be easier to move across the downloaded regional offline maps. For now only a portion of the country is shown around the downloaded offline regional map

safari

It updates quite slowly. And it drained the battery very quickly.
The battery dropped from 65% to 20% after 2 out of 7 regions were updated.

Prenj

@pavel.samokha said in Offline Maps and Routing in Suunto App:

@Stefano-M64 we decided that it’s better to have explicit control for various reasons. A few of them:

Online and offline data are different, it’s not good to mix neither the style nor navigation with different type of data.

If connection available or not is tricky to detect. Connection can be intermittent, or available but super slow. It’s more reliable to control it explicitly. In my personal experience it’s super frustrating when app switches online/offline unpredictably.

Even while having a data connection I might want to use offline map and routing. For example if I’m abroad in expensive roaming network, while I downloaded offline maps in advance

Offline and online routing engines are different. We tried to align them feature-wise, but they can produce different results. You may prefer one or another.

Is it normal that there are no names of the cities in the offline map in Suunto app? In Bosnia there are no names at all.

It’s certainly better to have offline maps than not, but I think at least some basic location names and POI-s (mountain peaks, rivers etc.) would make map much more useful when offline.

pavel.samokha

@safari said in Offline Maps and Routing in Suunto App:

It updates quite slowly. And it drained the battery very quickly.
The battery dropped from 65% to 20% after 2 out of 7 regions were updated.

This is a topic for mobile app maps, not watch maps.
It’s recommended to download watch maps on charger.

pavel.samokha

@Prenj show it

duffman19

@pavel.samokha Are offline maps supposed to have contour lines? My region does not have them (same with the updated watch maps).

pavel.samokha

@duffman19 yes, it should. I’ll test

bobbyfw03

@Brad_Olwin Oh, in the beta it is if you click on the little point at the activity start it will open the activity in a popup and you can tap to open it entirely. That’s awesome! You can’t click anywhere on the activity line but maybe this will be improved in a future update. But if not, the actual implementation does the job great

duffman19

@suzzlo said in Offline Maps and Routing in Suunto App:

Edge Case: No offline maps if no device is linked

Makes sense? probably. Just mentioning

Makes total sense. Further, if your watch does not support maps (9PP and prior), you’re out of luck. Is there a reason this feature couldn’t be located in the SA map area instead of in the watch options? I don’t see why the two (watch maps and offline app maps) have to be tied together.

cpinky

@Prenj I was scrolling through yosemite and saw peak names

pavel.samokha

@duffman19 said in Offline Maps and Routing in Suunto App:

Makes total sense. Further, if your watch does not support maps (9PP and prior), you’re out of luck. Is there a reason this feature couldn’t be located in the SA map area instead of in the watch options? I don’t see why the two (watch maps and offline app maps) have to be tied together.

I don’t understand what’s this is about.
Mobile app offline maps can be used with or without connected watch.
Mobile app offline maps can be installed from mobile app main map view.

2b2bff

Installed a bunch of offline maps in the mobile app (iOS 3.9.0, released today) and as I wanted to add another one the app simply closed. And currently it closes right away as I try to reopen it…

EDIT: Found the issue: phone storage full… still a meaningfull warning would have been better…

duffman19

@pavel.samokha Okay, I may have spoken too soon. It’s actually a bit confusing.

Mobile app offline maps can be used with or without connected watch.

So, yes, this does work if you have a watch paired with the app. And, yes, it does work with older, non-map watches. (Awesome! I didn’t initially see this option in the SA map view with only my 9PP connected. Didn’t think to check the “+” button.)

Mobile app offline maps can be installed from mobile app main map view.

This option is not available if you do not have any watches paired with the app. This is what @suzzlo was referring to in his comment above. And this is what I first saw after updating the iOS app (my watches weren’t paired with the app at the time).

I suppose there aren’t too many app users who don’t have a watch, but for them, offline maps will not be available.

Efejota

Amazing improvement. If names are not shown, try to zoom out and in back again. In my case, no name appeared in the first try, now they show (and some additional useful information, as water sources…and bars!). At least in my test map (Cantabria, a small map in the north of Spain, 62 Mb).

Good job, Suunto!

PS: Now, let’s see if we iOS users can access to previous activities shown in the map simply acting on the starting point