Field manual · 07/17

Navigation & Directions

Navigate to a single point with a compass and a bearing, or follow a route waypoint by waypoint with the map rotating under you. Both work with the screen off, and both mirror to an Apple Watch.

the navigate sheet

Tap any pin or shape, then Navigate. What you get depends on what you tapped:

Option	What it does	Tier
Compass Navigation	Full-screen compass with the bearing and distance to the target	FREE
Direct Line Navigation	A straight line on the map from you to the target	FREE
Direct Bearing – Compass View	Bearing only, the largest readout in the app	FREE
Map-Based Navigation	On-map guidance with the camera following you	PRO
Navigate Route	Follow a polyline waypoint by waypoint	PRO
Car Route / Walking Route	Generated turn-based route	PRO
AR Navigation	The target through the camera	PRO
Backtrack	Navigate back along a recorded track to its start	compass free
Open with Apple / Google Maps	Hands the coordinate to the other app	FREE
Elevation Profile	Climb, slope-coloured chart and estimated time	FREE
Send via TAK	Shares the item with your team as a CoT marker	FREE
Weather Forecast	Conditions at the target rather than at you	Today free

Starting a route, you also choose the direction: From Start To Finish, From Finish To Start, From Nearest To Start or From Nearest To Finish. The nearest options pick up a route you are already standing in the middle of.

generated directions PRO

Add → Directions builds a route between points along real ways. Six profiles:

Car and Walking

Roads and pavements — getting to the trailhead rather than along the trail.

Hiking

Footpaths and tracks, weighted the way a walker would choose them.

Trekking Bike

Surfaced and semi-surfaced routes suitable for a touring bicycle.

Mountain Bike

Trails and rough tracks.

River

Waterways, for a paddled route.

A generated route is drawn with its line coloured by gradient and comes with an elevation profile, so you can see the climb before you commit to it.

The result is a normal route item. Edit its points, restyle it, add pins to it, export it, or hand it to someone else.

Route editor

the elevation profile

Any saved line or route — generated, drawn or recorded — has an Elevation Profile, reached from its tap menu or from a measurement summary. It is now a free feature, full length rather than just the end points.

Slope-coloured chart

The height curve is coloured by steepness against a slope legend, so the hard pitches stand out at a glance.

Up and down split

Separate Uphill and Downhill cards give the distance and average grade climbed and descended, with the steepest grade each way — the ascent and descent read on their own, not just a net figure.

Estimated time

An Estimated Time for the route, with an Activity picker (Walk, Hike, Run, Bike), a Method (Tobler, or Naismith + Langmuir) and a Pace slider to tune it to your own speed.

Heights come from the offline terrain data, so the profile and its timing work with no signal once the terrain for that ground is cached or downloaded.

navigating to a point

Three ways to hold a bearing, from most to least information on screen:

Compass Navigation

A full-screen compass with the target marked on the ring. Distance, bearing and elevation difference sit under it. This is the one to use in poor visibility, because it does not ask you to interpret a map.

Direct Line

A straight line drawn on the map from your position to the target, with the readouts in a card. Good when the terrain between matters.

Map-Based Navigation PRO

The map follows you, rotating as you move, with the guidance card over it.

Compass navigation showing bearing, distance, ETA and back azimuth — Compass navigation

On-map navigation with the route drawn and the guidance card — On-map guidance

what the guidance card shows

DIST: Distance to the current target
BRG: Bearing, in your chosen north reference and angle format
ETA: Clock time of arrival at your current pace, not a countdown
WPT: Which waypoint of how many, on a route
OFF ROUTE: How far you are from the route line
Back azimuth: The reciprocal bearing — the way home
Elevation Δ: Height difference between you and the target
Slant range: True line-of-sight distance, including the height difference

Tapping the guidance card opens the target pin's details when you are navigating to a saved pin — its notes, photos and attachments, without stopping navigation.

ETA is a clock time on purpose. "Arrive 14:35" is easier to act on and easier to pass over a radio than "1 h 12 min remaining".

navigation settings

Settings → Route Navigation:

Setting	Options
Automatically go to next point	Advances to the next waypoint on arrival instead of waiting for you
Off-Route Alert	On or off
Off-Route Distance	Automatic (50 m / 100 m), 25 m, 50 m, 100 m, 200 m, 500 m
Map Rotation	Heading Up · Course Up · North Up
Show map in navigation view	Keeps the map behind the guidance card
Continue Navigation in Background	Keeps guidance alive with the app closed
Geofence Approach Tones	Audio cues near a geofence — see Pins & Shapes
Keep Screen On While Navigating	Stops the display sleeping

Automatic off-route distance means 50 m on foot and 100 m in a vehicle — a walker wandering 50 m off a path is lost, a driver 50 m off a road is usually still on it.

Heading Up rotates the map by the compass, so the map matches what you see even while standing still. Course Up rotates by your direction of travel from GPS, which is steadier in a vehicle. North Up never rotates, which is what you want when you are working with a paper sheet.

arrival, background and the watch

Arrival

Reaching a waypoint plays a chime, taps the device and shows an Arrived at destination capsule. On a route with auto-advance on, the next waypoint becomes the target immediately.

Background navigation

With Continue Navigation in Background on, guidance survives locking the phone or switching apps. A Live Activity puts the target name, DIST, BRG, ETA, WPT and OFF ROUTE on the Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island, with a tap to reopen the app.

The watch mirrors the target

The Apple Watch NAV screen shows the arrow, distance and ETA for whatever the phone is navigating to, and taps your wrist on arrival using the phone's own arrival test — so the two can never disagree. See Apple Watch.

Navigation and track recording each get their own Live Activity, so you can see both at once on the Lock Screen.

Background navigation holds location continuously and costs battery. Turn it off for map-in-hand work and leave it on for a phone in a pocket.

ar navigation PRO

Navigate → AR Navigation puts the target on the camera view: a reticle over its real position with live distance and bearing, and an edge chevron showing the turn angle when the target is off-screen.

Your own pins from the active and visible layers are drawn too, so a cluster of waypoints becomes visible in the landscape rather than on a map you have to interpret.

AR navigation is the same engine as the AR view of surrounding peaks — see Terrain Analysis.

backtrack

From any recorded session, Backtrack navigates you back along the exact path you walked — with the compass, or on the map. Record on the way in, and walk out the same way in fog, darkness or featureless terrain.

Backtracking with the compass is free. Map-based backtracking is part of Pro.

Backtrack can also be started from the Apple Watch, which hands the request to the phone.

◂ PreviousItems, Folders & Tags Next ▸Tracker