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iAmKrzys

Suggest GPS App for Android

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Quote Originally Posted by iAmKrzys View Post
I also have an Android phone and eTrex 30 and I am at least somewhat careful about app permissions. I use OsmAnd+ (https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...et.osmand.plus) which uses maps based on data from https://www.openstreetmap.org. While OSM may not be up to par with Google on streets, it has a couple of advantages that I simply love: 1) it has trails for many parks, 2) It has parking areas, 3) if something is not there yet, I can add it. The trail coverage is far from complete but it grows steadily as thousands of hikers like myself or upstream (in post #6) upload their gps traces and mark trails based on them. OSM appears to have (almost?) entire length of AT mapped as you can see on waymarkedtrails.org that leverages OSM data: http://waymarkedtrails.org/en/relati...8288&hill=0.5#

OsmAnd+ ($5.99) allows you to download maps for different regions (e.g. U.S. states) and these maps are updated monthly, so once you download a map you don't need a data connection once on a move. It has certain functionality available via plug-ins and these include Contour maps ($1.99), tracking when phone is sleeping (this is the feature you asked about) or live monitoring (OsMo) if you want to do live sharing of you location with friends & family (assuming that you have a data connection wherever you are.) You can see a full list of features in Help section of http://osmand.net/
I think the concerns about in-app purchases are overblown - here are instructions at Google Play as how to require a password for every in-app purchase that you make: https://support.google.com/googleplay/answer/1626831
The app does not ask for permissions to phone state & identity, phone book etc. It does support video recording, so it asks for permissions to camera & microphone which frankly I find useless (at least for now) but I see how that could be a sore point for privacy concerns.

On a separate note, personally, I prefer to keep my phone batteries at maximum charge for emergencies and use my gps for recording tracks since my eTrex runs for about 25 hours on two AA batteries. I also put OSM maps pre-compiled in Gramin format on my gps. I get them from here: http://daveh.dev.openstreetmap.org/g...t/kml/kml.html which I got from a bigger list of maps at http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/O...armin/Download The process is fairly simple: 1) download selected map, 2) copy it to /Garmin folder on your device (I use memory card on my eTrex for this purpose) and 3) enable the map for display via map options -> Select Map menu.
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