[Closed] Google Maps as satnav

Get unlimited data and save yourself a lot of hassle! 😆

why are you so concerned about not using data? are you mega skint? it doesn't cost that much.
No you can't save the route and use it on another device. Just load up the route at home on wifi and then off you go, the map will then continue to show you the route without a data signal as the route is cached but you won't get up to date info about traffic.
Just get a tariff with data incl.

There's a number of free offline mapping apps, might be more appropriate? (Waze?)

download Nokia Here. its free, has most of the features of google maps and you can download offline maps on a country by country basis.

or get more data. I use google maps every day and manage on about a 1gb of data per month, including all the other stuff like iplayer radio

I use Navmii. You download and store the maps when you install it, just as you would with a GPS. No data usage required (as long as you install over wifi). But you do need a fair bit of space to store the maps.

why are you so concerned about not using data?

cougar, thanks, ill look into waze. im impressed with the way google just integrates everything to your account tho, so would have preferred to use Maps. is Waze as good, or inferior?

In honesty, I've never used it. It's well regarded though. And yeah, I hear you about integration.

How do you manage to use 2Gb every month?

It really doesn't use much data. Especially for infrequent use I don't think you'd notice the difference.

Just maybe make sure that the satellite overlay is switched off, but even then it's not a big drain. I have 500mb a month and use gmaps freely; no issues here.

Have you found the turn by turn but yet: really does replace a satnav now, IMO.

Another for Navmii here. Downloadable maps for all of Europe.

It's blooming brilliant! Although I have an old Tom Tom and a road atlas in the van too.

If you hit the back button once you've set a route and go back one click you can then see the various route choices, click on each one too see the different routes.

The re routing is the best part of using it, it's saved me hundreds of hours since I've started using it to get around traffic!

You can see individual Lane slow downs on the motorways as it uses other Google users locations too see where the hold ups are, far far more intelligent than any other system I've used.

Google maps, got me lost in rural France. Not risking it again, Nokia here is pretty good.

I run CoPilot and Google nav at the same time and only make a turn if they both concur that it is the right way to go...

It's like a failsafe system.

How do you manage to use 2Gb every month?

Have you found the turn by turn but yet: really does replace a satnav now, IMO.

If you hit the back button once you've set a route and go back one click you can then see the various route choices, click on each one too see the different routes.

The re routing is the best part of using it, it's saved me hundreds of hours since I've started using it to get around traffic!

ideally id like to use a laptop to fiddle about with routes the night before, drag routes about, then use that route on my phone the next day. i thought i may have been able to do that as its all one google account.

Another vote here for waze. I have it on everyday just for traffic updates

just downloading the navmii maps, also installed waze, so will experiment when im back from holiday, which is how this all came about really.

off to east mids airport tomorrow and i prefer to get there the back roads rather than nottingham ring road. i know the route now, but thought id see how easy it was to do set it by satnav.
easy enough on the chromebook, but i couldnt manipulate the route on my phone.

I'm sure I've searched for a route and saved it to my Google account then opened it up on my phone.

I use google maps all day every day as a satnav, covering 250 miles ish daily and 15 ish destinations visiting clients.

Never gets me lost and always works. Can't use that much data as I'm on 5gb plan on that phone and never get close even covering 5k miles all on google maps.

Uh, you know you can get a live traffic data overlay for gmaps too?

I use waze (owned by Google now, I think). I'm on unlimited data and so don't worry about it. The routings, traffic info and warnings of incidents nearby plods (recorded by other waze users) is pretty good.

It's much better than the inbuilt kit in my new beemer.

I'm sure I've searched for a route and saved it to my Google account then opened it up on my phone.

Can't use that much data as I'm on 5gb plan on that phone and never get close even covering 5k miles all on google maps.

I dont know what I do wrong with google maps but it eats data when I use it, a journey to Ireland didn't get me back as it had used all of my 1gig of data allowance. I use Here instead and that has the ability to go online if needed but otherwise I have the whole of Europe downloaded and had no issues using it in france. I just use google maps via wifi to check the traffic before I leave home.

I use it all the time on the motorbike. 16k miles in last year, including a trip last month to Hungary and now in Basque region on my way to Barcelona. Can be made to find really interesting routes and the estimated times of arrival are pretty accurate.

Very reliable on my iPhone 6+

Rachel

Can be made to find really interesting routes

I dont know what I do wrong with google maps but it eats data when I use it,

If you zoom in on an area and type or say OK maps it stores in offline not sure if it then uses this for sat nav. I used it in France All summer it was great.

It a bit big brother as must get feedback on the traffic speeds from phones which are sending there location back to Google central. But that combined with waze makes it pretty awesome.

If your worried about data just down load here maps and use it offline or just switch the data on just as select your route to make sure there's no traffic problems.

I dont know what I do wrong with google maps but it eats data when I use it,

Satellite layer turned on?
I did this once by mistake. Only wanted nav for the ETA. Used 800MB going down M1 from Sheffield to Slough!

Turned off, it uses virtually nothing. Even better if you fire up the route when you're on WiFi, then stick to it, as said already.

I have 1GB allowance Google nav barely even makes a dent.

It's brilliant - until you need directions and have no signal.

I've started using it on the road bike with voice instructions and the phone in my pocket. Just about gets the directions in time but saves having the phone on a mount on the bike.. Did notice it used quite a bit of data during two trips. You can check on the Data Usage settings page.

You can check on the Data Usage settings page.

As long as you are logged in to Google (via Gmail of Google plus etc) on each device, any route you search will also appear as a recent search on nay other device.

As others have said the live traffic updates and automatic rerouting etc are brilliant. I don't think mine uses that much data tbh

Google maps is much better than any other satnav.

As long as you are logged in to Google (via Gmail of Google plus etc) on each device, any route you search will also appear as a recent search on nay other device.

get another garmin or a tom tom.

get another garmin or a tom tom.

You can star common locations, but I don't think you can do what you ask and save a route choice. That would be slightly counter intuitive, as the point of the navigation bit on google maps is that it continually checks whether u are on the fastest route.

If you are worried about data. Go into settings and then data usage. You can put a warning at a certain mobile data usage and turn it off after another.
wife had a 500mb allowance and used map navigation several times a week and never broke her allowance.

That would be slightly counter intuitive, as the point of the navigation bit on google maps is that it continually checks whether u are on the fastest route.

I'm only on 500mb data and have never had any issues with it.

I think you're worrying too much.

I use Google Maps most of the time - in fact pretty much any time I'm going somewhere where traffic could be an issue because it'll tell me in advance if there's unusual traffic so that the route that's usually fastest isn't in this instance.

Similarly, I've found that my preconceptions about which routes are fastest or which shortcuts actually get me from A to B fastest are quite often wrong and the seemingly slower route actually isn't slower than my 'shortcuts' even if they feel slower because I'm sometimes sitting still.

So I follow what google says now as I find it's better than me at deciding what's the best way regardless of my years of local knowledge.

Google maps, got me lost in rural France. Not risking it again, Nokia here is pretty good.

I used it to guide me from Bristol to Alpe d'Huez and it was flawless. I never got close to my data allowance, and in any case I have my phone set to give me a warning if I'm approaching the limit.

The only thing that I'm disappointed isn't included is current speed and the speed limit of your location. Both bits of information are available (since 'proper' satnavs have them) so I'm surprised that google haven't yet integrated it.

A cycling pal of mine used it to cycle from Blackburn to St Ives and back for a wedding. It was almost faultless; he downloaded the route every morning from his B&B to the next B&B or YHA then turned off the data and plugged in one earphone. What I still don't understand is that the phone knew where he was and gave him timely directions without using data - presumably GPS doesn't gobble data?

Just want to add that I used Google maps as a sat nav in Australia, New Zealand and the USA (twice) without any problems. It's ace 🙂

GPS doesn't use data.

using google maps on an HTC here & it really doesn't use much data at all, no need to download routes beforehand at all, just pop in the postcode for my appointments in my diary & it's easy peasy

What I still don't understand is that the phone knew where he was and gave him timely directions without using data - presumably GPS doesn't gobble data?

No data at all for GPS.

[Otherwise you would need a SIM card for a standalone SatNav.]

i use it all the time, but found on a drive from le havre to les arcs last week, it seemed to eat data, which was odd...

only thing i don't like (in addition to the lack of speed/speed limit) is that it zooms in on the map as you approach a junction - for a motorway slip road, where it's obvious where you turn off, zooming in often means you're halfway up the slip road before you know which way you might be turning on the forthcoming roundabout... in busy traffic it makes last minute lane switching a pain!

can't understand why anyone would bother with a traditional GPS now though...

I use mine all the time - way better than the TomTom I used to have and the sat nav built into my truck. I'd say it's on for around 400+ miles a week and this is my data usage for a month...

[img] [/img]

Satellite layer turned on?

So that's why I used 800mb recently on a weekend in Cornwall where I did 300 miles at the most 😳

Better turn that off quick 😆

Got to be honest, I always assumed it would use way more data than that. But I suppose my Navmii maps were only about 600mb for the entire country, and it's gonna take you fair bit of time to do that much driving. And they'll be cached too, so if you drive the same places, I guess it uses hardly anything in the long term?

You can send a location from your desktop to your phone by clicking 'Send to device' option that appears under the location address. You get a notification which you can click on to open the location in maps.

Sending a route isn't quite so easy. First sort your route out on the computer. Then click on the menu icon and go to 'Share or embed map'. Click on the short url box and then copy the link. Paste it into an email and send it to yourself. Open the email on your phone, click on the link and choose to open it in maps.

Starring locations also works well as they appear on your phone. I use this a lot when going on holiday. I'll spend some time on the computer finding local places of interest and star them. Then when i'm out it's much easier to find them quickly in the maps 'your places' list and get directions (these days most of them have website links attached as well).

I thought Google Maps used vector maps and cached the maps on the phone? They refused to offer that to Apple which was why Apple developed their own version and went solo. I used Apple Maps and turn by turn navigation in the US, when I'm over there and it works fine without using any cellular data. I plan the route in the airport/hotel on free wifi then drive using the cached maps.

I use Navigon. Google maps ain't much use in much of Australia & it's burned through my data before.

ok, back from holiday now and been trying some of these out. i think im more impressed with google maps, and as has been mentioned above, the data usage isnt bad (although id already downloaded the map offline)

couple of questions tho. cant find any way of it showing speed cameras, petrol stations, restaurants etc. part of me thinks well, thats maybe cos it [i]isnt[/i] a dedicated satnav, its just a map app, but then again if its trying to be as good as one, shouldnt it do this?
a quick google suggests theres apps that can run alongside maps to do this, do any of you use this sort of thing?

navmii didnt show the speed cameras effectively either. when coming up to one i know about, it warned me about a mile away that one was coming up but didnt show it, or give any further mention to it, just that one was coming up somewhere.

waze didnt show any at all.

ooh, one other thing too, the orange/red sections for traffic. im assuming orange means slow moving traffic, red a standstill? i always thought that was clever stuff before i actually used it, now ive found out its not accurate at all. my understanding is that its reading data sent from phones travelling, but from how long ago?

today i was just using it on a route i use a lot, and there were plenty of orange sections when it was totally clear, and with hardly any traffic on that road, id be quite certain nothing would have been held up there at all at any point.

anyone else found the same?

still playing around 😀

Sending a route isn't quite so easy. First sort your route out on the computer. Then click on the menu icon and go to 'Share or embed map'. Click on the short url box and then copy the link. Paste it into an email and send it to yourself. Open the email on your phone, click on the link and choose to open it in maps.

any answers for the questions above? ^^^

I've playing around with using my iPhone 5S as Sat Nav as my Tom Tom is getting on for 10 years old and pretty knackered.

I've found both Google Maps and Apple Maps are pretty good not a lot of difference between the two. Both give clear instructions and have easy to view maps. Both will check traffic conditions and give you the quickest route.

The only down side is that they both use the cloud to calculate the route so they need a data connection. If you start off somewhere with no data connection it won't find a route, even if you have the map data cached on the phone or you save a map tile offline on Google maps.

Recently discovered Nokia Here maps, which has the option to download whole UK and to route with no data connection. When starting a new route it will check for traffic and give you options to choose different routes. But will not auto route if a traffic jam occurs after you have started your route. You can manually check alternative routes but that's more interaction than I would like when I am already driving. Apart from that performs similar to Apple and Google maps.

cant find any way of it showing speed cameras,

I know you're back from holiday now and don't know where you've been, but for future reference speed camera alerts are illegal in France and the traffic police are empowered to crush your device at the roadside.

"can't understand why anyone would bother with a traditional GPS now though..."

Still find the larger screen , easier to use interface, Larger on screen keyboard , louder speaker , lane indicators ,speed limits , current speeds

all better than google maps - that and i dont hit the home button accidentily on the GPS.

Of course someone will be along shortly to tell me im wrong. - wrong but happy 😉

The only down side is that they both use the cloud to calculate the route so they need a data connection. If you start off somewhere with no data connection it won't find a route, even if you have the map data cached on the phone or you save a map tile offline on Google maps.

Recently discovered Nokia Here maps, which has the option to download whole UK and to route with no data connection. When starting a new route it will check for traffic and give you options to choose different routes. But will not auto route if a traffic jam occurs after you have started your route

just installed nokia here today, ill have a play with that too.

I know you're back from holiday now and don't know where you've been,

but for future reference speed camera alerts are illegal in France and the traffic police are empowered to crush your device at the roadside.

yes I've found the orange/red/blue hit and miss. It is very very accurate on motorways I've found, hitting traffic at orange and then we can see there's a bit of red coming up and almost exactly at the point it says the red will end, it does. BUT on rural roads somtimes it will show orange and then the road is completely void of any cars whatsoever, go figure.

You can save area maps on Google maps - I think it is in 'my places'...

I tried to use it to cycle back from an event the other week, phone in bag, one earphone to hear directions.

I set it to walking directions as that followed the quiet back roads i would have chosen if plotting myself, rather than the road route of motorway. Can you guess what happened? yup, after about 100yds it switched to the road directions (i noticed as it missed a the first turn, so i stopped to check it was on), set it again and sure enough re-set to road directions.

I wonder if it was changing due to my speed?

You can save area maps on Google maps - I think it is in 'my places'...

still nobody using speed cameras with Maps?

"yes I've found the orange/red/blue hit and miss. It is very very accurate on motorways I've found, hitting traffic at orange and then we can see there's a bit of red coming up and almost exactly at the point it says the red will end, it does. BUT on rural roads somtimes it will show orange and then the road is completely void of any cars whatsoever, go figure."

Bunch of cyclists were going past with their android phones in the rural area slowly so to google/android data fishing it looked like slow traffic/a jam....

Bunch of cyclists were going past with their android phones in the rural area slowly so to google/android data fishing it looked like slow traffic/a jam....

still nobody using speed cameras with Maps?

Nokia Here has an option to give you a warning when you exceed the speed limit for a road but doesn't have speed camera locations.

I've been trying out Waze after Cougar's suggestion. It has traffic camera warnings, lots of traffic information and can find a route without a data connection. Obviously the routing around traffic won't work without a data connection but its happy enough to plot a route.

I've only recently got it so still playing around with it but I'm not sure if there is way to pre download the map or if it just caches areas you recently searched for.

be interested in finding this out. i thought i was committed to google maps now that ive got the workaround for loading routes created the night before on a laptop.
but, if this genuinely can work out routes with no data i may give it another try. im pretty sure you cant download an area tho so dont know how it can find a route without data.
speed cameras also a bonus.

thanks

"im pretty sure you cant download an area tho so dont know how it can find a route without data."

My mate was downloading areas on wifi on his S5 before we left hotels in perth AUS and usingthem to navigate us around without data so it is possible.

i cantsee how to do it on my Iphone 4 though.

My mate was downloading areas on wifi on his S5 before we left hotels in perth AUS and usingthem to navigate us around without data so it is possible.

just had another quick play with waze in the local area. good point is it pinged up with a warning 'hazard ahead' for some roadworks that have been there a while.
not so good for me was no 'ping' for speed camera, it just came up with a screen message, whereas id hope im not needing to look at screen that much so easily missed. yep i know as long as im not speeding whats the problem, but if youve got speed cameras on there you may as well have audible warnings?
also i found the scale too far out, side roads not very clear. i tried pinch zooming the screen in, but as soon as i removed my fingers it zoomed out again.
another point is that the warnings stay on screen right in the middle and its a faff to try and remove them. i ended up tapping around it to see if it went but messed the screen up.

may just need a bit more practice tho.

not so good for me was no 'ping' for speed camera, it just came up with a screen message,

OH was Waze-ing me somewhere the other day, and it gave an spoken "speed camera ahead" warning. Maybe it's a setting somewhere?

OH was Waze-ing me somewhere the other day, and it gave an spoken "speed camera ahead" warning. Maybe it's a setting somewhere?

have you compared the zoom view to google maps? gmaps is ideal to me, itd be good if waze was the same aspect.

So, having used Google Maps (on an iPhone 6+) for two epic cross-Europe motorbike trips this year, I can report it works brilliantly.

I have the phone in a waterproof case, mounted above the instruments on my BMW GS Adventure and have soldered up USB power to it from the GPS power outlet on the bike.

I have a bluetooth headset in the helmet for directions and it takes off a lot of the stress of riding, not having to worry too much about directions.

The first journey, via the Channel Tunnel, through FR, BE, DE, LX, CH, SI to Hungary and back.

The second journey was more leisurely, including ES, FR and Andorra. Much more offroad, though.

Google maps always got me to where I was going. I did find a few businesses, like little B&Bs, were not exactly where they were indicated but I sent updates as I went.

As I'm on the Three network, I was able to roam for free in most countries visited and then just buy a daily pass in the others.

The UX on the Google Maps app is good and is getting better all the time. I particularly like the slightly more "looking down" approach to the 3d view as I can see more easily quite how severe each hairpin is in advance when giving it some up the big passes in Alps/Pyrenees. The voice instructions are pretty good and even the estimated travel times seem reasonable.

Rachel (who, after a Summer of 6000 miles, is happy to leave Feargal in the garage for a while now...)

As an aside, what case / mount did you get? OH is looking for one.

I have a Lifeproof Nuud case. Really like it.

thats promising then. its possible i messed up cos i wasnt getting any spoken directions so realised i had sound turned down. its possible i turned it up too close to the camera and i missed the verbals.

this all sounds like alot of distraction while your driving TBH.

another + for the dedicated satnav - it also doesnt start ringing just as your about to enter a complicated round about your not familiar with 😀

Only problem I had with it was it doesn't calculate the route on your phone, that's done in the cloud, so on a trip to Scotland or wales if you miss a junction and there's no signal you'r buggered.

thisisnotaspoon, which app are you talking about? Already stated earlier in this thread, both Google and Apple maps will only perform routing with a data connection even if you have the map saved offline or cached.

Nokia Here app (available on Android and iOS) supports downloading of full GB offline map and will route without data connection as will the Waze app. But I'm not sure if Waze can only cache maps or has ability to save maps offline.

Obviously when routing offline neither Nokia Here or Waze apps route around traffic it'll be a simple shortest route.

thisisnotaspoon, which app are you talking about? Already stated earlier in this thread, [s]both [/s]Google [s]and Apple maps[/s] will only perform routing with a data connection even if you have the map saved offline or cached.

have you switched your garmin on..... or is it terribly out of date ?