[Closed] My first Android App (..and you might find it useful)

I've installed it - good idea. What would be useful would be to be able to import GPX files in advance and choose points along that route.

Satellite images as above would be good.

Perhaps a button you could stop and hit wherever you feel like which sends a text with your GPS location tagged on it? Would be great for meeting up with riding mates.

Minor niggle. The keypad to name and set the locations overlaps the 'accept' button on my phone, with no 'done' button appearing on the keypad, so you have to hit back to return to the rest of the form.

We like this 🙂

http://singletrackworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/android-users-heres-something-you-might-like/

Like this.

I'll have a play about, but I'm thinking about installing it on my daughters phone. She's notorious for not answering the 'are you in town/friends/cinema yet?' texts, so we can set up a destination before she heads out to let us know she's arrived.

cool.

Very good, like it.

Same requests as everyone else really:

>Satalite view or open street map would be really good.
>Some sort of SOS button would be really good. If it could send a preset message to one or multiple pre-set contacts with your current grid ref etc that would be pretty clever.
>GPX import very useful also.

Ok. I've just submitted a new version onto the store. It'll take a few hours to become available.

You can now choose map types.

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and you can automatically add a location url to your SMS. If you get the SMS on a smartphone it should open up google maps to the location.

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I've changed the database the program uses, hopefully it'll upgrade automatically. But, if it craps out just uninstall the old program and install the new one. If you need to do this it'll mean re-inputting your points, sorry.

This sounds fantastic Mark. Great work! We will use it so we can automatically keep in touch with the uplift vans. One question, if there is no signal will it keep trying to send until there is? I'm on iPhone but my other guides aren't so it should work for them. Thanks!

simple answer is, I dont know.

I assume it'll do whatever the phone normally does, whatever that is. I'll have a play and find out.

"This app is incompatible with all of your devices" 🙁

Not surprising, as my phone is utter garbage. Great idea though!

Nice idea and I think I will get this

Cheers OP

Just thought of another thing based on your new db comment - the ability to backup your points to a file location so you don't lose them when changing phone.

I skimmed some of the comments, but has anyone suggested a 'help I have fallen and can't get up' button?

the ability to backup your points to a file location so you don't lose them when changing phone.

Can probably back up to google drive or something similar.

This is a brilliant idea for an app, lots of potential uses have already been suggested in the comments here.

I'd keep it nice and simple, make it really slick, and who knows it could be very popular. Nice one :).

The lastest version is up on the Play store now.

Tomorrow we'll have expanding/shrinking circles. (ie adjusting the size of a hotspot)

Sounds great Mark, I´ll give it a bash next week since my holidays start on Monday 🙂

Great idea. Well done. I will be downloading it when I get home.

Being ever-competitive, I assume it could be used by a number of users at once? i.e. Trailquest type stuff? All users could set it up to notify one phone number when certain points are reached. Just a thought...

Bug reports

1. when adding a location, the cancel button is behind the text 'Add location to Message' so I can't actually easily press it (it ticks/unticks the box instead) though I can just press the back arrow instead.

2. Every time I click start (the bike icon), the app crashes

What phone are you using?

Did you download the original app and then get the latest one?

Cheers.

Hi Mackem

Had the same problems as nemesis.When clicking the bike icon it crashed. This was after an update from the version i installed last night and updated this afternoon.

Solved the problem by uninstalling the App and reinstalling it - the only issue is that you then lose all the hot spots you had set up. Hence would be nice to be able to back up these.

Great app now with the different views.

Hope the feedback helps

Many thanks

PS phone is an original HTC One Mini

Sorry about, mucked up the database upgrade. Well, half of it. Hopefully I wont need to change the Database again, I've added all the fields I think i'll need for the additions people have talked about. It seems I need to do more testing on small screens. My own phone is huge.

I've reinstalled and it's OK now. Looks good.

Nice idea! Just downloaded it and will give it a good test. I'm in Canada, do you know of any country-specific issues that might crop up?

One suggestion - Can you add a "time" option to the frequency selection e.g. only send text between hours of 4pm-8pm. Useful for regular out & back routes like a commute, where you only want to send a text on your way back home.

Not aware of any country specific issues. I'll think about the time thing. The reason I have the "how often" thing is for out and back rides, so a frequency of "Second time" just sends the message on the way back.

This could be useful for some of our lone working stuff at work - it would text my boss (as I am meant to do) when I arrrive home....

Newest version should be abvailable in a few hours. When you add or change a hotspot from the map you can now specify the radius of the hotspot. Just slide the slider to change the size. It goes from 0 to 1000m. I think that should be enough, if not I can change it.

Just hit the Accept button - it tells you the radius in metres. The default is still 25m. I need to create a big settings/default screen.

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Thanks!!!!!!

I had exactly this idea a year or so ago so Im well chuffed

Im not techy so tried to deal with the local yoof coders who were too busy and a small software house down the road who wouldnt let me in the door without seeing £20,000

So Im glad someones done it 'cos its gonna be my new favourite app

Bong bong
Put the kettle on Im 5 mins up the road on my way home

Cheers

You start up two bongs when you're 5 mins from home? Dude!

I just gave it a go and it worked perfectly. Should be pretty useful.
"Put the kettle on" would be a good name for the app 😀

Just downloaded it, looks good. I'll try it out over the weekend.

Looks good, but I can't create a hotspot? when I tap on the csren, it tells me "location services not switched on". I'm using a Moto G 4G, and have ot set to "Device only", i.e. just GPS - the places I'm going to be setting hotspots don't tend to have wifi and maybe won't have phone signal either, do I really need to set it to one of the options that talks to googles all the time?

Just installed it.

Initial impressions are i like it.

additional feature i would like is to maybe have a login so i could post my location. i.e. the mrs could put in hereiam/andybrad and it would show her where i was?

I like the logo 😀

NBT. I think I messed up the error checking there, I'll get it sorted. My latest update seems to have got lost in the ether. Unfortunately tech-support (me) is away for the weekend.
Andy brad, your idea would mean me storing logins and such like online. It's not something I want to do right now. How about if she texts you with with a certain phrase, it'll automatically text her back with the location?

No worries. I'm a developer by trade but I'm not a technical geek (I have a smart phone but no data plan etc) so I may be a perfect testbed. Email in profile if I can help at all

Just downloaded it and had a play, very good!

Will come in handy for a long-distance ride I'm planning for April as I'll be riding to my sister's place. I can now automatically text her as I get close and she can be ready for my arrival 😀

Why cant I find it in the store ?

Just downloaded it.
I'm currently sat in HK airport waiting to fly to Singapore.
I've set a point at Singapore airport to message the wife whose in China once I have landed.
Looks promising so far.

OK, a couple of additions/changes. (Available in a few hours)

NBT - you should now be ok with just your device GPS.

I've added "self alerts" - You are alerting yourself about where you are.

Someone suggested they could use this to wake them up on the train when they are approaching their station.

When the alarm goes off, go into the status screen and press "Stop Alarm"

Next week, I should have email working and a couple of other bits and bobs.

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Cheers! Will update soon.

Is that your own phone number on that screnshot? I'm going to add an alert to text you 🙂

Cheers nbt! Maybe i'll make it a premium rate number.

Tried it last night on a local loop and it worked really well! Haven't upgraded to the latest version, so need to do that, really.

I forgot to turn it off when I got back though, which spanked my battery - I guess because of the GPS searching once I was back inside the house.

It's a great app! Appreciate you putting it out there.

Hmm, maybe I could let you create a special hotspot, call it "Home", which will then automatically switch the app off.

Hi, I had a ride this morning and tried it out again. Worked fine but I was also running viewranger at the same time which seems to cause conflict. When using buddy beacon on vr, vr was counting the time of the ride, but not showing my position on the map or marking a track. When I turned off buddy beacon but left vr running it then marked my posotion, created a track etc. Bit of a pain because I would probably use both.

Another small bug is with the location url that is sent in a text. The url is being split between the google map part and the actual grid ref (ie at the = symbol). This means that when my mrs clicks on the url she is just taken to the map but not shown where I am.

Finally another suggestion to add to your long list. It would be good if you could set the app to just send a text with the (fixed) location url at regular intervals rather than being triggered buy a location. Just a thought.

Thanks for your work on this, it is good.

Cheers for that, dunno what happened to the position url, seemed to work fine. (doesnt work on my own phone now), Some unexpected effect of another change, shouldnt be hard to fix.

Strange that the apps are interfering with each other, in theory they all should be relying on one background Android service. But, i'll investigate.

The regular update thing shouldnt be hard to do.

Mackem - Member

Hmm, maybe I could let you create a special hotspot, call it "Home", which will then automatically switch the app off.

This sounds like a good idea - just have to make sure it doesn't turn itself off as soon as you turn it on, if you are leaving from 'home'.

I would just se it's how often to 2. You could set it up like that now with a message to self telling you to switch it off.