[Closed] OS Maps Mobile (& web) launched Yesterday.

OK OK I take your point and confess to having used a gps for the last 15 years, always in conjunction with a paper map. What else do I [b]need[/b] ?

The GPS is just a single-purpose computer running one App. Although I favour a stand-alone GPS too, I can certainly see the advantages of a multi-purpose computer (like the one on my desk) but more mobile and that just happens to run a phone "App" as well as a few others.

Advantages?

Cinnamon girl I'll explain it from my point of view. Your mileage may vary

I really like the way that my phone shows me an OS map with a dot showing where I am. Ironically I'm now a way better navigator without a phone. The catch 22 of being if your a bit rubbish with a map is all the time you are wrong about where you are on a map you can't learn to relate the map to what you are seeing. Now I'm out always knowing exactly where i am and I've got better things like judging the scale

Do you remember those paper maps they used to do? They were great they were, no need for a mobile data signal, no need for a mobile phone or a tablet or a PC, you could have them downloaded - slowly - to your letterbox and use them instantly. Brilliant idea, wonder what happened to them? I can feel a Kickstarter project coming on...

One day we'll have a thread on who has the most maps in the house. I won't win but it lots and i still buy them. But its great leaving the house with paper maps printed with the route on. I'm never right on the edge and they are so cheap that I can push them in a pocket and not care if they only last one trip

I'd like tracking in the app.

My missus is always raving on about how they'll never find my body.

I've got "Find My Friends" but the latest "upgrades" have broken it and it doesn't work for us anymore.

I'm still a little confused about the subscription basis thing. Can I really pay £20 a year and not only access all the mapping online but download it to my phone, cache it, and use it even where there's no data signal?
Sorry if I'm being thick, but I can't find the place on the site where that's explicitly stated. I know I can do it with individual Explorer sheets that I buy, but if I subscribe to OS Maps, can I do that?

Plyphon is quite a unique name. Which is sometimes unfortunate.
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@ plyphon - sorry, me again. Printing - print preview when landscape shows on the screen as portrait. Once you've done the settings, it then shows up again in portrait.

Again, another moan about margins. This time I used the setting for minimum margin and have ended up losing 2.1/2" width and 1.1/2" depth in the landscape setting. Some of those measurements include the faded areas. It's obviously not cost effective.

I do consider the above to be important for users, can this be passed to the Tech team?

Thanks. 🙂

c_g, you really use a gps? Can't say I've ever seen a need for one of them 🙂

thecaptain - yes, I do cos I ride on my own all the time. I've been grateful for it though particularly when I've been on the North York Moors, Cheviots, Wales etc. Sometimes I just use the compass.

I would love to be able to navigate by the sun and the stars. 😀

Love getamap, now love osmap on my phone, now just wish the 1:25 could be used on my garmin...
Well done OS!

Haha, of course i;m going to give my own app a positive review!

Also, Plyphon is from a name of a track by Autechre, not as unique as you'd think 🙂

@ plyphon - sorry, me again. Printing - print preview when landscape shows on the screen as portrait. Once you've done the settings, it then shows up again in portrait.

I'm going to collate some feedback from this thread and i'll make sure this is included, cheers.

I'm still a little confused about the subscription basis thing. Can I really pay £20 a year and not only access all the mapping online but download it to my phone, cache it, and use it even where there's no data signal?

Yes. I can't confirm if downloading offline maps is live in Android as I don;t have access to an Android device, but it is on iOS.

Obviously, if you want location tracking you still need a GPS connection, but you can certainly download any portion of the UK and view that downloaded section even if your phone is in the darkest mines of Mordor*.

*We don't currently offer mapping for Middle Earth.

If you still don't believe me I'll make some screenshots of the process lol.

Is it that you can only download mapping surrounding a route you've
planned? I'm on Android and can't find a menu option for Download Map.

Explains why "free" OS mapping has disappeared from apps like Alpine Quest and Maverick recently!

Is it that you can only download mapping surrounding a route you've
planned? I'm on Android and can't find a menu option for Download Map.

no you can download from anywehre you choose, as I said before this feature must not be live in Android yet. I don;t have a Android device so can;t check. It'll be live at some point, though.

So if I have this right: there are two apps: OS Maps and OS Mapfinder, which essentially are completely different entities plus an online OS Maps web app, which allows you to access all the 1:50,000 and 1:25,000 maps of the UK online for an annual subscription of 20 quid or so.

The 'OS Maps' smartphone app and the 'OS Maps' web app are actually not connected currently, but the OS Maps (web) and the OS Mapfinder smartphone app are compatible and allow you to share routes across them and also to buy individual maps and download them to your phone for longterm use either as tiles or regions or national parks in a choice of scales.

Meanwhile, the new OS Maps app lets you download the digital version of paper maps from the new Explorer series, but this version, in turn, can't be downloaded to the OS Mapfinder app?

The bit that really confuses me is that some people seem to be saying that in exchange for your £20 annual web-based OS Maps subscription, you can also download and store any of those maps on your device for use on or offline?

Sorry, just slightly confused.

The bit that really confuses me is that some people seem to be saying that in exchange for your £20 annual web-based OS Maps subscription, you can also download and store any of those maps on your device for use on or offline?

Yes for your subscription you can access maps online (from your computer) as well as from your phone/tablet and download them to your phone/tablet to use offline.

So which app are you able to download them to?

BadlyWiredDog - OS Maps is one product. And it comes in two flavours, web and native mobile. They are not currently integrated, but that is because this is the first release. As the product evolves, the two will become much more closely intertwined. You'll be able to plot a route on the web version, and then load it up on the native app, for example. When you subscribe to OS Maps, you have a subscription to both flavours of the app.

Currently it seems downloading offline maps is only in the iOS Native App. I've no idea when it'll come to Android, but it will.

Okay, so how do I go about downloading offline maps to the iOS version of the OS Maps app? I can't find the bit on the [url= https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/shop/os-maps-online.html ]OS Maps webpage[/url] where it says I can do this.

Can you post some screen grabs of how the process works please? I just can't find any reference to it either within the iOS version of the app or on the OS Maps website. Sorry, I'm probably being incredibly thick 😐

Thing is, I can see how you can download the digital mapping given away 'free' with new series paper maps t the new OS Maps app.

And I can see that you can view maps using the OS Maps web app in a browser as long as you have a data connection on a phone.

And I can see how you can use the OS Mapfinder app to buy individual maps and tiles and cache them on your device where you can use them for navigation.

But I can't work out how having a paid subscription to OS Maps on the web allows me to download maps I view there to the app. So either you can't do that or it's quite hard to work out how that happens. Or I'm stupid which also entirely possible.

Yes for your subscription you can access maps online (from your computer) as well as from your phone/tablet and download them to your phone/tablet to use offline.

How does that happen? Are you able to access that mapping from within the OS Maps iOS or Android app?

Obviously, if you want location tracking you still need a GPS connection, but you can certainly download any portion of the UK and view that downloaded section even if your phone is in the darkest mines of Mordor*.

*We don't currently offer mapping for Middle Earth.

If you still don't believe me I'll make some screenshots of the process lol.

So how do I download that section of mapping to the app on my phone then without buying it outright using OS Mapfinder that is? I can't work out how to do it, but you seem to be saying that I can. I'm not interested in Middle Earth, but if you can make some screenshots showing how the maps from OS Maps web app are transferred to OS Maps iOS app, that would be great, thanks!

Windows Phone app please.

I've just switched from 'Getamap' to the new OS Maps web site - how do I get it to show footpaths?

tillydog - bottom R of the screen is two circles and you need the L, OS Leisure maps then adjust scale.

Currently it seems downloading offline maps is only in the iOS Native App. I've no idea when it'll come to Android, but it will

Good. If it comes soon I'll be happy. If it doesn't come soon I'll be seeking a refund on my £18 and spending it on Viewranger maps instead!

From first look it doesn't seem as if there are any built in maps I can save offline.

I browsed an area in the morning but by the time I had arrived in the Dales the app had forgotten the map tiles and couldn't re download them 👿

tillydog - bottom R of the screen is two circles and you need the L, OS Leisure maps then adjust scale.

Thanks - The one that looks like a liquorice allsort?

That tells me:

[b]Subscription required

You must be a paid subscriber to use this feature.[/b]

🙁

How does that happen? Are you able to access that mapping from within the OS Maps iOS or Android app?

Yes @BadlyWired you put your same username / password into the iOS app as you do the OSMaps programme on your PC. If you have an OSMaps subscription you get the iOS maps free/included

Thanks. I'm still slightly bemused that this doesn't seem to be explicitly stated anywhere on the OS Maps iOS app or on the OS Maps website. Or not that I can see anyway. No offence, but I think I'll wait until the OS publishes something on their website or as part of the app help section saying that is definitely how it works.

Up to you but I've had an OS Getamap (now renamed/replaced by OSMaps) subscription for a few years and I got the iOS app access for free.

Why do you think OS isn't shouting about this? On the face of it, all the OS maps you can eat on your mobile phone for less than 20 quid a year sounds like pretty good value even if the app seems currently a little limited in terms of functionality.

Does the mapping come up under the 'My Maps' section of the OS Maps app then or as an automatic option like the base map and aerial photography?

Just subscribed to this, one freaky oddity. The maps displayed on the IOS app are different to the browser version, the browser ones are out of date!

BWD - I'm hoping that they'd wait until we've finished paying for being beta-testers before they start shouting about it. They'd be swamped with complaints...

I'd like to second the request for Windows Phone app.

BWD - I'm hoping that they'd wait until we've finished paying for being beta-testers before they start shouting about it. They'd be swamped with complaints...

The ubiquitous 'soft launch'... I'm thinking the immovable deadline was the release of the paper maps with the scratch-off panel and download code, so maybe the app wasn't quite ready. Which might explain why the documentation seems a little shonky. Perhaps the astroturfing started a bit prematurely... 🙂

For subscribers using Android I can confirm that mapping required to view a saved route does seem to be cached on the phone.

BWD, apologies ffor being a bit harsh but do you really need documentation to press the menu option in the app ? I mean we all use facebook etc for example without a user manual ?

BWD, apologies ffor being a bit harsh but do you really need documentation to press the menu option in the app ? I mean we all use facebook etc for example without a user manual ?

Well, if I'm going to spend £20 on an online subscription, I'd quite like the app and the online documentation to confirm that I will indeed get access offline using the app to the entire UK in 1:50,000 and 1:25,000 scale. At the moment, all I have to go on is your word. Do you access the mapping through the My Maps bit or is it one of the layers provided using the layers icon btw?

Because if you don't have a subscription, there's no indication whatsoever anywhere that subscribing to OS Maps on the web gives you access to the mapping on the OS Maps app. If you have a subscription already you won't know that, but that's how it is,

I'd also like to know that the maps are stored on my phone for offline use permanently - what happens to them when your subscription expires for example? The app itself is nicely laid out, but really, really basic currently compared to ViewRanger or similar apps and I could buy an awful lot of VR mapping for the 40 quid or so I'd spend on two years with the OS Maps subscription and know that they be permanently saved to my device and available when I need them.

Or are you just 'borrowing' the maps for a year? Do they vanish in a puff of blue smoke after 12 months?

So yes, maybe I'm being a little picky, but no, I don't think it's unreasonable for a government-owned mapping agency to provide accurate documentation for a paid-for service if they expect people to subscribe to it . YMMV and clearly does, but there you go.

We do have an EXCELLENT customer service team who have all the answers with this stuff. If you drop them an email they usually reply within hours, not days.

ps: I've now done what I should probably have in the first place and asked OS customer services for a definitive answer. I'll post it here once they get back to me 🙂

I Think if anything, this thread has shown the app / website needs to be much more user friendly.

A common problem I see nowadays it shedloads of ideas thrown at stuff but not one of them ideas is clarity and ease of use.

Thankfully I already have digital maps of the country and dont need / want to be changing app.

A better analogy than FB (which is free) by the way, might be Strava, where it's not only explicitly clear what you get for a Premium Membership, but the month's free trial means you can actually try it for real before making a decision on whether to sign up for the permanent deal.

The good news is that OS customer services got back to me within minutes. The bad news is that it was in form of an automated reply saying:
[i]
'Thank you for your email which has been received by Ordnance Survey. This is an automatic response acknowledging your email. There is no need to reply.

Please Note: we’re currently experiencing an unusually high volume of customer enquiries at the moment. Thank you for your patience. We will respond to your enquiry as soon as we can. We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause'[/i]

That was at 13.12 yesterday afternoon. In true STW fashion, I shall update once they respond. I also felt that there was no need to use both 'currently' and 'at the moment' in the same sentence and arguably neither of them, but that's just being pernickety...

I've downloaded the app for my iPhone and then paid the £18 a year web subscription and I can view 1:25k, 1:50k, aerial etc on my iPhone. I can download custom areas on my iPhone for viewing offline but it'll take a bit of trial and error to download the exact area you want if its a large area you need. I think I'll buy the paper maps with the codes for the areas i use a lot i.e. lakes district.
A few things i was hoping for was if i created a route on the web it would automatically add it to my routes on my iPhone without having to email myself the GPX file. If anyones knows if this is possible please show me how?
I was also hoping that when i was viewing my route on my phone I could zoom out to show the whole route and then have the option to download that area for offline use. At the moment when you go to download an area the route disappears.
Another issue seems to be that when you are viewing a route it always shows the distance and time which takes up more than a quarter of the screen. Is there a way to remove this information?

Cheers mrlinderley, sounds vaguely promising. Any idea if the map area is cached permanently on your device á la ViewRanger for repeated use? If so I guess you could simply download a big chunk of your local/favourite riding area rather than route-specific blocks?

Still waiting for OS Customer Services to get back to me. It's been a while, so much so that I've changed my e-mail address in the mean time, but I mailed them to let them know. I guess that may mean that I go to the back of the digital queue.

In case anyone's interested, I had this response from OS Customer Services this morning:

Thank you for contacting Ordnance Survey regarding OS Maps mobile.

You are correct, OS Maps subscribers using the iOS version of OS Maps mobile can download mapping online for use offline. You can subscribe to OS Maps at the following link:

https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/shop/os-maps-online.html

Regarding what happens to maps once a subscription expires I have sent your enquiry to the technical team; they will be able to look into the issue that you have raised. We will be in touch by 9 July 2015 with either a full response.

So yes, officially as confirmed by several folk above, you do get those maps on the iOS app with the annual OS Maps web subscription. And customer services don't know what happens to the mapping if your subscription expires, but should let me know in a week or two.

It'd be nice if they updated the documentation online to make it clear that's the case. It seems slightly odd to ignore what must be one of the major selling points of the service, but I guess it'll all be tweaked in due course.