Looking for some reviews on the OS map app. Been looking around and the ones i have found have been a few years old now and not to good. Has it improved at all ? I have been using a app called Alpinequest which i have found very good but you cant get OS maps on it . Any recomendations?

Hi
I use Outdoors GPS and found it pretty good.
It’s £20 a year but I’ve used it regularly so happy to pay.
Can be a little slow to load or update depending on signal (I guess) but it’s stopped me getting lost a few times
Using it a lot at the minute to check local route to keep my sanity
Cheers
Steve

It has improved markedly over the years. Shame it has taken so long but I doubt they have a large team on it. There are regular discounts available so I reckon it is still VFM.

FWIW I also have OS Maps on my Garmin that were acquired from a less reputable source. I’m not normally in favour of software piracy but I partially assuage my conscience by knowing I’ve already paid for OS mapping 2 or 3 times over 😁

I’ve TheMapFinder on my iPhone, which is the official OS maps app. It’s pretty good, has both scales and will let you plot tracks and stuff.

Not super-powerful but does the job for sure.

If you’re on Android then backcountry navigator is excellent

I use it. It’s OK – a lot better than it was. But still pretty average.

biggest negatives for me:-

You can download sections of the map to use offline but the downloadable areas are pitifully small. Way too small for a bike ride and barely enough for a walk. Every modern phone could handle the memory requirements for an area a thousand or ten thousand times larger so I have no clue why it is so restrictive. My old memory map app had the whole of the UK in 1:50K and all the national parks in 1:25K on it no bother.

I have yet to find a way to make the app default to the already downloaded areas by default apart from putting your phone on aeroplane mode. This is really annoying when you are in areas of super weak data signal when you phone thinks if it tries hard enough it will manage to download when you scroll half an inch to the left but you know it won’t or when you are trying to eek out every drop from your phone’s battery but keep the phone active for emergencies.

[strong]billybodger[/strong] wrote:

I have been using a app called Alpinequest which i have found very good but you cant get OS maps on it

Billy. I have been using Alpine quest for about 10 years now and have the complete UK on 1:25K OS mapping on it. However…. the maps I am using were last updated around 2006 so might not be ideal if you live somewhere urban. 10 years ago it was possible to get a (bootleg) copy of the early MemoryMap files for PC in .qct format (seemed everyone had a copy of the disk), and Alpinequest is able to use those files if you store them on your phones memory/SD card. You need about 10 GB for the whole of the UK.

You can download sections of the map to use offline but the downloadable areas are pitifully small. Way too small for a bike ride and barely enough for a walk. Every modern phone could handle the memory requirements for an area a thousand or ten thousand times larger so I have no clue why it is so restrictive. My old memory map app had the whole of the UK in 1:50K and all the national parks in 1:25K on it no bother.

We’re obviously using different apps here, because my OS MapFinder app downloads the OS map tiles once.

Viewranger

I use

1. AlpineQuest running a very old Memory Map OS1:50k of the United Kingdom.

2. OS map APP at £26 a year. I’ve had it about three years.

The OS map app was a bit flakey but its got better. Its still a bit fiddly to download large offline maps but it can be done (I had the entire Offas Dyke path at 1:25k on it.) The only really annoying bit was sometimes it needed a data connection to view the offline maps, but that may have been fixed by now.

The OS app itself is free (you pay for the OS mapping). If you’ve bought a paper map recently you can download it very easily.

So you could try it out without the subscription before you decide.

I also use Back Country Navigator, which with the paid version allows unlimited OS area downloads to phone.
It has other mapping layers which are pretty good in most of Europe.
I haven’t used anything else to compare against, but it’s good enough for me.

I use ViewRanger. It’s very well developed, synchs across the web to save and upload tracks and routes. I haven’t tried the own brand Ordnance Survey one for a year or so though and I guess it may have improved since then.

I use both viewranger and OS Maps depending on circumstances.
OS maps app has got a a lot more stable and user friendly over the years and now seems ok with downloaded maps. If you are lucky to have bought a hardcopy map in the last few years then there will be a code inside the cover which lets you download that to your phone for free which is really handy for having a detailed map for small scale navigation or replanning routes.
For following shared or pre planned routes I find viewranger much easier to use and I like knowing I have the buddy beacon feature which has genuinely been useful for getting picked up after a catastrophic wheel break. Viewranger does let you buy OS map tiles in app but I have stuck with the OS maps for this simply because I didn’t want to pay twice. If starting from scratch then I would maybe go pure viewranger.

I use the OSMaps app quite a lot.

It always strikes me how much of a fiddle it is to get the maps I want downloaded on to my phone. Lord only knows why it won’t just let me have all of a region on there and be done with it.

OS maps app, had it for 3 years now, it’s really good, so much better than it used to be, and I prefer it to viewranger, that never gets used now.

Way too small for a bike ride and barely enough for a walk.

Never noticed that, I can download the whole of the Arrochar Alps for instance, you’re not doing all of those in a day. Even if you did, you can just download the next section too as a separate map?

If you’re on Android then backcountry navigator is excellent

Backcountry navigator on mobile, and bing maps on desktop.

I like ViewRanger – planning routes on the ipad, with the pencil, is a good pastime currently…

I’m in the ‘tried it a few years ago, got pissed off, went back to Viewranger camp’. I was actually going to try the OS app again when my Viewranger subscription ended, but I forgot and it autorenewed. Ah well.

I use the OS map app occasionally. As a general rule I mostly either just improvise or carry a paper map though. Did pick it up with one of the grandfathered discounts so its reasonable pricing for how much i use it.
So its usable as a backup but not sure its the best solution if you really want to depend on it.

I use the OS maps app a fair bit. Plan a route on the desktop and I can view it on the phone. Option to download all the maps required for that route before starting out. Not really had any problems with it.

Thanks for the reply’s it would seem its still a bit of a mixed bag with the os maps . I used to use OS maps on Alpinequest . You could download them through MOBAC onto my PC then onto my phone which was good when you didnt have the memory space you have these days. Then you could directly put them onto the phone from Alpinequest and i had quite a few maps downloaded but that stopped and then the memory on the phone got corrupted and i lost the lot . I think you can get a 7 day free trial but i dont think that includes Explorer & Landranger maps. The other option is to try the £3.99 for a month and see how it goes.

Viewranger is the best app i’ve used.

i use it a lot, draw routes on ipad with a 10 quid pencil export to garmin via connect app can import routes from strava . just checked download map sizes seem to be about 15 miles by 12 miles
iused to have aproblem with the downloded maps if there was no 4g signal but think that has been fixed.
pity you cant use the maps on a garmin

What’s the best option for bridleway hunting?

ViewRanger is the best out there.

Quite surprised at the positive views of the OS app. I use to love the app: bought the paper maps, got the digital download code then used the app on my smartphone to create routes and then follow the routes with my smartphone attached to the bars. Then last year came vs 2.0: couldn’t even find my downloads initially but fixed that. Then came the issue that downloaded maps couldn’t be viewed without mobile data being active which defeated the purpose. And other annoyances such as the way it jumped from to 1:50k as you panned out to browse the map when you didn’t want to be reduced to a scale with less detail. Gave up in the end and reloaded vs 1.15…happy with that for now until they sort out the issues.

Towards the end of last year and start of this year most reviews on Google Play were 1 star….just had another look: reviews have improved so hopefully the issues have been resolved. Still sticking with vs 1.15 for now though because it works how I prefer

Then came the issue that downloaded maps couldn’t be viewed without mobile data being active which defeated the purpose

Nope. I put my phone in flight mode when in the hills to preserve the battery, and can can still use the OS app. Version 2.0.12.765.

Only issue I have with it is that AR viewer doesn’t point out summits on mine, but I have peakviewer too, so no real issue…

Nope. I put my phone in flight mode when in the hills to preserve the battery, and can can still use the OS app. Version 2.0.12.765.

It was an issue when the new app came out – acknowledged and apologised for by them in an email to all subscribers. Now fixed.

Viewranger with the OS option, all UK at 1:25k for £25/year. It’s good. I like the facility to toggle from OS to OpenMaps, for a different interpretation.

It was an issue when the new app came out – acknowledged and apologised for by them in an email to all subscribers. Now fixed.

Cool, missed that, ta.

Backcountry Navigator. All the maps of everywhere in the world (proper OS in the UK) for £11 one off fee. Theres a free trial version so you can see if you like it. Most of the time I just let it download the maps as I go but I also have all of my local area and Wales downloaded offline.

Everytime I go back to using the official OSMap app I find that it does something awful and I go return to BCN.

Are you sure you complete OS mapping in Backcountry Navigator for a one time fee of £11? It’s a bargain if that’s right – I pay £19.99 a year for OS subscription through Viewranger.

@supernova yep, full UK at 1:25k and 1:50k. It’s a bit naughty as I believe it caches tiles from bing maps. Practical upshot is that if I have mobile signal I have the lot, if I don’t then I can use map folders downloaded to my device. You just draw boxes around the area you want and save to your phone. It does all the usual stuff, record tracks (usually leave that to strava and wahoo) mark waypoints and POIs, etc. For me, the Wahoo’s basic maps are great for reading at speed when riding and my big screen HD phone with OS maps great for getting the bigger picture or if deciding to detour.

Looks like the price for BCN has gone up. Still a bargain though.

If I’m out with my phone and want an electronic OS map then I reach for back country navigator. As said above, cache everything you want for a one of fee. Crucially it’s really easy to have any part of the country you want off line

If I was planning a route then I’d use the osmap. This I mainly use on a pc, via the website but I also have the Android App. The suscriptionn allows printing of maps. It also means that the OS have some income to keep maping

The suscriptionn allows printing of maps. It also means that the OS have some income to keep maping

Yip, my thoughts too, their paper map sales must be down a fair bit the last few years.

maximum tile download on OS Maps Android app is 30km x 15km (did it just now) for 1:25K mapping, and you can download multiple tiles.

maximum tile download on OS Maps Android app is 30km x 15km (did it just now) for 1:25K mapping, and you can download multiple tiles.

And unless I am being daft the latitude and longitude of that area can’t be reversed – i.e. so it can’t be 15km x 30km. Hence if you have a route which is mostly east/west in nature even some walks can’t fit on a single tile. And a lot of bike rides would not fit within a tile regardless of direction. It seems necessarily small to me.

Using auto-rotate on my phone allows me to download 15×30 or 30×15

Nobody using this then?
I’ve been using it for years – its very good.