By car, on two-wheelers or even on foot, GPS guidance apps on smartphones are very useful for finding your way around. Especially since it is possible to use them even when you do not receive any mobile network…
Mapping and GPS apps have become essential on smartphones. They are even installed by default with Google Maps on Android and Apple Maps on iOS. Practical, they allow you to find your way on a map in a few moments in order to orient yourself, to be able to estimate distances and to define a route to get to a specific location. All these possibilities work perfectly… when the device connects to a 3G/4G/5G data network. Without a connection, it’s a different story. Although the device does indeed find your position using its GPS chip, it is however not able to display the map. And for good reason: it is downloaded on the fly. It is then difficult to orient yourself. A situation that can arise at any time, as soon as you cross one of these famous white zones which are not covered by any operator’s data network.
To anticipate this big inconvenience, there is a solution. Several apps allow you to download maps directly to the device so as not to be caught off guard when the time comes. The maps thus stored locally, in the smartphone’s memory, are displayed in the blink of an eye and work in the same way as plans downloaded on the fly. Practical !
Obviously, to be able to use them when the time comes, without an Internet connection, you must ensure that you download the maps before you travel, when you still have a connection to a mobile network or Wi-Fi. It is possible to retrieve the map of a city, or of a larger area such as a department, a region or more. After this stage, you no longer even need to stay connected to the 3G/4G/5G network. You can even put the device in Airplane mode by only enabling GPS tracking, which is independent of the mobile network, so it doesn’t unnecessarily consume battery searching for an available network.
Most apps capable of storing maps on the mobile run on both Android and iOS. The most popular remains Google Maps. Here the operation is carried out quickly from the option Offline nested in its settings. And if the app Plans Apple does not yet have this function (you will have to wait for iOS 17 for that), we can also cite Here WeGo which allows you to download the map corresponding to an entire country or, for France, the maps of one or more regions of your choice, Maps.me which has even made a specialty of offline maps, OsmAnd or even MapFactor both of which are based on open source maps from Open Street Maps. On the other hand, there is no question of using Waze which does not offer any option to download maps and use them offline…
Downloading maps before setting off on an adventure is therefore very practical. However, there are two small drawbacks. First, you need to have some space in the mobile storage space. For example, downloading the map of Paris and its surrounding suburbs with Google Maps requires 165 MB of storage space. And for the entire French territory with Here WeGo, you need to count on a little more than 2.3 GB of data. If your smartphone is already full, you will need to do a little cleaning or add a memory card. Then, with a downloaded map and without a telephone network with mobile data, you will not have access to real-time traffic conditions. But at least you will never be lost!
Last tip, you can completely do without a SIM card and subscription to a mobile plan to use your phone’s GPS. It’s also an excellent way to recycle an old smartphone that’s still working, to turn it into a kind of dedicated GPS that you leave in the glove box of your vehicle or in a hiking bag. You’ll just have to remember to download updated maps from time to time via Wi-Fi, so that it’s ready to use when you need it!