Android app for navigation in a car

[Muse]

I bought 3 Android phones, all cheap LG REBEL 3 LTE® (L158VL), 2 use Verizon, one T-Mobile, IIRC, but I haven't activated a data plan for any of them. I got them to control my three TCL 43" 4K Roku TVs, but am not using them for that, have found that just using the supplied remote is, at least for now, more convenient. Heck, I got all 3 for under $100 combined.

Well, I use one of them for listening to music in the gym. It's smaller and lighter than the phone I do have a data plan for, my Alcatel Idol 4S GSM Unlocked phone, which runs Windows 10 Phone. When that Alcatel phone dies, I'll go Android for data. May use one of the LG phones or buy a better Android phone.

OK, so... sometimes (like today) I find myself with one of those LG phones (no data) and don't have my Windows phone with me. ATM, I don't (AFAIK) have an app on any of these LG phones for GPS navigation in my car.

A question: One reason I bought a Windows phone to begin with (the real reason!) was that it could do GPS navigation in my car without using data at all, plus it was super cheap. Can my Android phones do GPS navigation without a data plan?

Is there a default GPS navigation app supplied with Android phones? I think my Windows phone had a default one from the getgo. Searching I see a site with 10 recommended navigation apps for Android, and the note at the start that Google Maps is big in this arena. Should I just install that? I presume I need to download maps? Windows Phone works like that. I'm in Berkeley, CA. Thanks for info/guidance.

 

[Ajay]

AFAIK, you need mobile data to load the map info. There is a way in Google Maps to cache maps for a given locale to minimize data use.

 

[Muse]

AFAIK, you need mobile data to load the map info. There is a way in Google Maps to cache maps for a given locale to minimize data use.

You mean I can't upload mobile data to my android phones via wifi? I need a data plan for that?

Edit: Uh, you're saying I can have maps cached for access in the wild? Can't I then navigate "off line?" So, can I do all this without ever activating my phone? I could do that with a Windows phone, IIRC.

 

[Ajay]

You mean I can't upload mobile data to my android phones via wifi? I need a data plan for that?

Oh, now I understand the question. Sorry, don’t have the answer to that. I would think that there would be an app for that. Stand alone GPS devices can have Map data loaded via usb dongles.

 

[balloonshark]

With google maps you can pre-download a certain sized area map to your phone but I have no idea if you need data to use GPS on that downloaded map. The maps also expire so you'll want to keep them updated (not sure if they auto-update) on wifi if you don't want to use data. I choose the largest sized map the app would allow it was 346MB so you would want to download it via wifi if data is a concern. I wanted a map of WV and couldn't even select the entire state so these maps aren't huge geographically if that is a concern. Other than that I can't help as I only downloaded the map after ending up taking a left on a gravel road and which led to an hour and a half journey before we hit blacktop again.

 

[Muse]

Man, weird it's so uncertain on a platform as huge as Android! I mean they dominate. Apple is huge too, but Android is by far bigger. Windows Phone is very very tiny in comparison, but I went with it because I got my first smartphone with Windows Phone for $60 and it supported data-free (i.e. offline) GPS. As well, the map downloads were simple, by wifi and nicely discreet: e.g. I downloaded a CA map, done. I downloaded a bunch of others too, including NY, Mexico. Funny thing is I still have my old Windows phones (Two that I no longer use) and even though only one of my 3 Windows Phones has a SIMM in it, I can use any of the 3 for GPS in my car! I should maybe just keep one of them in the car at all times. I was doing that. Yesterday, I figured I would try my Android phone and see if i had GPS, but didn't find it.

 

[balloonshark]

Does this FAQ about Google Maps help? https://support.google.com/maps/answer/3273406?hl=en&ref_topic=3292869

 

[ericlp]

why not get one phone plan, like say visible that includes a hot spot for all you can eat. You could re-route it to a router or just let the phone be the hotspot for the rest of your phones?

There is no beating google ... and the reason you want it, is because it updates everything. Yeah, you can select a large area of a map, to be local, but it won't be updated. It's a pain, and if you drive out of that small zone, your screwed. I couldn't even fit the entire island of the big island last time I tried to do it, 6 years ago, maybe the expanded the area size?

 

[MrSquished]

why not get one phone plan, like say visible that includes a hot spot for all you can eat. You could re-route it to a router or just let the phone be the hotspot for the rest of your phones?

There is no beating google ... and the reason you want it, is because it updates everything. Yeah, you can select a large area of a map, to be local, but it won't be updated. It's a pain, and if you drive out of that small zone, your screwed. I couldn't even fit the entire island of the big island last time I tried to do it, 6 years ago, maybe the expanded the area size?

the area size definitely got bigger in the last 6 years. not sure how well navigation works with offline maps but I'll try it this week to see how it routes me on usual drives in airplane mode, since I keep all my local area cached offline on my pixel.

 

[SKORPI0]

Google Maps works very well for me with the Note 9 512GB.

But I've been using this app on my Samsung Tab S 10.5" for a while, only for places I'm not familiar with.

Sygic Offline Maps

Navigate everywhere. High quality offline maps are stored on your device, so you can get to your destination even without internet connection.

www.sygic.com

 

[jhansman]

I am a user of CoPilot. It is affordable, comes with plenty of maps, and the devs stay on top of things so the app doesn't get stale. Google maps has misguided me more than once, and when I am a stranger in a strange land, I can't afford to hope the app will work correctly.

 

[IGBT]

Are there any practice navigations or "sand box" navagations?? My stand alone Magellan works better then my android and the Magellan just has GPS nav. No cell or data..