Gaia GPS

March 14, 2024

Gaia GPS

I have begun using this on my android phone (currently a Pixel 6) in lieu of my own "atopo" app. The biggest reason is Android Auto. My new (2023) Toyota 4runner supports Android auto and along with Gaia, I can get high quality maps displayed on the center console of my vehicle. This is unbelievably useful. I investigated the idea of adapting my own android app to work with Android Auto, but there is an "allowed list" of eligible apps, and I am skeptical of getting approval and too lazy to investigate ways to bypass the restrition.

So far Gaia has been excellent and for the money (I have a premium subscription) it saves me time and seems to have better map data in many areas than the USGS topos I use in my own app. My premium subscription costs me $39.99 per year (for 2023 to 2024).

Offline maps

This is absolutely critical for what I do. I have already been in places where Gaia just gives up and I get a "Gaia not responding) on my vehicle console.

Gaia - download an entire state for offline use

I will note that I have seen several reports of people who were backpacking and had downloaded offline maps and then had them "vanish" when they were in the field. The story is that you cannot entirely rely on your phone and Gaia offline maps. You need some kind of backup system.

Launch Gaia on my phone.
Find the layers button (lower left on my phone).
Select Gaia Topo as my map source
Center an area of interest on the map (I center Tucson, Arizona)
Click the + button at the lower right
Select the "box" at the top of the menu that appears
It says "create area" at the top center. I scroll way out so I can see the entire state of arizona. I tap the screen and it places a green point. I tap again and get a line, a third time gives me a triangle, a fourth time gives me a 4 cornered region. I can drag those points as desired.
I set up a region that goes a ways into California and New Mexico.
It does not include the Grand Canyon or Death Valley.
There is a "Save" button at the upper right.
It all seems too fast. I never had a chance to specify the level of detail I wanted.

I try it again:

I set up a region, as above.
I click the Save button at upper right (as above)
This dialog tells me "no maps selected", but that has a submenu, I select it.
Aha! Here I can choose "Gaia Topo" along with low, medium, or high resolution.
I pick "high" and then next.
It says this will be 1.9G and 6,683 tiles
I click save at the bottom of the dialog.
To see progress, I use "Saved" at the bottom of the screen.
Now it says 8426 tiles and seems to have redefined a rectangle that encloses the polygon I defined, which is fine by me.
I don't see any way here to see download progress.
This "Saved" tab does offer the option to delete a downloaded region.

I may just give it several minutes, in case things are in progress and it just isn't doing anything nice like telling me "download complete". Then I will turn off cell and wifi on my Pixel and see if Gaia works. It seems to!

Feedback? Questions? Drop me a line!

Atopo / tom@mmto.org