It is highly likely that you daily hold in your hand a piece of navigation technology that only a few decades ago was available only to the military and scientific communities. However, Global Positioning System (GPS) technology today is everywhere, most commonly in a smartphone.
So the question is: How to use a Smartphone for GPS Navigation?
With the decreasing cost of technology, you can now easily purchase a low cost rugged outdoor smartphone for under $200 that will replace a dedicated handlheld GPS navigation device, and be easier to use and more versatile too. Read on to understand how to use your Smartphone for GPS Navigation.
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Table of Contents
How GPS works on your Phone
GPS stands for Global Positioning System, which is basically a network of satellites that can determine the location of a gps enabled device anywhere on earth. This is very useful in outdoor navigation applications such as travel and rescue.
While modern smartphone use AGPS, a hybrid of cell phone and satellite triangulation, you don't need cell phone coverage to use GPS navigation. This is an important factor for outdoor use, as you may find it difficult to get mobile coverage in remote locations.
AGPS adds cellular location data to assist geolocation. Your phone carrier knows where you are since your phone "pings" cell towers. How precise this is will depend on the strength of the signal between your phone and the tower, but it's usually good enough to be used for location data.
Despite your GPS system working without cell coverage, it is important that you have up-to-to-date maps loaded before you leave an area with mobile data coverage. If you don't, your phone will find you, but you won't know where you are without a base map!
GPS has better performance when the satellite line of sight is unobstructed This usually results in heavy tree cover, deep canyons, or other things getting in the way. But I've found generally excellent GPS coverage in our tests, including in dense forests and canyons.
Navigation Apps
There are various navigation and mapping apps available that are suitable for hiking and biking. They come in at different prices, usually dictated by the quality of mapping included with the package.
If you are considering outdoor wilderness expeditions, you should choose appropriately as some apps are better suited to this than others!
Of course, there are plenty of free navigation apps available and intro versions, but even paying a one-off payment represents excellent value for money.
The apps we will cover all utilize your smartphone's inbuilt GPS capability and come with base mapping and downloadable GPX files.
Gaia GPS
Best for: Serious backcountry hiking, off-roading, hunting Pros: Extensive topo maps, satellite overlays, route planning, waypoint tracking, multiple map layers you can stack. Excellent for remote areas. Cons: Subscription required for premium maps. Steeper learning curve than casual apps.
AllTrails
Best for: Day hiking, trail running, dog-friendly walks Pros: Massive database of curated trails with user reviews, photos, and difficulty ratings. Easy to discover new hikes nearby. Offline maps available. Cons: Navigation features are basic compared to dedicated GPS apps. Best features require a paid subscription.
Komoot
Best for: Hiking, cycling, mountain biking, bikepacking Pros: Excellent turn-by-turn voice navigation on trails. Smart route planning based on your fitness level and activity type. Strong community sharing features. Cons: Free version only includes one region map. Trail database is stronger in Europe than North America.
OsmAnd
Best for: Privacy-conscious users, international trekking, customization enthusiasts Pros: Fully open-source. Extremely customizable with plugins. Detailed offline maps worldwide. No account required. Cons: Interface feels dated and cluttered. Can be overwhelming for beginners.
Maps.me
🔗 maps.me (also see the open-source fork: organicmaps.app)
Best for: International backpacking, travel in developing countries, urban + trail combo trips Pros: Lightweight, fast, works great offline. Clean interface. Good for both city navigation and basic trail use. Completely free. Cons: Limited trail detail compared to dedicated outdoor apps. No advanced route planning or elevation profiles.
Sygic GPS Navigation
Best for: Road-based outdoor travel, RV trips, overlanding on established roads Pros: Reliable offline navigation, speed alerts, dashcam feature. Clean interface. Cons: Not designed for trail use. Subscription model for premium features.
inRoute
Best for: Road trips, long-distance drives through variable terrain and weather Pros: Unique weather-along-route planning. Elevation profiles for drives. Great for planning around mountain passes or storms. Cons: iOS only. Not useful for foot trails. More of a planning tool than real-time navigator.
Avenza Maps
Best for: Professional field work, forestry, geology, search and rescue Pros: Import any georeferenced PDF map (including USGS topos and custom maps). GPS plotting on imported maps. Great for niche or proprietary map sources. Cons: Not a discovery app — you need to find or buy maps yourself. Less intuitive for casual users.
Locus Map
Best for: European hikers, geocachers, multi-sport outdoor enthusiasts (Android only) Pros: Highly customizable, supports many map sources, strong GPS tracking and logging, live tracking features. Cons: Android only. Complex interface with a steep learning curve.
Trailforks
Best for: Mountain biking, trail running, dirt biking, ATV riding Pros: Arguably the best trail database for mountain biking specifically, with extremely detailed trail maps, difficulty ratings (green/blue/black system), condition reports, and user-submitted updates on trail status. Cons: Premium features require a subscription. Heavily mountain bike–focused, so coverage for pure hiking trails can be thinner in some areas. Less useful for general backcountry navigation without established trails.
Google Maps
You're probably used to using Google Maps for general route planning and navigation. Google Maps is also great for finding local attractions, bike shops, fuel stations, accommodation, and other useful places.
You can also download large mapping sections from Google Maps. This feature is particularly useful if you need to navigate a city or have several routes to cover but know you'll have no cell network coverage.
For wilderness or back-country navigation, Google Maps is much more limited. To get an idea of contouring and the shape of the land, you should swap to Terrain view or even try Google Earth.
Google is okay for planning urban cycling routes, but I would not recommend it for extensive bike touring, as you may find it directing you down private roads or worse!
Ride With GPS (RWGPS)
Another popular navigation app is Ride With GPS. You can start using this app for free, but you'll need to subscribe to access its full range of features.
RWGPS has an Offline Maps feature, and this allows you to prepare your maps and routes before setting out on your trip. There is also a thriving community around RWGPS and an incredible amount of shared routes.
Other Navigation Apps
MTB Project, Google Earth, and Wikiloc are a few of the other decent navigation apps available for hiking and biking. Strava is another one, and it has a heat-map of popular riding routes.
You can download Strava's GPX files if you have access to the Premium version. For Android users, AlpineQuest, Backcountry, Navigator, and Orux are particularly popular.
Depending on the region you are traveling to, the mapping is well detailed and precise. You can download the mapping for the entire region before arriving and have quick access to it offline as soon as you arrive.
If you simply want to record or log your longer routes and workouts, you could also consider a GPS-enabled cycling computer such as market leading Wahoo or an excellent and very inexpensive Coospo gps cycle computers or if you want long range capabilities, the Coros Dura with 120 hours of battery life!
GPS Without Network Coverage
As mentioned previously, even when your adventures take you to remote parts of the world with no cell network coverage, your GPS should still work fine. That is because your phone's GPS relies on receiving signals from satellites rather than cell towers.
Therefore, even when you are 'off grid' in the wilderness, you can still use your phone as a navigation aid.
However, even though your GPS will function without access to a cell network, you must download the correct mapping before going beyond network coverage. If you don't, your phone will still be able to calculate your location, but it will have no means of showing that to you.
To receive a good GPS signal, your phone must have a good signal path to the satellite. Heavily wooded areas, steep canyons, and large objects can impede your phone's line-of-sight with the satellite and degrade the GPS signal's reception. Having said that, it is still mainly possible to get excellent GPS coverage in most places.
Phone Battery Life When Using GPS
The Routzz app is designed to shut off the screen between navigation cues by default (the screen is the single biggest power drain on most smartphones), and since the guide and route data is preloaded, you are only using GPS for navigation. The result is a full day's battery life on most phones with a decent battery capacity.
GPS might take something like 100mW-200mW. Typical phone batteries are between 4000 and 8000 mWh. This means if all your phone was doing was running GPS, it would take 40 hours to discharge the battery.
Regardless of which navigation app you are using, it will be useless if your smartphone's battery dies. If you are in a back-country location with no access to power, you must conserve your phone's battery charge.
Here are a few tips to ensure you've got enough charge for your trip:
- Activate airplane mode and low-power modes.
- Avoid recording your tracks, as doing so will use additional power.
- Shut down all other apps.
- Switch your phone off when you're not using it.
- If camping, keep your phone warm by having it close to your body at night.
- Turn off location services in other apps.
- Keep your screen brightness low.
Charging Your Phone
Being away from the power grid doesn't mean you have to go without a phone charging facility. There are plenty of lightweight charging options available, ranging from power banks to solar chargers.
When it comes to charging leads, try to get a universal one and keep it short. When you've got to back-pack everything, it's all about keeping things minimal.
Mounting Your Smartphone To Your Bike
Smartphone handlebar mounts for your bicycle come in many different styles and at various price points. When considering solutions to mount your Smartphone to your bike, there are 3 things to bear in mind:
1. Waterproofing
Chances are you will experience inclement weather at some stage of your travels. Snow, rain, or water from puddles will do your phone no good, so you need to ensure that it's adequately waterproofed.
Unless you own a Rugged or IP68 protected Smartphone, don't rely on the phone's inbuilt waterproofing; make sure your smartphone mount has a waterproof screen or a sealed cover into which the phone is encased.
2. Durability
Ensure that the mount you choose is robust and provides a secure fixing both to the phone and to your bicycle.
This means the mount itself should be made from durable materials, and as you don't want your phone moving around or falling off while you are on a trail, the clamping mechanism needs to be secure.
3. Versatility
There are plenty of phone mounts that are designed specifically for one type of phone. This might be the best solution while you have that particular phone model. However, what happens when you decide to change your phone?
Opting for a mount that will fit any smartphone could be your best option, and a great solution if you use one phone for work and one for play.
Smartphone Navigation App or Dedicated GPS?
Ultimately, it is a choice between using smartphone navigation apps or getting a dedicated GPS device for your navigation needs. To help you decide, here are a few advantages and disadvantages of using a smartphone navigation app:
Advantages of Smartphone Navigation
- They are intuitive to use and have a modern look and feel to them. Compared to a smartphone navigation app, a dedicated GPS can appear old-fashioned and clunky to use.
- For route-finding, a smartphone navigation app is easier to use than a dedicated GPS device.
- A good-quality navigation app gives you access to an incredible range of mapping from all over the world.
- With a smartphone, you can use the device's keyboard for programming and naming routes and waypoints quickly and easily.
- There is no need to tether a smartphone to a computer when importing or exporting GPX files.
- Chances are, you already own a smartphone, so there is no need to purchase a separate device.
- A smartphone has more versatility than a dedicated GPS device. You can use your smartphone for other things than navigation - even making a phone call!
Disadvantages of Smartphone Navigation
- Battery life on a smartphone is generally low, so you will need to have some method of charging or carry additional power packs. This issue is compounded if you are going on an extended expedition or trip.
- Smartphone navigation apps are less well-suited to navigation on a single track. Dedicated GPS device screens tend to be more suitable for this because they are clearer to view.
- Specialist cases to improve protection and robustness are expensive.
- If the weather is cold or wet, it can be challenging to use. Gloved hands or a damp screen do not make for easy operation.
- Smartphones are not designed to operate in extreme temperatures, unlike a dedicated GPS device.
- In some situations, a dedicated GPS device will offer better mapping. However, this mapping does tend to be expensive.
- A smartphone battery can drain quickly if the screen is always on, so you need to adopt power-management practices or an app that does that automatically.
Conclusion
Smartphone navigation apps have opened up a whole new world of exploration. Access to satellite imagery, location identification, and worldwide mapping means that pretty much nowhere is off-limits for your next adventure.
This is in fact why we decided to offer our smartphone navigation apps to outdoor explorers around the world.
After many years offering our self guided tours to our clients using our own rugged smartphones, we realized that pretty much everyone has their own handheld navigation device in their back pocket!
3 comentarios
I’ve used Gaia gps on my work phone but the stress of breaking it into pieces was so big that I had to switch to a rugged phone. I went for a budget one, Doogee S88 Pro, no bells and whistles, just a decent navigation app and a strong battery. The fact that it’s waterproof and super solid made it an instant buy.
I actually stumbled on this blog post because I had recently tried out one of the Routzz “routes” and loved it! I am glad I can use whichever app works best for me and still be able to enjoy a great guided tour experience by myself. Who knew this would be a thing 10 years ago. I certainly didn’t. Having GPS taking you through different trails, roads, ect. is a fun experience!
Thanks for the article, I’m just getting into trying to use my phone for this type of outdoor pursuit. I do have some concerns about finding a trustworthy application on my phone. There are many new apps here and it’s cool that they are made just for cycling navigation, I know about Google Maps and have used it a lot. While the other apps sound like the designers knew how to make them work for cycling, I’m reluctant to try apps without them being tested for malware and spyware. Have you checked these apps out? The reason why I ask is because I’ve heard apps are notorious for having malware.