Google Unveils Offline Mode For Google Maps

[Tywais]

Google unveils offline mode for Google Maps

Google says its maps application for mobile can work even without an Internet connection.

by Roger Cheng June 6, 2012 10:05 AM PDT Follow @RogerWCheng

Google is taking maps offline for Android users

Google unveiled an offline version of its Google Maps application, allowing phones to run the program without an Internet connection.

The offline mode would be coming to Android shortly, according to Rita Chen, product manager of Google Maps for mobile.

The introduction of the new mapping service comes just as Apple is widely expected to drop Google's mapping application from iOS in favor of its own proprietary version. Maps is emerging as the next major battleground for technology companies, with services, recommendations, and advertisements built around location.

News.cnet

[Tywais]

Google announces full offline mapping mode for Android smartphones

By Matthew Miller | June 6, 2012, 11:22am PDT

Summary: Google is finally taking a major step forward with Google Maps for mobile by providing full offline map usage with no data connection required.

One of the main reasons I always take a Nokia Symbian device with me when I travel overseas is for the fantastic offline Nokia Maps experience. I use Google Maps all the time on my Android devices, but with the online requirement for navigation I have left them behind on trips. Thankfully, Google finally announced that offline maps are coming in the next few weeks. You will be able to preload maps for other countries, up to 100 countries, and use the maps down to the finest level of detail.

ZDNet

[lomatopo]

There is a huge map war looming with Apple's jettisoning of Google Maps and Nokia's huge investments.

If anyone has any links to this new Google Maps functionality: availability, features, functionality, etc., please share. The articles linked herein are pretty useless re: details.

FWIW, you can cache up to ten "squares" with the current versions of Google Maps: Settings, Labs, select Pre-cache map area, then go to Cache and follow the directions to select and cache map squares. Ten squares more than covers the metro-Bangkok area, IME. Not sure about this newly announced functionality?

[Tywais]

There is a huge map war looming with Apple's jettisoning of Google Maps and Nokia's huge investments.

If anyone has any links to this new Google Maps functionality: availability, features, functionality, etc., please share. The articles linked herein are pretty useless re: details.

FWIW, you can cache up to ten "squares" with the current versions of Google Maps: Settings, Labs, select Pre-cache map area, then go to Cache and follow the directions to select and cache map squares. Ten squares more than covers the metro-Bangkok area, IME. Not sure about this newly announced functionality?

In this topic video starting around 20-25 minutes they show the operation of the new feature.

[Tywais]

[Crushdepth]

I thought this was called 'caching' and had been available in Google Maps for ages?

[BKKdreaming]

can you also download on an iPhone or a Netbook ?

it would be nice to have it on all my devises and I do not have an Android phone

BK

[BKKdreaming]

Ohhh and google announced it will be flying planes over major USA cities to scan them for 3D maps.....

UMMMM Google Airforce , first step to take over the "real" world

BK

[lomatopo]

I believe this functionality refers to Google Maps for Android. The topic is discussed in the video at the 27:35 mark by Rita Chen. No word on availability.

Yes, we have had off-line caching for sometime - the linked video above references ver. 5.7 and we are now on v. 6.6.

It looks like they've made it easier to cache map area(s). currently I might have to build up a mesh of ten squares (I think 10 miles x 10 miles) to cover a larger area. We are currently limited to the off-line caching of ten (10) squares.

For this new, upcoming capability, it is not clear if you can cache multiple areas, perhaps even building up an off-line cached map of an entire country?

BTW, Streetview is very, very handy and impressive for those areas currently covered in Thailand.

[lennois]

This is great news assuming it works like Nokia where you can just dload countries onto device. For example I frequently travel to Aus/NZ and around Thailand so just install those countries and forget about it. Yes you can currently cache some tiles but that's a giant PITA if you are moving around different places.

[lomatopo]

Here are some screen-shots will illustrate the current, manual process of adding pre-cached map areas. You can get a feel for what one square looks like...

[lennois]

They just released a maps update with 'offline maps' and it can only be described as an epic fail.

It is still that absurd system of selecting a square on the map. The max size is set to 80mb or something stupidly small. And the real cherry on top - I select an area in Bangkok and it says offline maps is not available in this area. So they have actually effectively REMOVED the offline maps capability here.

Well done chaps, well done.

Also had a good play with a cheap Nokia WP phone (complete with proper offline maps.) It was miles smoother and nicer UI than my nexus with a fraction of the hardware. Google is really gonna have to up their game to stop me insta jumping ship when the WP8 phones come out end of year. About to dload jellybean and have a play (supposedly makes for a smoother experience.)

[Prasert]

RMaps is a mapping application that uses other maps next to Google Maps, e.g. OpenStreetMap. It caches the visited map-parts on the SDcard. It can also handle offline maps - which you can create on your pc using Mobile Atlas Creator.

OpenStreetMap seems to be more accurate than Google Maps.

[lomatopo]

There are tons of off-line mapping solutions for Android - there was/is a longish detailed thread here on TV, maybe in the GPS sub-forum, where many were identified and reviewed.

Personally I have mobile data so off-line mapping is not a major requirement for me, and Google Maps with Navigation/Streetview is more than satisfactory. I have no problem caching map squares for back-up, I've been doing that for quite a while. I also have a dedicated GPS in the car for turn-by-turn/POI etc. That GPS (Garmin nuvi) is portable as well.

I guess I'd buy a dedicated GPS if mapping is a major requirement.

Edited June 29, 2012 by lomatopo

[lennois]

Not sure if there has been some major improvements to open street maps but last I checked maps weren't nearly as detailed and had hardly any point of interests.

I have data in thailand too so it's not that big of a deal here. Of course offline is still far superior as there is no need to burn through data (keep data plans smaller) and data is not always reliable.

Mainly it's for trips away. I have no interest in trying to cache little squares every time I move somewhere. It's a comical system.

Guess you haven't updated maps loma? Because you can no longer cache anything here. And nor can you in a whole raft of places looking online.

Just surprising the implementation is so incredibly poor. How hard is it to just have a list of countries/cities and choose the ones you want to install. Apparently not that hard if even Nokia can manage it...

[bobl]

Eish... time to think about replacing the 16Gb sd with a 32...

[IsaanUSA]

This does not work for me. It says "Offline maps is not available in selected area". It looks like the same result anywhere I search in Thailand.

I'm not located in Thailand. Anyone else have this problem?

[lomatopo]

^ Off-line caching, and turn-by-turn Navigation works for me but I have modded my phone.

Which version of Google Maps are you currently running? Which Android version?

[IsaanUSA]

^ Off-line caching, and turn-by-turn Navigation works for me but I have modded my phone.

Which version of Google Maps are you currently running? Which Android version?

Maps 6.9.0

Android 4.0.3

I have not done any mods to my phone. It's stock HTC. No root access. No ROMs.

[lennois]

Yes, for some reason when they bought out the new highly touted 'offline' feature Thailand was no longer available offline. Is a tremendous fail.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Thaivisa Connect App

[IsaanUSA]

Thanks lennois for the follow up

[lomatopo]

It's not clear to me why they've seemingly disabled the ability to pre-cache map squares (approx. 10 miles x 10 miles or 100 square miles) for Thailand as this was enabled, albeit in beta format in revs. from ~ 1 year ago, like 5.9?

As stated, I have modded my phone so do have the ability to pre-cache map squares for Thailand, and also have Navigation. I have an SGS 2 with Android 4.1.1 (Jelly Bean), and Maps (ownhere) 6.6, which is down rev from the current release of 6.9. The last screen-shot has all data turned off and is focused on the edge of a pre-cached map square to illustrate the lack of detail in the non-cached area. Obviously with any sort of data connection, even 2G, one could get that detail.

Edited August 10, 2012 by lomatopo

[lennois]

Yes works fine on older versions of maps. They have disabled thailand and some other countries in the latest maps version for whatever dumb reason..

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Thaivisa Connect App

[lomatopo]

It's not clear to me why they've seemingly disabled the ability to pre-cache map squares (approx. 10 miles x 10 miles or 100 square miles) for Thailand as this was enabled, albeit in beta format in revs. from ~ 1 year ago, like 5.9?

Actually it looks like each square is 20 miles by 20 miles, so 400 square miles. I never really looked at it that closely but see that the area is 10 miles from the center, the point you choose, to the edge of the square, so the square dimension must be 20 miles on a side.

I'm not sure if there is a way to hack this - I imagine a smart person could figure out how to cache all the squares for the country (of Thailand) and group them into spoofable data files, maybe limited to just one group at a time?

Edited August 10, 2012 by lomatopo

[lennois]

The new version is a lot better because u can create multiple offline areas and when using it in Vietnam could make them about 60 miles square (about 80mb)

The big problem is some countries such as Thailand are unavailable

[IsaanUSA]

I would have to assume that the Thai government or member of the monarchy would have asked Google to not allow offline viewing? I don't understand why a whole country would be off-limits. Perhaps some Thai law that does not allow this sort of thing? Strange. And not very helpful for travelers

[lomatopo]

Sorry, but I believe your assumption is both incorrect and even a bit odd, to say the least, unless you happen to fancy light-weight aluminum headgear.

First of all one can easily view Google Maps, Earth and Streetview for Thailand with any sort of data connection, on a multitude of devices. Second, there are just a ton of off-line mapping capabilities and solutions for Thailand, for both smartphones and dedicated GPS devices. Third, off-line caching was available for Thailand in previous versions of Google Maps so one can easily re-load an earlier version, APKs are quite easy to find and load without any modification, which would allow off-line caching. And fourth, one can easily mod. your phone to allow for off-line caching.

I think you may be reading too much into a potential case of incompetence?

http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/maps/_x0WiBOiNCM%5B1-25%5D

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Maps#Google_Maps_for_Mobile%23Offline_Version

http://support.google.com/gmm/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=2650347