Locus Map, for years the benchmark among off-road navigation apps and in geocaching. But sadly available only for Android devices until now. The developer team around Jiří Mlavec and Michal Stupka ruled out a move to Apple’s iOS for many years, but that position seems to have changed. Fortunately! Locus Map Lite is now available in the Apple App Store.
For years I’ve sworn by Locus Map, working and driving with it, planning our tours and documenting our trips, all in one app. Locus Map is a grown-up, full-featured navigation app that by now does pretty much everything you could expect from an off-road navigation app. With version 4.x it has worked its way into the on-road side too, though there’s certainly still room for improvement there.
To introduce you to Locus Map and get you ready to use the app, we’ve offered online and in-person seminars on Locus Map for years. For owners of Apple devices we sadly never found a comparable app that comes close to Locus Map. So we too always wished for an iOS version, but had to accept there was no effort towards one.
New now: Locus Map Lite for Apple iOS
Until now! The Locus Map developers have now grown a tender seedling, Locus Map Lite on iOS, and put it in the Apple App Store to install. Still limited in features for now, the Locus developers are working on bringing over more functions from the Android version.
What the Locus Map LITE version can do
Compared with the Android version, the feature set is still very limited. But what already works reads well and makes sense. If you already have a Gold subscription for Android, you can use it for the Apple version too and, for example, sync your data with the cloud and all Android devices.
- Locus’s own LoMaps maps, topographic and satellite, currently online maps only
- Data sync with the web and Android versions
- Route tracking
- Search for places and addresses
Still missing are all the other maps, the vector maps and the download option. All the route-planning functions and the as-the-crow-flies navigation are missing too. For now, Locus Map LITE for Apple iOS can only be used for map viewing, following synced routes and as a tracking tool.
If you’d like to take part and help, you should download the version and can support it actively here. The link leads to the lively, large Locus Map community, where you get good, quick help for all versions. The developers are active here too.
We’ll be watching keenly for when more functions arrive. The developer team itself can’t yet say when what will be there or how fast it will go. We’re curious…