Surely everyone at least once had such a situation when it was necessary to urgently get somewhere, and no one around knew how to get there. Previously, in such situations, huge maps were saved, which could be taken from a bookshelf and bleakly spread out over half a room. In the 21st century, fortunately, bulky paper guides have been replaced by electronic ones that fit perfectly in your pocket. Among map applications, there is a real struggle for the attention and recognition of the user, but one of the most popular for many years has been the maps utility from Google.
What is google maps
Google Maps is one of the most famous and widely used navigation aids. It was developed by Google and is currently supplied as a standard application for all smartphones with the Android operating system.
The Google Maps application has a number of advantages over its competitors.
In addition to the standard search for specific geographical objects, the application allows you to:
- work with cards;
- lay the most profitable routes;
- find out the current traffic congestion;
- view the location and diagrams of various objects and much more.
Compared to similar applications in the GPS and navigation segment, Google Maps has the following advantages:
- has one of the highest levels of detail;
- has a "convenient route" function;
- includes the widest and most complete database of addresses: it has maps of more than 220 countries and regions in its arsenal;
- is one of the most popular applications among drivers and tourists;
- includes descriptions of more than 100,000,000 different locations;
- has an intelligent search: you can search not for a specific address, but, for example, for the nearest cafes, cinemas, libraries, etc.;
- allows you to view panoramas of many places.
For several years, Google employees have been carefully working to create many panoramas of the most famous, popular, remote, unusual and interesting places on our planet.
How to download Google Maps on Android
As a rule, this application is included in the standard package from Google for the Android operating system. However, this program may not be available on some Chinese smartphones, because Google does not officially work with China and does not provide its OS to it. Another reason why your device may not have built-in Google Maps is if you intentionally or accidentally deleted it earlier.
In any case, downloading it and reinstalling it on your device will not be difficult.
- Find on your phone and go to the Play Market.
- Enter the name of Google Maps in the search bar.
- Open the app of the same name with the map icon.
- Find and click the "Install" button.
- Next, the download will begin. Wait while your device downloads and installs the app. Then you can start using it.
How to download the app offline (without network connection)
Sometimes it happens that the phone does not or will not have an Internet connection, and maps will be badly needed. What to do in such a situation? Google Maps foresaw a similar scenario and included it in the list of available Offline Maps features. That is, even at the moment when the user has a network, he can simply download the map he needs, and later use it offline when the Internet is no longer available. How to do it?
- Launch "Google Maps" by clicking on the appropriate icon.
Find the Play Store icon and click on it
- Then, in the upper left corner, find the menu icon.
- A list of menus will appear on the right. Here you need the item "Offline Maps". Find it and open it.
In the drop-down menu, look for the item "Offline maps"
- Here is a list of already downloaded maps and the inscription "Another map". With it, you can download a map of a new location. Click here and click.
Find the line "Other card" and click on it
- The application instantly prompts us to select the required area and download its map. Choose what you need and click on the "Download" button. The download of the selected location will begin. After it ends, you will be able to view the saved map, even when you are out of the Internet coverage area.
Be careful and configure the program so that it does not waste traffic
Thus, Google Maps makes it possible to download up to 120 thousand square meters for offline access. km. for a full 30 days. During this period, you can also update the downloaded area as soon as you get into the zone of a good Internet signal.
The use of offline maps differs from the usual one only in a special icon (lightning bolt) and in the fact that only car routes can be laid. Data such as traffic congestion and laying an alternative route, alas, is not available. The remaining functions of the online version are at your disposal.
Video: service overview
Google Maps is great for both online and offline use. You can easily download the area of interest in just a couple of clicks and later refer to it for geographical details. To do this, you will not need any third-party tools, because the Google Maps interface is simple and convenient. Just don't forget to configure the application so that it doesn't "eat" traffic when it's not needed.
By saving a map area on your device, you can use it even without an Internet connection, for example, where mobile data is expensive or the connection speed is slow.
Note. This feature is not available in some regions due to technical limitations, address format issues, lack of support for certain languages, etc.
Step 1. Download the map
Note. Downloaded maps can be stored in the device memory or on an SD card. If you decide to change the storage location, the map will have to be downloaded again.
How to save offline maps to SD card
Step 2: Save Battery and Data (Optional)
When working with offline maps, you can use applications that require an Internet connection.
Notes
- Without an Internet connection, only one type of route is available - automobile.
- However, you will not be able to find alternative routes, view traffic data and choose a lane.
Using offline maps
Downloaded maps can be used in the same way as usual, that is, when the device is connected to the Internet.
If you are not connected to a network or the data rate is too low, then offline maps will be used for navigation.
Notes
How to manage offline maps
The offline map must be updated before it expires. When this date is 15 days or less away, the app will attempt to update the offline map automatically if the device is connected to a Wi-Fi network.
If the maps do not update automatically, follow the instructions below.
How to update maps via alert
- Open the offline map update alert and click Refresh.
- Select an outdated card from the list.
- Click Refresh.
- The downloaded area will be updated.
How to update maps through the app
Maps for upcoming tripsYou can also download maps of the places you plan to visit. Information about your trips is collected from Gmail, Google Trips, Hangouts and other Google services. Such maps are available for download in the "Recommended Maps" section.
Until recently, Google-maps and Yandex-maps belonged to the so-called online navigation – that is, they worked exclusively using the mobile Internet necessary for laying the route and leading along it. Accordingly, even the ability to download maps to the gadget’s memory in advance, which appeared some time ago in Yandex Maps, still did not make navigation offline. Google didn't even have maps to download...
And now detailed offline maps, address search, full route guidance, and other useful information have become available to users of Google maps on mobile gadgets without an Internet connection. – for example, the opening hours of organizations, their contacts, etc. To use the new feature, you need to enter the name of the area, city or region you are interested in in the search bar on Google Maps, then select "Download Map". And in the main menu of the maps, the item "Downloaded areas" appeared, where you can delete regions and add new ones.
The details of the offline mode "Wheels" were found out from Evgeny Grebennikov, manager of the Google Maps service in Russia:
– What does the user get from the appearance of the offline navigation function?
- Actually, everything that is its well-known pluses! The most obvious thing that lies on the surface is that now you can safely use navigation in roaming without worrying about “golden” megabytes (although to this day there are also local tariffs in which the Internet is secondary and megabytes are expensive). You can also use navigation where the Internet does not work in principle and there is no coverage of mobile networks - and there are still plenty of such places in Russia, despite the fact that our mobile Internet is really one of the fastest, highest quality and cheapest in the world.
If earlier you got into an area where there is no cellular network coverage, then the navigation simply disappeared. And in an area with slow GPRS or sluggish and congested 3G internet, navigation could slow down and “hang”, waiting for a data swap, forcing you to stop on the sidelines, waiting to be resumed. But now this problem is gone - with the advent of offline maps, you immediately start building a route, leave and move without delay using voice prompts, even if the phone is in airplane mode. And as soon as you find yourself in the coverage area of cellular networks, your route will also be automatically adjusted taking into account traffic jams and other relevant traffic factors.
–While Google maps were laying the route and leading along it only when the mobile Internet was connected, offline navigation manufacturers used this fact as their main advantage. Now you've invaded their holy of holies... What can the market for paid navigation software expect? Will he disappear?
- Well, I will not give such global forecasts - it will disappear, it will not disappear ... But their life will definitely become much more complicated. For we offer “in one bottle” the advantages of an always working offline solution and the obvious advantages of online navigation: prompt map updates and effective feedback, which allows you to add information, for example, about traffic jams, predict them in real time, take them into account when laying and operational route correction.
An additional item "Downloaded areas" will appear in the usual side menu of Google maps:
– How are maps downloaded? Will there be a list of regions, as in paid navigation programs?
- The principle is different. What you see on the screen at the moment is downloaded. You scale the area of the map as you need and download it. Though a region of Russia, even a separate city, even a separate street.
The boundaries of the downloaded map are determined by the user:
– What maps are available for download? Are there any restrictions?
– There are no restrictions, which will especially please tourists – you can download any foreign countries, their regions and cities. All will have voice guidance on the route in Russian.
The only caveat is that while offline route guidance is only available for the “Drive” mode, the pedestrian mode will appear in the future. If you are on foot, there are two options: either use the mode with voice prompts for the car, which will lengthen it somewhat (the car cannot drive through many yards, pedestrian zones, etc.), or simply use offline maps as a regular map - that is, find a short path purely visually and follow it, referring to the smartphone screen, but without voice prompts.
– Will maps be downloaded to internal memory? Can I choose a download location? And can I then transfer the cards from the internal memory to a flash drive? But what if the internal memory is full or limited on the device?
– While the maps are automatically downloaded to the internal memory, you cannot manually select a storage location or transfer them to the memory card. Yes, it is possible that in some cases the download of maps will fail due to lack of space - the user will either have to clear the memory of the content or delete some previously downloaded maps. But we are aware of the problem of full memory, as well as the low amount of pre-installed memory in many devices. It will be solved - wait a bit.
– What are the downloadable maps?
- They are not too big - for example, a map of Moscow and the region takes about 150 megabytes. I repeat - if you do not have enough space in the memory of your smartphone or tablet, then the maps can be downloaded as needed. For example, if you have a trip to a neighboring region, you can temporarily remove the map of the local.
– The offline navigation feature is a huge project. And its implementation will take some time - according to preliminary data, from two to three weeks. Updates of the map service will come to your phones and tablets gradually - to someone earlier, to someone later, but in the very near future everything will work.
– How to find out about the new service for people who do not follow the latest mobile software and may not even know that “something is being updated” on the phone?
- It's provided! If the maps have already been updated before the appearance of the offline service, then the next time you need to get directions or find something again, you will see a large message pop up on the screen offering to get acquainted with the new feature and first of all download a map of your region. Trust me - don't miss it!
If you find yourself out of the access zone, it doesn’t matter, because you can search for objects and make routes in Google Maps offline.
Our instructions will work for the latest version of Google Maps for Android and iOS. In earlier versions of the application, the names of menu items may differ slightly.
Save Google Maps on iOS
- Open the Google Maps app on . At the top of the search bar, enter the name of the desired city or region.
- To get the largest section of the map, zoom out. Don't worry, in the standalone version you will be able to enlarge the map to the desired size.
- Click on the search bar and type "ok maps". You will see the Google Maps logo with a download bar. Usually the map is loaded in a couple of seconds, after which it is stored in the application's cache. If the section you selected is too large, you will see a notification to that effect.
- Disable internet access and restart Maps. Now you can search for addresses and build routes in saved areas offline.
Using offline maps on Android
- Open Google Maps on and select the area you want to save.
- Go to the application menu (three bars near the search bar) and go to the "Offline maps" section.
- Then everything is simple: click the "Select map" button and confirm the marked area by clicking "Download".
- Just like in iOS, you will see how much space the saved map will take up. If it is not enough, try reducing the selected area.
My Maps: Edit Maps with Google Drive
You can also access your maps using the Google Drive app. Then you don't have to spend a lot of memory to save maps from Google Maps.
- Open the Google Drive page and sign in with your Google account.
- Click "Create" - "More" - "Google My Maps".
- Here you can edit and save routes, make notes on maps, and add layers.
- In addition, through Google Drive, you can share maps with friends.
Google Maps- one of the most popular and reliable services for navigation, but it is not without flaws. One of the main user complaints about Google Maps is that navigation only works with the Internet and requires a very good signal to render the area. Luckily, Google Maps can be used offline, but this great feature turns out to be useless if you don't take into account the points described in the article. So, are you getting ready to go on a trip or are you heading for a hike in uncharted territory? Then this guide to using Google Maps offline is for you.
Before you can use Google Maps offline, you need to download the area or region you are interested in. An offline map of the area must be downloaded before you move away from the Internet source.
It is worth noting that the maps that you can save offline are quite large. For example, you can fully cache large cities such as Kiev, Minsk or Moscow. They also take up a lot of space in flash memory, sometimes up to 1.5 GB, depending on the region being downloaded. There is a way to download this data to an SD card to save space on your phone's memory. To do this just go to Menu > Offline Areas > Settings > Storage Settings and switch from Device to SD card.
It is also worth noting that the cache of these cards expires after 30 days. This is because the maps themselves are updated, they are dynamic and require adjustments. For example, a new restaurant has appeared in the city, or a dam has blocked the river and it is no longer on the map. Google wants you to have the latest version of maps for the best user experience.
So that your "saved maps" do not need to be downloaded again, simply activate "automatic update of offline maps" in the settings. Now your map cache will be updated regularly and you'll always have the latest version of Google Maps. Also, in the settings, you can set the update only via Wi-Fi to save the gigabytes of your mobile Internet provided by the telecom operator.
How to download and save offline Google Maps
- Open the Google Maps app
- Find the area or locality you want to download
- If you were looking for a specific location, a panel with the name should appear at the bottom of the screen. If not, just press and hold the button somewhere on the map to show that section. Click on it to display more options
- Then click "Download"
- You can now zoom in and out by zooming in or out on the download area.
- After selecting the area of interest to you, click the "Download" button in the lower right corner
After downloading your maps, you can navigate and find directions using GPS in the same way as in the online version, but without using the Internet. As you can see, everything is quite simple and convenient. It is also worth noting that not all elements from online maps will be available in offline Google maps. For example, some walking and cycling routes are not transferred while maintaining the map cache. Everything else works as it should. You can find the addresses you need, find companies, and easily navigate the map.
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