Locus Map

Author:

menion.asamm

License:

Proprietary (free, paid)

Platform:

Android

Version:

v4.11.0 (2022-07-26)

Languages:

English, Arabic, cz, Danish, German, Greek, Spanish, Finnish, French, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Dutch, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, and Slovak

Website:

https://www.locusmap.app/

Install:

Google Play

Online/Offline map viewer (MapsForge vector map, area downloader, tile cache), support slippy (non-free too) and vector maps (MapsForge library), guiding, routing and basic navigation (online/offline), track recording with detailed POIs (including photos/videos/audio) and elevation correction, extensive geocaching support, WMS maps and more

Features

Feature	Value
Display map	yes
Routing	yes
Navigate	yes
Make track	yes
Monitoring	yes

Locus Map is a multi-functional Android navigation app adding advanced online and offline GPS capabilities to Android devices. Primarily it is designed and used for leisure time outdoor activities like hiking, biking, geocaching. Besides its leisure time utilization the app is also used by professionals e.g. for collecting geospatial data, by rescue squad teams, aerial reconnaissance teams etc.

The app was developed in 2009 by Czech developer Jiří Mlavec, founder of Asamm Software company, based in Prague, Czech Republic. Locus Map development is carried out in cooperation with the community of its users-contributors and as such is partially crowd-sourced.

The application has registered almost 3 million installations and has been reviewed in professional media (e.g. Computer Bild or AndroidPIT). It received awards in several app competitions and polls.

Features

Locus Map offers many useful features such as:

Vast range of online maps (both OSM based and from other providers) - tiles are cached automatically or can be downloaded for offline use (depending on map licence)
LoMaps (Mapsforge vector maps based on OSM data) supporting on-the-fly change between multiple rendering themes (city, road, hiking/biking, skiing)
Offline maps provided by commercial cartography publishers
Navigation with spoken (TTS) directions, calculation online (via GraphHopper) or offline (via BRouter)
Guiding along a track or to a point, with spoken (TTS) directions
Hill shading and elevation auto-fill for points & tracks based on altitude database (online and offline)
WMS service
Track recorder supporting multiple recording profiles and NMEA raw data recording
Track management including folders, static & dynamic styles (e.g. elevation dependent track color), track statistics with zoomable elevation & velocity charts
POI management including folders, filters, icons, attachments like photos, videos & sound recordings
Limited support of displaying maps in .img format (only one map at a given time, so maps split in multiple layers work poorly)
Integration of GPSies, Street View and track export to many online services (Strava, Runkeeper, OSM...)
wide range of Geocaching functions
Parking assistant (reminds of time limits and helps to find the car)
Weather forecast service (only online)
POI alert
Search by address (online/offline), coordinates, contact, POI name part
Dashboard - can be created/edited by the user with an integrated dashboard editor
Map overlays enabling multiple maps over each other
Image overlays & calibration, e.g. to take a photo of a special map of an information board and use it for orientation in the field
Several map projections and grids
Export and import in several formats like KML and GPX (supporting Garmin icon names), TCX, DXF, CSV
Support of internal (integrated) and Bluetooth GPS, Zephyr and Polar sensors (heart rate etc)
Customization options, e.g. completely hiding certain features, or changing icon orders
Locus Store - integrated shop with third party maps, dashboards, icon packs, graphics and features
Integration with co-apps, e.g. GPS averaging for more precise POI coordinates
API for developers

Some of the more advanced features like Dashboard or map overlays or NFC and ANT+ support are only available in the paid version of the app - Locus Map Pro.

Add-ons

The features of Locus Map can be extended via add-ons.[1] Some notable add-ons are:

Augmented Reality addon
Geocaching4Locus — Load nearby GeoCaches into Locus
LoPOI — let you contribute POI updates directly to OSM ... the app however has been removed by Google[2]

OpenAndroMaps

Hiking view of the OpenAndroMaps Elevate map style in Locus Map 4

Locus Map can display offline maps from OpenAndroMaps, a map optimized for hiking, cycling and mountain biking. To do this users need to install the Elevate map style and download a map region from the OpenAndroMaps website. Both, OpenAndroMaps and using Locus Map for downloading and displaying the map is free of charge.

OpenSeaMap

OpenSeaMap on an android device

Locus is compatible OpenSeaMap.
OpenSeaMap can be viewed on Android devices.

Cached charts

Locus automatically saves OpenSeaMap maps that have been viewed online in the device cache. All saved maps are then available offline.

In Locus, OpenSeaMaps can be found in the "Maps" menu (the Map-Icon at the top-right):

Maps > Online > OSM World > OpenSeaMap

This function well in the Heimat-Revier (home-area?). However, because the saved zoom level available offline is only equal to that previously viewed online, it is slightly laborious to save 'foreign regions', if the user wishes to save everything from the large-scale 'overview map' to the Harbour / Port Plan.

Look and Feel

Overview 8 km
Approach 3 km
Harbour plan 300 m
Detail 70 m

Offline charts

OpenSeaMap on a Samsung android device

This charts are available in MBTiles-format :

Area	Download	Size
Adriatic Sea	Adriatic Sea	1,6 GB
Bay of Biscay	Bay of Biscay	0,5 GB
English Channel	English Channel	0,5 GB
Strait of Magellan	Strait of Magellan	0,1 GB
Eastern Mediterranean	Eastern Mediterranean	1,4 GB
Western Mediterranean	Western Mediterranean	1,2 GB
North Sea	North Sea	1,5 GB
Baltic Sea	Baltic Sea	1,4 GB