Even at the present time, you possibly can’t all the time assure a robust mobile connection to a cellular community in every single place you go, particularly in the event you’re on trip. That may trigger an issue if you’re attempting to make your method from A to B utilizing your map app of selection. The answer is to obtain and cache sections of the map you’re going to want forward of time.
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With the arrival of iOS 17—presently in public beta—Apple Maps has lastly caught as much as Google Maps on this regard, enabling you to specify a sure area to retailer domestically in your telephone. Do you have to lose sign, you’ll nonetheless be capable to discover your method and get turn-by-turn instructions to your subsequent vacation spot.
Google Maps
Screenshot: Google Maps
Open up Google Maps in your telephone, and seek for the realm you need to save. When you’ve obtained it displayed, faucet the again button (Android) or cross button (iOS) on the high to clear the search however depart the realm on display screen. Subsequent, faucet your Google account profile image (high proper) and decide Offline maps.
It’s possible you’ll discover that some areas, equivalent to your own home location, have been downloaded upfront. Faucet Choose your personal map to create a brand new obtain, and Google Maps attracts an space across the location you simply looked for—you possibly can pinch and zoom, and drag across the map, to vary which a part of the map will get saved.
Down on the backside of the display screen, you’ll see an estimate of how a lot inside space for storing the cached map will take up, and clearly saving extra of the map means it takes up extra room in your telephone. If you’re proud of the realm that you just’ve chosen, faucet on Obtain to reserve it.
On the listing of downloaded maps, you possibly can faucet the three dots to the best of any entry within the listing to rename it, replace it with the newest map data, or delete it. Offline maps expire and may’t be used after 30 days with out an replace, however the app itself will try to mechanically replace them within the background in the event that they’re resulting from expire inside 15 days and your telephone is linked to wifi.
To vary this habits, faucet the cog icon within the high proper nook of the offline maps listing. You possibly can flip off auto-updates, select whether or not they are often downloaded over mobile networks in addition to wifi, and get prompts for advisable map downloads—normally pulled from searches and Gmail messages round journeys you’re about to take.
Apple Maps
Screenshot: Apple Maps
In Apple Maps on iOS 17 or later, you may also obtain maps for offline use (these maps will work offline in your Apple Watch too, although you possibly can’t provoke downloads from the watch). Within the app, navigate to part of the world that you just’d like to save lots of to your telephone, faucet your Apple account profile image on the best, then select Offline Maps.
Faucet Obtain New Map, and decide an space of the map you need to save—both your present location, a current search, or a brand new search. You’ll then be introduced with a display screen exhibiting the part of the map that’ll be downloaded, and you may zoom and drag round to vary the dimensions and placement of the realm (the quantity of room the obtain will take up in your telephone is regularly up to date on the backside).
If you’re proud of the area that’s chosen on display screen, faucet Obtain, and the required caching begins. As soon as the map seems within the listing on the Offline Maps display screen, you’re capable of faucet on it to regulate the realm it covers, rename it from the default identify assigned to it, and delete it out of your telephone.
As we’re penning this, Apple has but to provide any official supporting paperwork for the function, so we’re making a number of assumptions right here—nevertheless it does seem that offline maps will likely be up to date frequently at any time when your telephone has connectivity in order that the cached maps are as correct as potential.
These automated updates might be turned off within the settings on the Offline Maps display screen, and you may select to have maps downloaded over mobile networks in addition to wifi. The opposite toggle switches allow you to drive Apple Maps to make use of the downloaded maps even when an web connection is offered, and to optimize maps storage—although till the function launches in full, we’re not precisely certain how this works.