A new GPS navigation app is in the works

Jun 16, 2015 11:30 GMT  ·  By

Ubuntu Touch is a young platform, but it's already getting some apps that would make other platforms jealous, like offline GPS navigation, for example.

Ubuntu Touch already has a working app called GPS Navigation that uses OpenStreetMaps, so the concept is not entirely new to the platform. All the phones that run Ubuntu Touch or that have been announced to come with this OS on board have GPS capabilities, so it would be a shame not to use it. Many of the apps of this kind that you find on other platforms need to be online to run (there are a couple of exceptions, though) or cost a lot of money.

GPS offline navigation is more than useful. It might prove a very good solution for users who don't have a proper Internet plan on their mobile devices, but still need the GPS function in their daily tasks. This way, you can just get the application at home, along with the maps, and set it up on the fly. It's as simple as that.

OSMScout seems to be a very good app

OSMScout stands for OpenStreetMap Scout, and it's described as an app that provides "gpx tracks and OSM-relations on a SlippyMap. Includes also a OpenStreetMapApi to access the database."

The video shared by Popescu Sorin on Google+ and made by Frans Schreuder shows OSMScout already working on Ubuntu BQ Aquaris E4.5, but there seems to be a problem. The application needs special access to the SD card, which is not permissible just yet. There is a workaround with the Open App Store, but that should be just temporary. It's very likely that many other apps will soon need access to the SD card and the policies governing that will most likely change.

From what we can see in the video, the application already seems to work quite nicely, although there is always room for improvement. Enjoy!