Maps on your phone

You can have a map of the rou­te on your mobi­le pho­ne. All you need to do is install a map app and import the route’s GPX file. You can down­lo­ad the GPX file from the page lis­ting all rou­tes, and the map app from the App Sto­re or Goog­le Play.

We recom­mend Topo GPS and CoMaps. Both are free and use OpenStre­et­Map. The apps are equal­ly good for Elfs­borgs­mar­schen. Which one you choo­se is simply a mat­ter of per­so­nal pre­fe­rence. If you’re not used to using map apps and want the simplest pos­sib­le solu­tion, we recom­mend CoMaps.

Topo GPS

Topo GPS is a free, ad-free app for iPho­ne and Andro­id. It uses OpenStre­et­Map as its map, but for a few euros you can pur­cha­se the Swe­dish Map­ping Authority’s topo­grap­hic map at a sca­le of 1:50,000. It is not sui­tab­le for Elfs­borgs­mar­schen (OpenStre­et­Map is much bet­ter) but can be use­ful in other con­texts. The app has been trans­la­ted into many languages.

CoMaps

CoMaps is an open-sour­ce map app deve­lo­ped on a volun­ta­ry basis by volun­te­ers and fun­ded through dona­tions. The app is avai­lab­le for iPho­ne and Andro­id, is free, ad-free, requires no account and does not col­lect data. The maps come from OpenStre­et­Map and are down­lo­a­ded by regi­on for off­li­ne use. The inter­fa­ce is avai­lab­le in Swedish.

Which one should you choose?

Two smartp­ho­ne apps that use OpenStre­et­Map, but in dif­fe­rent ways and with dif­fe­rent appro­aches. The com­pa­ri­son tab­le below sum­ma­ri­ses what they offer and how they dif­fer – focu­sing on fea­tu­res rele­vant to par­ti­ci­pants in Elfs­borgs­mar­schen and tar­get groups with simi­lar needs: mili­ta­ry per­son­nel, out­do­or ent­husi­asts and hikers.

Fea­tu­re	Topo GPS	CoMaps
Price and platform
Price	Free. Pre­mi­um maps and con­tour lines avai­lab­le as optio­nal purchases.	Free. Fun­ded by donations.
Open sour­ce	No, pro­pri­e­ta­ry	Yes, Apache 2.0
Plat­forms	iOS and Android	iOS and Android
Swe­dish interface	Yes	Yes
Map and visualisation
Ele­va­tion pro­fi­le for a plan­ned route	Yes	Yes, for wal­king and cycling routes
Con­tour lines on the map	Yes, depen­ding on the cho­sen map	Yes, avai­lab­le for many regions
Hiking trails	Depend on the cho­sen map	More pro­mi­nent in the dedi­ca­ted out­do­or map style
Off­li­ne and battery
Off­li­ne maps	Yes, visib­le area down­lo­a­ded manu­al­ly	Yes, visib­le area down­lo­a­ded auto­ma­ti­cal­ly
Bat­te­ry use	Opti­mi­sed for low bat­te­ry consumption	Opti­mi­sed for low bat­te­ry consumption
Rou­te and navigation
GPX import	Yes – impor­ted as a rou­te (navi­gab­le)	Yes – impor­ted as a track (shown on the map but not navigable)
Turn-by-turn voice guidance	Only for cycling and hiking node networks; not avai­lab­le for ordi­na­ry impor­ted routes	Yes, for car, bicyc­le, wal­king and met­ro – but only for a rou­te plan­ned in the app, not for an impor­ted GPX track
Off-rou­te warning	Audib­le alert when more than 25 m off the rou­te – requires that the trip is being recor­ded at the same time	Silent auto­ma­tic re-rou­ting of a plan­ned rou­te; does not app­ly to impor­ted tracks
Ori­en­ta­tion
MGRS and UTM coor­di­na­te support	Yes	Yes
Coor­di­na­te grid on the map	Yes, as a lay­er (WGS84, MGRS, Ord­nan­ce Sur­vey, RD and others)	No, only for a selec­ted point
Drawing a bea­ring line on the map	Yes – enter star­ting point, distan­ce and ang­le; the line is shown on the map	No
Pri­va­cy
Ads	None	None
Data col­lec­tion	None, accor­ding to the developer	None, inde­pen­dent­ly veri­fi­ed by Exo­dus Pri­va­cy and TrackerControl
Account requi­red	No	No
Docu­men­ta­tion and printing
Manu­al and documentation	Exten­si­ve manu­al, avai­lab­le in seve­ral languages	Exten­si­ve FAQ
Print map as PDF	Yes	No