Android Maps

it's not free... But is a very good app... In my use of it, it's closest to my Nuvi765t.

The Navigon (Garmin) app that downloads the entire map so no connection needed for android was on sale recently for less than $25 and thought of getting it for my Samsung Note 8.0.

I still have the $25 google play credit to use that came with my note 8 but the user reviews are really bad and getting worse so I passed on the deal.

Navigon got a load of bad reviews when they changed their process of map updates to match the stand-alone device map updates are handled. Navigon on iOS works fine... And as I said above, it's every bit as good as my Nuvi765t... Which is the last stand-alone device I'm ever going to own.

There are lots of good free Android map apps. It may take you a little time to sort through and find what works best for you.

Google own "Maps" app has an option to save the on-screen map for off-line use, but it is limited in how much it will save and management of what is being saved has actually gotten poorer. Still, it is an option and has some good uses.

Also, search the app store for OSM (Open Street Map) related apps. You can download the whole country (or smaller areas) from the free Open Street Map project and use apps to work with the data.

Loaded CoPilot on the Tablet and not happy. North America Map is about 2 Gb and loads onto the Tablet. I could move the program to SD, but no provision to load the maps to SD Card.

There was no way to simply zoom to a location, to view it. It always plots the route and the turn by turn directions take up the bottom half of the screen, with no apparent way to minimize. In my case, I will use the Garmin for most travel, but wanted something that my wife could use to see where we are and where we're headed, when we go on a trip.

Google Maps does this, but it won't work offline, very well.

I deleted the map from the tablet and then uninstalled the program.

Might try City Maps 2 Go. It uses Open Street Maps and loads map to SD Card. I can't tell if it will automatically plot the turn by turn also. I would love some feedback on it.

Look into the NAVFree app.

You download which countries and states you want - so you need to have the needed space on the SD card.

I tried NavFree USA recently. Found it rather buggy. A couple of times the display corrupted pretty badly. Then, when I told it to route me "home" it wanted to take a longer route than I wanted (it seemed to have a strong preference to go for major roads, although the back roads were fine, shorter, and less trafficked). I went the way that I wanted and it quickly showed me where to turn around to go it's way. I continued to go my way and it crashed. When restarted it immediately crashed again. This kept happening, the only way to restart it that I could come up with was to clear all data. Unfortunately, this included the hundreds of megs of maps that I had already downloaded.

I'll keep it installed and watch to see if it gets updated, but I doubt that I'll continue to try to use the current version.

I'll check out Navfree. I have the NUVI2555LMT for my turn by turn and traffic, but my wife likes to be able to see a larger map area and a simple moving dot that shows where we are now. She doesn't need turn by turn. This could be handy, because she can cross reference to the CAA/AAA book or the Along I-75 Book, depending on where we're going.

WEe're tentatively looking at a quick one week trip to Frankenmuth and Amish Acres in April. It will be a great way to test it.

Odd. I've not encountered the issues you mention with NavFree. I did have issues updating my maps with the latest update, but the app works fine when navigating.

I downloaded Navfree and it looks like it will be ideal for what I need. I just want to be able to have my wife to be able to see where we are during a trip. I can let it calculate the route and she can see the next turn. If the routing is different than my NUVI 2555, it doesn't really matter. I'm sure it will recalculate. I'm not relying on it to guide us.

Thanks

I am curious about the same question. Does anybody know the answer?

Downloaded Navfree. I was able to choose from about 30 countries and download what I wanted. Downloaded Canada and US, and was given the choice of whether I wanted in main memory or on SD card.

Canada downloaded as one 650 Mb map. After loading Canada, I simply went to menu screen and touched Update and chose the add'l countries. For US, I had to download state by state, but that allowed me to load only the ones, that I wanted. Unfortunately, you couldn't check all the states you wanted, and download in one shot. Click Update and then click on next state and download. Slightly tedious, but not too bad.

Fairly easy to plot a route. Just enter address and the map goes to the location. If you want route plotted, click Routing Button on bottom of screen. Very quick.

In my case, is only a way for my wife to see the upcoming locations, so I don't care how it routes. If the Garmin takes me different, I'm sure it will simply reroute.

Not fancy, but I'm happy so far.

Would like to get map of Caribbean Islands, so I could use the Navfree maps on the tablet, instead of GPS, for a cruise.

In the US I downloaded my state and the states surrounding it. If I have a need to travel further I can download the States I need before I go. I just like the idea of having NavFree available as a backup if needed when I don't have my Garmin with me.

This is great info guys. Thanks!

I used my android for a trip to Europe a couple years ago and having only gps and wifi was enough to make maps available offline for cities we visited and it was great. I opened a thread with google map limitations but they never explained logic behind limitations of making maps available offline. I'm going to investigate some of these newer options. Would give new life to old androids...

For a free Nav's aps on tablet, do I need wifi to use it to navigate? If so, how do you get wifi when moving?

It depends on the app. NavFree has an address database for its maps, thus it can be used without a WiFi connection. Other free GPS options primarily rely on Google search for address searches. In NavFree's case, Google search is included as an alternative to the address database.

for use without either a WiFi connection or a cell phone connection.

In addition what is mentioned above, both TomTom and CoPilot have apps that allow the download of an entire country or even continent (Canada, US, Mexico, for example). This can be a big advantage if you are going to be somewhere that cell phone service is not always available, or where the roaming charges for your phone would be quite high.

- Tom -

Both of these apps came installed on my Samsung Galaxy Blaze. When not using my GPS and local, I use Navigation. It has speech recognition and gives great directions and reroutes quickly.

I called Samsung a few months ago because I wanted to know who provided the software. Thought maybe it was one of the GPS mfgs. It was designed for Samsung so I would suppose that they may be able to provide you with the software. Tough I seldom use Google Maps, it does work well.

EDIT: Use without a wired wifi, you may be able to set your phone up as a HotSpot. Unlimited data would almost be a necessity though if you are going to keep connected as you travel.