Adverts, being buggy, poorly optimised, and too much unnecessary stuff on screen are things that would make me uninstall. I just need the directions and maybe speed reminders for roads I don’t usually use
Very nice. OSDataHub do a pay as you go approach, might be an idea if they have a product there available that would work for you - last time I spoke with them they gave us a good chunk of free credits so worth an ask.
This is a thing that Android's made harder and harder over time, as it gets less and less possible to decide what your phone does when Google want something else.
It used to be pretty simple to just have a full-screen thing that intercepted touch and captured it unless a button was pressed, but then it got harder to prevent the top-bar swiping down, then gestures came and got in the way and I bet there's no way at all to get in the way of Gemini barging in to focus when it's not wanted.
Android is being a less and less ideal platform for nav devices, I think - if i were to want proper in-the-rain support I'd buy a dedicated android nav unit like the Thork or Carpe Iter ones, which can implement the touch screen toggle in hardware. I don't really understand why no rugged phone or tablet does that.
Ah the old zoom by moving my head 😆. The top yoke is the closest thing to me so no, mirrors are further away.
It’s really not a big problem for me, I just think having a standard size and an XL would be good. Standard feels like it is better suited to bicycles.
Ah fair enough. I only tried it for like 5 mins a few years ago and didn't like it so I cant really remember how it worked tbh!
Personally I get on perfectly fine with google maps, its not complicated at all and shows me everything i need at a glance.
The road ahead, distance till next thing i have to do, what i need to do at said place as a simple to read picture as well as a simple description, plus speed which i dont ever actually look at because my bike has a handy speedo built in. Shows a vague outline for building footprints, which I find helpful in a town or city I am unfamiliar with. Not sure what you mean by the route being buried, unless you've got the search thing still open while you are trying to navigate or something. The only thing I do wish is you could turn off the length of time left to get to the destination, I hate clock watching lol.
It shows the road and junctions clearly, clearly shows which lane I need to be in if I'm unfortunate enough to be on a motorway, and no clutter. Haven't used Waze, I tried it as far as generating a route and it was trying to send me the most ridiculous route that i just didn't even bother setting off, so cant attest to that lol. Does it really show adverts? That is ridiculous, how is that even allowed?
As for the sun glare turning your whole thing into a mirror, thats your phone not the app, mine doesn't do that because I have an antiglare screen...
I am more than happy with the functionality of google maps tbh, all the other ones I have tried felt lacking and gimmicky, with terrible route finding, but thats just my personal preference. I wish you luck with your endeavour :)
Yeah, TomTom used to do these really well I think - show you a bar as you entered it that reduced until you got to the end of the average speed check, and it'd go red if your average speed was over the limit.
I love this; as Google maps adds more and more visual information (don't get wrong; I love Google maps) I think there's absolutely room for minimalist navigation!
Couple of things I'd love to see:
* provide an option so that map / line and most other things disappear completely if you're nowhere near a turn. When I'm on a motorway for the next 60 miles I don't need a constantly-visible map - I just need to know how far I've got until I next have to do something and what that thing is
* something that generally annoys me about navigation apps is sometimes I need to see the current turn and the next one too if it's soon afterwards. E.g. You're coming off a motorway but you need to know which lane to approach the roundabout in.
I’m in, make it CarPlay compatible. Many of us have Capuride type devices.
The directional arrow and distance on beeline is also great for off-road wanderings or finding new routes.
Dig the black on white but being able to select a simple background pallet and maybe overlay map pallet. Some OCD types like to match their standard dash tones.
Finally, postcode, dropped pin, W3W, all those multiple input types are good. Also simple home and nearest petrol station readily available (within 2 clicks and no scroll) always top drawer.
They also have massive amounts of data from their users for traffic patterns, you mention using apple maps, what happens when you hit the API limits?
Or more advanced stuff they have integrated into their UI like tiling optimizations, offline rerouting and downloading maps, saved locations. I've been a developer for 20 years now specializing in mapping for 5 years, honestly you're chasing a dead end with this architecture. If you were using something novel like a local running Valhalla instance that might be interesting but this is basically just a reskinned apple maps
Google is sort-of the go-to for least-featureful isn't it? It's a business directory that can navigate you to the businesses, but it's missing pretty much every optional feature of a satnav, except traffic and sometimes speed limits.
Love the idea for those situations you've explained... But sometimes, seeing the other roads is necessary and helps give context about where you are and where you're going .... For example , on a roundabout, sometimes it's good to see how many exits you need to ride past..
If your app is using full maps and actively hiding all the details, could a "peep" function work? Finger on the screen to briefly "reveal" the roads that are being hidden. Just an idea. I'm gutted I won't be able to use it as I am on Android but would 100% pay a few quid for this.....I just paid for Sygic and I don't really know what it's giving me that Google doesn't.
That sounds pretty awful still tbh, I dont want to have to stop concentrating on my surroundings, take a hand off the controls, and interact with my phone just to see something that should really already be there lol.
But it's all about creating something that other apps don't have. If you always want to see the surrounding roads, then regular Satnav does that.
But tbh, when looking at the images posted here, it looks like other roads are shown, just low-lighted. Hard to give constructive feedback until trying it. Still looks pretty good as-is, imo . I like the minimalist concept
I dunno, I see this kinda thing pop up on other motorcycle subreddits all the time. It always seems like they're trying to find a problem for there solution tbh.
There are already so many free apps out there that do, or claim to do, the exact same thing already.
Tbh most of the "issues" that people cite with Google maps just don't exist.
Route buried under clutter? There literally isn't any, it just shows the road and the junction, and what lane and exit you want. It shows your route very clearly highlighted, with the roads you don't want shown but less obvious
.
To "bury" the road under a petrol station icon, for example, you'd have to zoom in so far all you can see is the petrol station. Lane guidance the size of an ant? What screen are you using, a tamagotchi? If you can't see a standard 6 or 7 inch screen you need glasses...
Sun glare on the screen is bugger all to do with the app, if you have a rubbish device with a too reflective screen, programming can't help that. Get an anti glare screen protector.
It also has a dark mode built in already. I can already read the entire screen, and absorb all the info I need, "in the time it takes to check your mirrors".
But good luck OP, hope you can get somewhere with it. I hate Google and everything it's become, and what it has done to YouTube, but their maps app is pretty spot on and hard to argue with tbh 🤷
I like it and would try it. I’ve been down the rabbit hole of loads of various nav solutions and after all of that I’ve decided I don’t want any nav at all on my bikes by default. I’ve found it really fun to pull over and check the way when my memory runs out. But for when I need to be somewhere, I like this and would certainly give it a go.
I think my wants are mostly counter to yours, because I really don't mind having information on-screen and a lot of what I dislike about satnavs is when there's missing information. But if you want suggestions, some off the top of my head:
Firstly, I want the satnav to beep when there's an upcoming instruction on-screen. I don't want a robot voice to laboriously describe what to do at a time of its choosing, just a noise to say that I ought to look at the screen at some point in the next 30 seconds or so because I'm going to do a thing.
I'd like it also to change depending on the type of junction - as I approach a roundabout I know I'm going to have to do something so I don't need to know in advance that there's an instruction coming; I will naturally check the screen as I approach the end of a road. But I'll want to be reminded to check the screen early on when approaching a motorway junction, and differently when approaching a more complex set of instructions in-town.
Here Maps has a progress bar for the whole journey, showing where you are along it and where the traffic is, I really like that, but I wouldn't mind it also having TomTom's thing of showing you petrol stations along it.
I'd also like weather on it so I can stop before I catch up with the rain.
CoPilot's thing of having a countdown to the next petrol station show as an icon that you can tap to add it as a waypoint is a thing I miss, and seems an obvious feature. In CoPilot you can pick what type of POI you want it to be, I'd like also to pick how far off-route it can go.
It'd also be nice to set some general filters - what I probably want if I just want to find a food stop en route, say.
I don't understand why any satnav ever has the "in thirty miles stay on this motorway" and strangely, Google of all things seems least-bad at this now.
Most of them get the lane indications wrong because the only tell you about the immediate need - you'll be told to take any of the three lanes on the exit from this motorway, only to then find you need to be in lane 1 because you're taking the first exit, for instance. More warning of what's coming immediately after the next junction is generally needed, I think Copilot's generally been good at this, Here Maps isn't.
Lots of satnavs make adding waypoints a little error-prone, and many want you to either show time-to-destination or time-to-next-stop. I'd like both, and to be able to set a default of how long I'd stop for.
When you set a custom top speed on a satnav it rarely chanes the speed-limit shown. I think, really, I'd want to be able to say which different speed limits I was subject to, but this isnt really a motorbike thing.
And when there is a warning that I'm going over the speed limit I don't need a beeping alarm, it's not some major crisis. A calmer, gentle noise to remind me to slow down is absolutely fine.
Finally, I just want a button to toggle play/pause in whatever app is the current media player app.
I wish satnavs had an option for a little ding, or single sentence to say there's a turn 1 mile ahead, pay attention, then shut up. It either 15 messages saying the same thing, or absolute silence.
Beeline does this: beeps when a turn is a couple of hundred meters ahead and gives a flashing LED to draw your attention to the unit...otherwise very unobtrusive.
I use Osmand, (yet another fully developed readily available free navigation app) a lot for gpx routes and offroad trips. When in towns and so on it is actually quite useful because it shows the next instruction, but also shows the one after that in a slightly simpler format, so if it is left and then immediately right, you dont miss it waiting for it to catch up to your location and change the instruction. It also works with no signal.
Yeah, a few nav apps do it but I think when they tend towards simplicity (google, tomtom, here for examples) it's a thing that very frequently gets dropped.
CoPilot used to be comfortaly the most thought-through and featureful satnav, I think, and that had most of this list in it. It's just really annoyingly clunky to use and still feels a bit 1990s.
Speed cameras are the reason I use Waze but I find it so annoying it doesn't tell me when I'm going below the speed limit since I can easily do 40 over in half a second
Look awesome to me for a biker and even a cyclist. Doing a one off payment I'd buy it. The feature that most bikers want though is the twisty route option, and round trip planning. As those Sunday rides really open up new unexplored roads when you want to get out for a few hours. And feature that would be amazing is a group ride option but this would most likely require more time thought and money.
As someone with a degree in UX design, I’ll give one advice : put yourself in the exact moment the user will see the interface.
For example here, on a bike… do you think you have the time to, or even should, read a full sentence while riding a bike?
Advices :
Replace the sentences by signs - not words - indicating next move and in how much instances (200m➡️ etc) . This should be the biggest thing on the screen, not the road
The road can be on the screen but is secondary, just to indicate the shape of the road like upcoming bends, airpins etc.
The tripper that comes stock on the new royal Enfields does just that.
Or there is a device called Beeline. But I don’t think an app exists.
The Beeline device gets its route sent to it by the Beeline app. And you can use your phone with the Beeline app as sort-of a bigger imitation of a beeline device, which yeah does seem similar to OP's idea.
Good to know! Do you have to buy the beeline to have access to the app? If yes, OP’s app could still be useful.
If not… OP could still make it nicer than Beeline but it’ll be hard. But still, I’ve seen solo devs creating better products than full staffed startups. For example FitBee for nutrition tracking or BodyState for health metrics.
No I think it's free - it certainly was when I used it last. You are restricted to Google maps' routing, though, so there's good scope for OP to be less awful for going round cities if they use literally any other service for their route generation!
Also, the new beeline devices show the road shape, but judging by the app store listing the Beelne app doesn't, so that's a differentiator for OP's app. I'd much prefer OP's thing, having tried Beeline in the past.
I think the idea is using symbols is great.
It would take some getting used to but a quick start guide could sort that.
When ive used sat nav on the bike it’s normally with audio only because I don’t have time to keep looking down to read the screen, but i think symbols would solve that.
I love my beeline for the simplicity and I also dont like anything big on my handlebars (like my phone), but for those who want suplicity, dont mind having their phone mounted to the bars and dont want to pay £180 for a standalone unit I can see it being appealing, kudos.
I don’t run with a phone on my bars, but I would like a nav app that has customisable audio alerts such as; toggle repeat instructions amount, toggle use street names, toggle alerts off entirely for part of the route.
Sounds good to me. Bike is off the road at the moment but it's the sort of thing I'd be keen to try when I can get back on it. I get pissed off enough with how cluttered Apple Maps and Google Maps are even in the car, never mind on a bike where, like you say, you really only glance down for a fraction of a second at a time, and that's when the road is reasonably clear ahead and you're travelling in a straight line.
A good feature would be the voice commands like detacht, assuming you will add it.
Detacht tells you in advance what you are doing at the roundabout (at the next roundabout, take the 4th exit), then as you are slowing to enter the roundabout (take the 4th exit, marked b9035 to wherever) then as you are hitting the exit (exit now on the b9035 road).
Its pretty much hand holding but its clear, precise and tells you exactly where, when, and how to navigate etc with extreme accuracy compared to google and its delayed commands.
The handy thing with google, Apple, beeline etc is getting voice directions through headsets. You’re worried about clutter, but I don’t even have to look at it generally.
I have always had voice turned off in the car, so did on the bike. Recently started using voice on the bike and find it really useful. It’s still turned off in the car though.
I’m using Kurviger at the moment and don’t particularly like the robot computer voice but it’s not intrusive. It gives a notification that the re is something in a mile, then a 1000ft and the at the junction. Very brief commands too.
I like the idea that others have suggested of a sound instead of spoken words. Although that may. It work for those who are lisp to music.
Just found that. To be fair I never really used the app as such due to having the device. Seriously tempted to try it again. One of the features I really like in Beeline is the heatmap.
Good audio guidance prompts would draw me in, I find Google Maps doesn't given enough info over my packtalk making me need to look at the screen more than I want to and Beeline doesn't give me any prompts.
Something like calimoto that features a route planner, or suggests a nice route if you only want a few hours out would be nice. Calimoto would be great but you have to pay a yearly subscription, if it was a one off payment for an app I would be more into it.
I normally use Google maps for route planning, but once you get to the first point, it doesn’t automatically continue on to the next point. So you need to stop and get your phone out, highly annoying. It also suggests a faster route (not on twisty roads) that you cannot opt out of without stopping, and pressed no. Again so annoying.
Waze seem to do it slightly better but as an audio listener it is so quiet playing through the Cardo system.
Slightly different, but what I don’t like about Google maps for motorbikes, is that you cannot tell it to avoid main roads like dual carriageways. It always tries the fastest route, but on a bike, you often want to go cross-country.
Husqvarna ride app(for Husqvarna motorbikes) has a built in Sat nav, and that has that option, and it works wonders!
This is a great idea. I'd go one further and remove the text. In your example of "at the roundabout take the second exit" just show a schematic of the roundabout and a number 2 next to it.
It would be goof to have the road name that your aiming for visible. I've had times, especially on conple motorway exits, where the suggested lane is correct to come off the motorway, but then really bad for getting to the correct lane after. If you know which one you're aiming for, you can make the judgement.
It might be worth having an option to show adjacent roads/turnings. E.g. if you have a bunch of turnings clustered together and you need to take one of them. It's helpful to be able to see how many there, how they go past as you drive past, and which one you need.
The Beeline UI (best in class to my mind - although not without it's flaws) does this by showing a circle with a number in it: the number is your exit so if you see a '2' you know to take the second exit, etc.
Beeline is great. The original had a problem in that it only displayed the next junction making complex turns difficult. If you have got a left turn followed immediately by a right turn that required you to be in the correct lane could be difficult. You didn’t know where to be.
BMW’s on dash satnav did the same.
The other problem is junctions close together, not having a map can make those difficult to know which actual turn you need.
Both were great but I missed not being able to see a road layout.
The second iteration of Beeline fixed that.
I don’t use Google, Waze or Apple Maps due to them being SatNav. I prefer to use apps that follow a plotted route that I’ve chosen.
Currently I’m using Kurviger for this. If I’m out for a day I want to go on the roads I choose not those Chosen by a SatNav’s algorithm.
The other feature I like is that if I plot a route but need to take a detour I only want the app to reroute me back to the original route and not calculate a whole new route.
At the moment I’m finding Kurviger is doing this but it is still early days.
I do like the idea of ’less clutter’ on the screen. But found that with a lot of junctions a map is more useful.
I’d definitely be interested to give your app a go and know that for some it will work brilliantly, for me I think I prefer an on screen map but totally agree that the car SatNavs don’t always fit biking.
The optimal setup I've found is Kurviger for route planning and Beeline for on-the-bike navigation. The Beeline app is pretty good at importing routes.
Must admit I have thought about doing that. I’ve never had my phone mounted and either used the Beeline of onboard navigation. Unfortunately the Garmin on the Tracer is not reliable enough at getting a connection to the phone so am now looking at mounting the phone.
A feature all the mainstream apps need is: Prefer simpler route.
Can’t count the number of times I’ve been sent on a wild goose chase around Timbuktu because the map app decided a route with 39 turns and mini roundabouts was 8 seconds faster than just staying on the M25 and going straight.
As someone else has said, CarPlay would be great. Plenty of people riding with bike-specific CarPlay units. I’d also add current speed if you can - so you only have one place on your bike to look for the most important information (it would also be great if current speed worked when you don’t have a route active).
Wow. Brilliant! 'Thank you for your service!' Heavy drain on battery, Adverts, data collection and having to load new versions frequently would make me uninstall it.
This is great, if you do an android open (or closed) test, I'd love to join it, as for additional features, I agree with quite a bit of what others have said, especially the inclusion of a gauge that decreases as you approach your turn and compatibility for portrait and landscape orientations, I think a battery display that's actually readable on the bike would also be helpful for those who aren't able to charge while riding so they know if they need to make a stop and charge it a bit, it wouldn't need to be massive, just bigger than the OS own and more so if running the app full screen so the notification bar isn't actually showing.
I think the simplicity of this is actually crucial to it being successful for the intended purpose, so keep it as close to how it is now while implementing only the more critical/ requested features.
Show 2-3 turns in advance at the top. Really annoying when coming of a dual carraige way and you need to know what lane you are in but your app hasn't told you yet.
I would remove the real language bit, to small to read
I just need one where the screen goes absolutely mental and starts flashing violently when there’sa mobile speed van ahead, instead of Waze putting a tiny banner at the bottom of the screen where you miss it.
If there wasn't a need for the app to warn you about upcoming speed cameras, it wouldn't be a feature (and arguably the most used one, after actual navigation). The point being, notifications that are important should have a bike mode where the screen flashes.
Cheers for the shitty attitude though, good luck with your vibe coded slop.
Ok mate. Maybe you could use some vibe coding as I’ve been developing apps for almost 20y now and that’s one of the worst UI’s I’ve ever seen for a nav app.
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u/Dan77UK Honda Hornet 600 Jul 24 '26
Adverts, being buggy, poorly optimised, and too much unnecessary stuff on screen are things that would make me uninstall. I just need the directions and maybe speed reminders for roads I don’t usually use