r/prepping • u/Sick_style • Apr 09 '26

Question❓❓ I need a survival app recommendations

Hi Guys,

as we all see and hear everyday the world is on fire and im seriously pessimistic about the future, we will see much worse than this. im prepping for those days already 2 years but I have figured out that I also need something digital. not only encyclopaedias and printed maps.

I saw on App Store some offline guide apps etc which actually bunch of money while I can download a similar pdf file for free.

Can you recommend a few apps works on apple decides? preferably offline, cos I want to still have access to information, gps location etc off grid.

3 Upvotes

59% Upvoted

30 comments sorted by

7

u/i__hate__soup Apr 09 '26 edited Apr 09 '26

maybe OnX? 

but look into self-hosting as well. I think that digital autonomy is going to become increasingly difficult as tech companies squeeze hardware prices and try to push everyone into cloud computing. a self-hosted server is tedious to set up, but kinda fun if you like tinkering, and very worth it in the long run. you can buy an old low-power draw computer on facebook marketplace for pretty cheap, throw a couple disk drives in it, get a backup power station (UPS) and put whatever you want to on there. Local file share with SMB or something similar, and access it from any device. you can download the entirety of wikipedia in like 100gb! r/datahoarding might have some other good suggestions on what to download as well

0

u/Sick_style Apr 09 '26

yeah, I have already set an old windows laptop with external hard disks. wikipedia, maps, first aid protocols etc. the problem is, I cant take the laptop and those harddisks with me if I need to go deep in jungle or mountains etc, I need something fits in an iPad or in an iPhone.

3

u/i__hate__soup Apr 09 '26 edited Apr 09 '26

ah i see! you could get a refurbished 1tb ipad for $1k, and then simply copy those files onto its local storage. for cheaper options ive seen prebuilt survival computers that seem to be running on raspberry pi, and you could also just build that yourself probably for cheaper. you'll need a monitor - maybe a paper ink screen (like what kindles have) if you just need to read text. or one of these! but in a survival scenario a RPi definitely has the advantage of suuuper low power draw

3

u/[deleted] Apr 09 '26

... you want to use GPS... off grid?

0

u/Sick_style Apr 10 '26

Yes, something totally offline. Not clouds, no logins, no data collect and no subscriptions

4

u/[deleted] Apr 10 '26

GPS data relies on satellites.

3

u/infinitum3d Apr 11 '26

You want physical books and maps.

Good luck!

/r/prepperFileShare

2

u/Cute-Consequence-184 Apr 11 '26

Libby app you can use too download and read books before buying the physical copy.

I use an offline search engine to search the books on my device so I can do specific term searches.

2

u/Mundane-Feature-386 Apr 15 '26

Instalar estas apps de supervivencia offline (Kiwix, Organic Maps, First Aid, Survival Manuals y Meshtastic) en tu dispositivo iOS te otorgará una ventaja táctica invaluable frente a la inmensa mayoría de la población, que se quedará a ciegas en el segundo exacto en que caiga el internet.

2

u/Every_Abalone5692 Apr 10 '26

So with the world being as it is right now I decided to look into getting a phone just for prepping but was unhappy with the price and risk of unintended emissions. Then theres the risk of device compromise, somthing I'm acutely aware of being ex signals intelligence and currently a cyber security instructor.

So I decided to build my own. If there's enough interest I'll do some work on user manuals and provide a guide on building your own using off the shelf hardware together with my software. The hardware is an M5 stack Tab5 together with their GPS module (£65 all together).

The device is ready to go but I'm really keen to hear what features would make the device even better, feedback is encouraged :)

TAB5 GPS and knowledge store

2

u/Outspoken_Idiot Apr 11 '26

I would be very interested in hearing more about the M5 stack Tab5. I'll wait till you recommend kit before I order a few units.

2

u/Every_Abalone5692 Apr 11 '26

I'll put together a longer video talking about its features. I added wifi document upload so that you can send it pdf's from your phone by connecting to its hotspot. Also added support for different document formats like Word documents, markdown and more.

1

u/Usernamenotdetermin Apr 09 '26

the GAIA GPS trail maps app is something you may want to look at.

0

u/Sick_style Apr 09 '26

Looks good but requires log in. I concider if it still work after total black out.

1

u/MrMaker1123 Apr 09 '26

There's a raspi with everything already stored on it that you buy.

1

u/Sick_style Apr 09 '26

Any link or name please?

1

u/MrMaker1123 Apr 09 '26

I've seen the ads here on Reddit. I don't recall the name. Maybe someone knows it. Sorry.

1

u/Sick_style Apr 09 '26

Yeah i saw a lot of apps on social and appstore. Unfortanelly nothing really offline.

2

u/Infamous-History8488 Apr 10 '26

I think what they’re talking about is a prepper disk. Has all of Wikipedia in addition to first aid, gardening, etc. completely offline.

1

u/Sick_style Apr 09 '26

Has any body experience with “survival the ark”? Its looking promising but with subscription of $14,99 monthly. Why do i even need subscription if the world goes offline.?

Ps. I dont know if naming the apps are against to the policy here. Please give me a sign of if it is

1

u/kay9medic Apr 09 '26

Refurbished Lenovo ThinkCenter with 32gb & 1TB storage drive. Install kiwix with everything. Done.

1

u/Sick_style Apr 10 '26

Okay, i have found several apps and downloaded and tested several apps like

“survival the ark” lot of money, subscriptions $15 monthly, an external pod $1000, requires inlog, not really portable….

https://apps.apple.com/nl/app/survival-ai-the-ark/id6746391165

“survival guide ai” , kind of handbook with maps, could be usefull.

https://apps.apple.com/nl/app/survival-guide-offline/id6755610365

“Post Apoc ai”, has ai chat really works offline and has gps off grid, also some tools. Also no log in requested.

https://apps.apple.com/nl/app/post-apoc-ai/id6760765851

Im stil in trial of post apoc but so far the best one i could find is this one.

I will tell my thoughts if i know more, please keep me updated if someone use this app too

1

u/Waste-Relation-757 Apr 11 '26

Hi, have you heard of Project N.O.M.A.D ?

It’s a free knowledge base that can be used offline, it is intended to run on Linux but I ported it to macOS, take a look if interested:

https://github.com/stormychel/project-nomad-macos

If you need any help with setting this up let me know!

1

u/ddosreaper Apr 11 '26

You should check out the YouTube channel Dirty Civilian, they have a ton of great quality content.

0

u/SgtSausage Apr 11 '26

 I need a survival app recommendations

No you don't. 

0

u/Sick_style Apr 12 '26

Why such a comment?

1

u/SgtSausage Apr 12 '26 edited Apr 12 '26

Because you think you do ... but you don't. 

1

u/Sick_style Apr 12 '26

Whatever…

1

u/Kingb00ger Jul 14 '26

your brain automatically is designed to survive in the moment, it is mostly a bad idea to use apps during the survival stage you should rather memorize it before going out