I have a rather complicated question and I think that it deserves an introduction.
Me and my wife are from different worlds. It’s doesn’t mean that I am from Mars and she is from Venus. I merely state that Inuse iphone + applewatch while she is sporting android phone + garmin venu sq2 music. That gives some opportunities for comparision.
Boh my phone and smartwatch are supporting a single app called workoutdoors. The app allows for downloading offline maps (by means of pointing the area in phone app) and sending then to a smartwatch. Transfer is done directly between these to devices (bluetooth).
Recently I was trying to recreate this effect in android+garmin combination. That’s how I’ve found mappily.
As far as I understand mappily is garmin app only. Offline maps can be downloaded only by means of pointing to some route (not an area). This route can be preplanned only by means of third party phone app. Some apps (like Strava) are able to synchronize with mappily but all the planning are being done online (all data are being stored on some server).
Now come a question:
Is there’s an app that can allow me to create gpx file on a phone (android OS) and send it to garmin (in order to load it to mappily)?
If that can be done in an offline mode (bluetooth) could be perfect.
Hi - thanks for posting and asking a question. Currently there’s no way to get a route into the mappily app without an internet connection. You cannot use ‘native’ Garmin routes because the app has no access to the routes on a Garmin watch (this is something Garmin prevent).
You’re right that a companion app would allow this, because you could preload the routes into the app, however at the moment we have no plans for an app simply due to time constraints.
The offline maps in the Garmin watch necessarily follow a route because space available to a single app on a Garmin watch is less than 1MB. This has to store the route, the map sections and various other pieces of state. For context, this is the equivalent to one small image or about 30 seconds of an MP3. ie. a tiny amount. I suspect an Apple/Samsung watch gives over much more space to their apps and hence downloading broard map sections is possible.
With a companion app, you could use the phone as the source of the map sections, and stream them to the watch live, however the real benefit of offline maps is being able to leave the phone at home and not having to stuff it in a pocket on a run.
Shame the app can’t take advantage of storage reserved for music. I don’t use music on my watch at all, and I know that it has around 7gb of storage just sat there doing nothing. No doubt Garmin have blocked it’s use, much like they cripple their firmware in order to get people to purchase their more expensive devices!