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My Experience With Gaia GPS on Apple Watch

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My Experience With Gaia GPS on Apple Watch

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flag PHeller
O+
Posted: Oct 1, 2021 at 11:11 Quote
I recently got an Apple Watch 6 and although I knew it wouldn't be quiet as good as a Garmin Edge for Traikforks, I wanted to see what it might be like with other trail-based GPS applications.

I had read the Gaia GPS can give you some navigation/routing on the Apple watch, and so I tried that.

1) You've gotta create a "route" in Gaia GPS app, which on a phone is a major PITA. Especially if the trails don't exist on the basemap.
2) You then send the route to the watch.
3) The watch only gives you navigation prompts. No mini map.

I learned that:

1) Creating routes with an application that "snaps" to features is really annoying when the trails you want to ride aren't on said map. As Gaia and Trailforks are now both owned by Outside, maybe you'll be able to do this same functionality but within the Trailforks app, and be able to snap to trails within Trailforks.

2) Having no map on the watch is just not going to work. I need a map. Turn-by-turn routing doesn't work on a trail.

My thought would be to have the map zoom in and out based on speed. If your riding quickly (say on a gravel road) the map would be zoomed out to a scale to let you see far enough in advance to see the upcoming turn, maybe in a mile or so. As you slowed down, it would zoom in to show you a more complicated trail intersection.

Also - it looks like Strava likes to take priority on the Apple Watch, so I kept finding myself having to change apps to get back to the Gaia app when I was running Strava at the same time. I'm sure there is a setting to change this.

Any good alternatives that make the Apple Watch more like a Garmin when it comes to trail routing?
flag canadaka
Mod O+ FL
Posted: Oct 5, 2021 at 14:01 Quote
I have no played with an Apple watch at all.

But hopefully with Outside we will be able to hire someone in the future to work on this. Maybe next year! At the very least we could probably come up with a way to load your Trailforks routes in the Gaia watch app.

 


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