As someone who has been trying to get into camping and hiking a lot more recently, I have very quickly learned how important it is to be prepared. When you’re exploring places where there is no mobile service, let alone a Wi-Fi connection, you need to make sure that you have all the information that you need ready and on hand.
In my quest to be more prepared, I wanted to find some apps that would make my Android device a little more useful when connections are sparse. The following apps have really transformed my outdoor excursions, giving me a bevy of tools and resources that I can access at a moment’s notice. They also allowed me to learn quite a lot, making sure that I don’t have to always rely on my phone as a crutch the more I travel off the beaten path. Best of all, every entry on the list is open-source and free.
Trail Sense
A massive armory of offline tools
Trail Sense is a free, offline, open-source Android app that gives you access to a plethora of tools that are extremely helpful when you’re out in the great outdoors. It uses your phone’s built-in sensors and local storage in order to keep you on track. Its core strength is navigation, as it primarily uses GPS. While it doesn’t have a base map layer, you can pretty easily import maps before you set out, or take a picture of a physical map that you can overlay. You can also record pins, with the app leaving “breadcrumbs” as you go, so that you can backtrack.
It also has plenty of other useful tools beyond the navigation suite. You can track the sun and the moon, set rise/set times, and predict ‘golden hour’ windows. There are loads of built-in survival tools as well, including a flashlight, clinometer, ruler, digital level, packing list planner, and hyperlocal weather tracking tools.
It is a fully offline app, and all the location, altitude, and other sensor data used stays strictly on your device.
Organic Maps
Companion to Trail Sense
While Trail Sense is great, it does have some shortfalls. That is why I have Organic Maps installed as well. Trail Sense is great, but it requires preparation, with you having to preload maps onto your device before you set out. Organic Maps gives you an immediately useful map showing roads, paths, settlements, geographical features, and points of interest. It also allows you to search for useful locations while you’re offline, and it can provide pretty detailed navigation, including planning routes for hikes. Together, the two apps make an incredibly solid pairing. I find it generally more useful than Google Maps most of the time.
Organic Maps is also totally free and open source, with the ability to operate completely offline. When you have both apps installed, you have a suite of features that you’d otherwise have to pay for with other popular navigation apps.
The one caveat here is that Organic Maps relies on crowdsourced data via OpenStreetMap. This is generally pretty comprehensive, but it does mean that the quality and completeness of trails, water sources, and other features will vary based on your location.
PlainRescue
Potentially life-saving
When you’re out in nature, being prepared for emergencies is incredibly important. Anything can happen, and if you don’t have access to the internet, dealing with medical emergencies can be incredibly daunting. Aiming to bridge the gap is PlainRescue, a completely free Android app that works offline. It provides calm, step-by-step guidance to get you through a swathe of life-threatening emergencies.
When opening the app, you’ll see a pretty comprehensive list of some of the most common medical emergencies that you might encounter, with a search bar at the top so you can quickly find what you’re looking for. It is built for high-stress environments, with you easily being able to navigate everything one-handed. Each emergency comes with text instructions, diagrams, and a voice-guided option. There is also a ‘Learn’ tab that will teach you how to deal with emergencies before they happen. Each treatment has a clickable citation that links back to an accredited and reputable medical institution, such as the American Red Cross, World Health Organization, and the NHS.
Offline Survival Manual by ligi
Worth the time it takes to install
If you’re looking for a comprehensive guide to survival that can help you master the outdoors, there are few tools as good as this one. The caveat is that it isn’t currently available to download on the Play Store. It is free and open source, with all the source code available on GitHub, and it works completely offline. It is based primarily on the public-domain U.S. Army Survival Field Manual, and is loaded with information on just about every survival scenario.
This app is more of a guide than anything else, packed with survival information. It covers a ton of core survival topics, teaching you loads about planning, basic medicine, shelter, water, and fire-making. It also goes into detail on how to source food, including building traps, snares, fishing devices, and more. There is also a tab for dealing with the psychology of being stranded in a survival situation. Specific tactics for navigation and dealing with particularly harsh environments, like deserts, are also included.
The easiest way to install this app is to get the F-Droid launcher, which is essentially a free, open-source alternative to the Play Store with a strong focus on privacy. The Survival Manual by ligi can be pretty easily found in the F-Droid store.
Being prepared before tackling the outdoors is essential
Nature is wonderful, but it can also be incredibly dangerous. Going out into the wilderness unprepared is a sure way to get yourself lost, hurt, or worse. I keep the apps on this list loaded on my Android and ready to go, and have found them useful in a huge number of scenarios, especially when I don’t have access to the internet. The best advice, though, is to take some time to learn the content on the apps, using them as a backup rather than a crutch when you venture off the beaten path.
