Navigation apps - a personal view

Introduction

There are several different kinds of navigation apps available. Some behave like satnavs for pedestrians and are usually also satnavs for motorists and others. Others will let you set beacons and advise you as you approach and give you details of streets and other features as you near them. And you will also find apps which merge these features. For now, I'm restricting myself to outlining 3 satnav-like apps for pedestrians which give turn by turn instructions.

Warning

First a warning: all navigation apps are prone to giving occasional misleading and potentially dangerous instructions and must be used with caution.  Don't rely on the apps for safe places to cross roads. Navigation apps tend to be best for people with sufficient vision to be reasonably confident about turnings and crossings but they are used effectively by some people with no vision at all.  Some guide dog users may also be able to work with these apps.  I strongly recommend trying navigation apps in a familiar area along with a sighted helper in the first instance. 

Headphones

If you are walking in a noisy location, you will probably need to use headphones in order to hear the spoken navigation instructions from your iPhone. If you do use headphones it is important that sufficient environmental sound is audible to ensure your safety. Wired headphones will operate well, but the wires may be an unwanted encumbrance. If you use a bluetooth, wireless headset, you may not hear the first part of spoken instructions since many headphones enter power saving mode between the infrequent spoken directions; if this happens then the first part of each spoken direction may be lost as the connection between iPhone and headphones is reestablished. A work-around for this is to play a quiet music track on repeat as you navigate; the music track should fade away to allow you to hear navigation directions in full. This issue does not occur if you use Apple's AirPods as your wireless headphones. You may want to consider bone conduction headphones which leave your ears fully open.  Most bone conduction headphones are a horseshoe-shaped spring that fits behind your head and above your ears to press speakers gently against bones just in front of your ears.  Your ears are left fully open and, if the speakers are positioned well, the sound should be at a comfortable volume and quality. I have used Shokz Titanium bone conduction headphones and these do lose the first part of directions unless I have some quiet audio continuously playing. 

Navigation apps

There are several satnav-style navigation apps in the apps store. I shall outline just three here. Apple's Maps is free and pre-installed on iPhones and iPads. The other two, Google Maps and GoodMaps Outdoors, are also free and can be installed from the App Store. All three work well with VoiceOver and will probably be accessible to people with low vision using Zoom and other low vision iPhone features but I have little experience of that. 

Apple Maps and Google Maps have satnav capability designed for general use which has excellent accessibility. GoodMaps Outdoors was designed specifically for blind users and was originally a charged app from Sendero, then sold as RNIB Navigator and was finally acquired and made free by GoodMaps, who previously specialised only in indoor navigation systems.

All three apps have good knowledge of pedestrian alleyways that aren't accessible to vehicles but can't guide you on countryside footpaths. In addition to turn by turn instructions, Goodmaps Outdoors can also provide information about approaching intersections and nearby points of interest. I have found that Goodmaps Outdoors information about approaching intersections isn't totally reliable so please use it with caution.

Google Maps has an excellent voice search feature which isn't matched by the others. Rather than just guessing the spelling of a road name it checks for roads with names that sound like your spoken name in the requested town. For example, a street in Loughborough is Lemyngton Street, spelt L E M Y N G T O N. Only Google Maps will find this with a voice search. The others look for a street spelt L E A M I N G TON. 

Turn by turn instructions from all three apps are generally good although roundabouts can be confusing and you should certainly include routes involving roundabouts when you are familiarising yourself with a new navigation app, preferably with sighted assistance. If you aren't sure if you have chosen the correct exit from a roundabout try walking a little way from the roundabout and then asking Siri "where am I"? to check that you are on the intended road. 

Siri and navigation apps

All three apps can set up turn by turn walking directions using Siri.

Apple Maps and Google Maps can direct you to street addresses, postcodes, business names, points of interest and contact addresses.

 For Apple Maps use:

"get walking directions to x".

For Google Maps use:

"get walking directions to x using Google Maps". But be aware that this won't use Google' voice search and may not work properly for places with unusual spelling. It will be fine for most places though. Just remember to check the distance of your journey before you use the start button.

GoodMaps Outdoors has a more limited Siri repertoire. These can be configured in the app's settings. 

If you want to stop navigation by Apple Maps instruct Siri to "stop navigation". With Google Maps and GoodMaps Outdoors you wil need to locate and use a stop navigation or cancel button in the app.

A note on public transport journeys

Apple Maps and Google Maps can both be used to plan journeys and travel on public transport but both give only visual instructions for walking sections of journeys by public transport. 

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