How to Get Offline Maps on Android
Google’s mapping app has been a strong pillar for the Android operating system, and this fact was very strongly felt when Apple’s own iOS mapping app came under severe fire. It can be safely said that Google Maps is, at the moment, the most popular and useful mapping app for smart phones. Fortunately for you, if you have an Android phone, you get Google Maps by default and can take full advantage of all its functionality.
One of the most desired features for Google Maps has been the ability to save maps for offline use later. This is very handy when you are going to be traveling to a region without extensive network coverage. In such a scenario, you can simply fire up the app, use the map which was saved earlier and navigate using your phone’s built-in GPS receiver. Google finally gave this feature, allowing users to simply select a region for offline saving. However, the recent updates to Google Maps have removed the feature. Continue reading to find out how you can still save maps for offline use.
Instructions
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1
Make sure you are connected to the internet and fire up the Google Maps app.
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Once in the app, let the map for your region load. You can zoom out for faster loading, but the finer details will not be loaded until you zoom and scroll.
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3
After you are satisfied with the map being displayed on your screen, tap the search bar on the top. The search bar is used to find locations by name, but in this case we are going to use a hidden trick.
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Type ok maps in the search bar and press enter. The search bar will now say Pre-loading map…0%. If you have internet connectivity, the percentage will go up and the app will save the map you have cached so far.
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Once you see the confirmation message. It is safe to turn off the internet. You can verify whether the map has been saved by closing the app and running it again. Zoom into the map to see if all details are visible and scroll about to confirm.
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You are not restricted from saving any map from any other region and can simply scroll to France for instance and let the map load before repeating the trick above. However, it is recommended that you cache only the region you need, so that the data is not overwritten.
