Guide to Hiking Apps
Sometimes I talk to others who might be interested in the mobile apps I use when hiking. This post elaborates on what I use and how I use them. Please understand that all apps are used for convenience and should not be solely relied on when you are in the middle of nowhere. You never know when your phone will fail you. Always have a backup plan.
The apps I use are optimised for data privacy. Others may recommend other apps. I use what I use because they work for me. Experiment with different things and stick to what works for you.
CoMaps (Offline Maps)
CoMaps is what I would, personally, recommend for offline maps. Some people use AllTrails with a paid plan which is probably fine. I like CoMaps because it's straightforward to use, transparent about how it's implemented (open source), ad-free and is very privacy-respecting. It helps you figure out where you are and where you want to get to pretty damn well and that's the important thing.
One notable downside to CoMaps is that the search is not great. If you search for particular places, it will often fail to find what you want because it's kind of janky. I often need to find what I want by cross-referencing information in Google Maps or some other external tool.
Routing for driving may also not provide you with the most optimal path as it does not work based on live traffic data. The app will generally get you where you need to go but it may take you a little longer than Google Maps. To be fair, Google Maps doesn't always give you to most optimal path either. You'll figure out what CoMaps is good and not good for over time as you use it.
What About MAPS.ME and Organic Maps? (Optional)
History
Before going further into CoMaps, I want to touch lightly on the history of this app as well as some related apps such as MAPS.ME and Organic Maps because it does kind of matter. The OSM wiki has a great breakdown of this all:
As Organic Maps is a fork / spin-off of MAPS.ME, the look, feel and functionality of both are similar. Most notably the map style is almost the same. Unlike the proprietary MAPS.ME, however, Organic Maps is an open source software. Moreover, Organic Maps has no trackers, requires less permissions, has no invasive ads and allows some simple edits from within the app.
The CoMaps fork was founded in early 2025 by former Organic Maps contributors due to concerns about the project's governance, transparency, and the potential for shareholder profit at the expense of the community. The CoMaps project was created, focusing on privacy, transparency, community, not-for-profit and free (libre) software values.
What does any of this mean? It means there are three apps that have a shared history which means their feature sets will overlap quite a lot.
I have never used MAPS.ME and do not ever intend to so I have no opinion of it from a usability standpoint.
I recommend CoMaps over the others simply because the governance of the development of the apps has the users at the forefront compared to the others which may be subject to commercial interests.
Usage
This section is written under the assumption that you're using Android. I don't know how similar the iOS app is to the Android one.
The absolute first thing you need to do (and you'll probably figure this out quickly) is that you need to download map data for the area you're interested in. CoMaps should prompt you to do this as you try to zoom into areas where you are lacking data. You can download just the data for where you expect to go. However, I like to download all the data for the entire landmass as bound by the water which, of course, will use more storage and map updates will take longer. Unlike Google Maps, which requires refreshing of offline map data every few months, CoMaps doesn't care that your map data is severely out of date. You can set the updates to be fully manual or automatic. You should decide all these.
While CoMaps can be used standalone to help you navigate, I typically use it in conjunction with imported GPX files that I obtain elsewhere. GPX files contain routing data that will show exact routes (as planned by someone) once opened in CoMaps. You can get GPX files from many hiking websites including AllTrails which will probably be your main source of them. If you have the file downloaded, you can simply open it with CoMaps and it will be automatically loaded and render routing data. (You should see a blue line that indicates your selected route.)
Obtaining GPX files from AllTrails
As far as I understand, you can only obtain GPX files from AllTrails by going to the website at https://www.alltrails.com in your web browser. You cannot export them out of the AllTrails app.
- Make sure you have an account and are logged in. AllTrails provides GPX files but they are only available to logged in users. Fair enough... they are hosting the files after all. Feel free to use a fake name when signing up.
- Go to the trail you want.
- Hit the green button that says Download or Hit the trail. What this button says depends on whether you are viewing the website in desktop mode or not. AllTrails will strongly encourage you to install the app. For our purposes, this will not help so kindly decline their offer.
- Click Export map file.
- Ensure that GPX Track is selected (it should be the default).
- Press Export. Your web browser will quickly download a tiny GPX file.
- Share the GPX file with others you plan to do the walk with so they don't have to do all the steps above as well.
Make sure to open the file in CoMaps so you can actually look at it there.
Trail Sense (Various tools, Android only)
Trail Sense is a fully functional offline app has multiple tools that I find handy for hiking. I don't actively use most of the tools but there are certainly a bunch of interesting ones. I highly recommend looking through the features and looking at what might be useful to you.
The main tool I use is Astronomy. With it, you can find out fairly accurate times for sunrise and sunset (along with other information such as phases of the moon, etc.) no matter where you are. All you need to do is ensure you have "Location" enabled on your phone and it will figure out the rest. You can use the "View in 3D" functionality to see a fairly accurate trajectory of the sun and moon throughout the day. An example of why this might be handy is to help you figure out which way you might want to pitch a tent.
Survival Manual (Guides on various topics, Android only)
You probably don't need Survival Manual but I like to have it installed because I like to pretend that it might come in handy one day when I'm lost.
Feedback
I'm always interested in new tools I can add to my toolset. Reach out if you know of something interesting or you have any thoughts or questions on what I've written!