The 5 Best Free Offline GPS Navigation Apps for Android, App offers offline features like downloading a map beforehand and saving regional maps. Offline Features: Google Maps offer an offline map for navigation and search. It provides an offline view of streets and indoor maps of shops, restaurants, etc.
1. Sygic GPS Navigation and Offline Maps
Sygic is the most-installed offline GPS app in the Google Play Store. The company has an agreement with TomTom, allowing it to provide offline maps for every country in the world.
Over the years, it has rolled out innovative new features including a live-view function that takes the camera input from your phone and overlays the navigation instructions directly on top of what you see. Other noteworthy features include free map updates, voice-guided GPS navigation, and pedestrian GPS navigation for when you're on foot.
The app can even help save you money. If you have an internet connection, it will automatically alert you about the cheapest nearby parking lots and gas stations, as well as provide information about upcoming speed cameras.
Sygic offers both a free and a paid version. You can try the paid version for seven days when you first download the app.
Download: Sygic GPS Navigation and Offline Maps (Free, subscription available)
2. OsmAnd
OsmAnd is another one of the popular maps and GPS apps for Android that works offline. There's also an online mode for the times when you have a reliable data connection.
The GPS part of the app has a number of key features. They include voice guidance, lane guidance, live estimated times of arrival, a day/night screen mode, on-the-fly driving routes for when you take a wrong turn, and specialist cycling routes.
In some countries, the offline map even boasts features such as opening times and accepted payment methods of stores. Lastly, this is an app skiers should have. There's a paid plugin that shows route maps for many of the world's most popular resorts.
Download: OsmAnd (Free, premium version available)
3. MAPS.ME
MAPS.ME is a free GPS app that's definitely worth checking out if you need offline navigation.
In offline mode, you can enjoy a full-featured search function, voice navigation, re-routing calculation, and public transportation details. You will also see restaurants, ATMs, and places of interest. If you're online, you can share your location with friends, add bookmarks, and even make hotel bookings without leaving the app. This makes it a great Android app for traveling.
The maps are kept up-to-date by OpenStreetMap and are entirely open source. The developers behind the app have also made a promise to keep all maps and features free forever; there are no plans to introduce a pricing structure. MAPS.ME is ad-supported.
Remember, you can also use your Android phone as a GPS tracker device with its native Find My Device feature as an alternative.
Download: MAPS.ME (Free)
4. MapFactor Navigator
MapFactor is another great free GPS app for Android.
When you fire up the app for the first time, it will prompt you to download maps for offline usage. That's because there is no online map function here. Instead, the app offers more than 200 standalone individual maps to choose from, including 56 in Europe and 53 in the Americas.
The maps are organized by country, but densely populated areas have sub-regions available. You can also find maps for speed cameras in certain areas. Each map pulls its data from OpenStreetMap and recent features include Android Auto compatibility, so you can use your maps with your built-in car display.
Download: MapFactor Navigator (Free, premium version available)
5. HERE WeGo
HERE WeGo is another app that specializes in offline GPS navigation. It offers offline maps for more than 100 countries and they include directions, public transportation ticket prices, car-sharing prices, and train and bus timetables.
When you enter your route, the app will compare car, bike, pedestrian, taxi, and public transportation routes in order to find the fastest and most cost-effective way for you to make your journey.
You can access public transportation information for more than 1,300 cities around the world, including most of North America and Europe. If you frequently take a route and know some better shortcuts, you can also add them to the app.
Keep in mind that using GPS in the background will quickly drain your phone battery, so make sure to learn the essential ways you can save your battery life on Android to keep it going longer. Like MAPS.ME, the HERE WeGo app is ad-supported.
Download: HERE WeGo (Free)
GPS Is Great, but Watch Your Battery!
These are some of the best offline maps for Android that will help you get where you're going, even without data. But we'll leave you with a quick word of warning: continuously running GPS apps in the background will quickly drain your battery. The 5 Best Free Offline GPS Navigation Apps for Android.
