cycle.travel’s iPhone app is now ready for beta testing!
The app provides cycle.travel’s routing, turn-by-turn instructions, and offline maps. There’ll be more features in future versions of the app, but right now, you can enjoy a bike ride with cycle.travel on your handlebars. Here are a few of the questions you might have about the beta release.
Where does the app work?
It works in mainland Europe and Britain, North America, Australia and New Zealand.
Does my standard cycle.travel login work?
Yes, it does. You can log in with your Apple ID too. If your cycle.travel account has the same email as your Apple ID, you’ll see all your c.t routes there.
How do I keep up-to-date with the beta app?
Apple uses the TestFlight app on your phone to distribute the app. This will tell you if there’s a new version available. I’m continually working on fixing issues with the app, so you should see new versions pop up there that fix issues identified so far!
What extra features do supporters get?
cycle.travel supporters get these extra features in the app:
- Sketch mode (draw a route with your finger)
- Extra maps (e.g. Ordnance Survey, IGN, OpenCycleMap)
- High-contrast ‘Wayfarer’ map style
- Offline search for points of interest
Why is there a separate ‘map library’ feature?
Some of the third-party maps, in particular Ordnance Survey and IGN, are in a different projection to the one used by most online maps. That means we can’t show them as part of the main map display, which only supports the standard projection. The map library view allows us to show these maps though without all the features of the main map.
How do I choose a start point for a route?
The cycle.travel app usually starts from your current location.
If you want to start from a different place, pan to it on the map, then long-press on the map and choose ‘Set as start point’.
Alternatively, type the name into the place entry (top left), tap it (but not the >), and choose ‘Start from here’.
What about an Android version?
An Android app is planned for 2023. Although the app code is completely different on iOS and Android, some of the background work (in particular, the maps) can be common to both, so it should take less long than the iOS app.
I might look at producing a bare-bones Android app before then, so if you have any ideas about the absolute basic functionality you’d need, let me know!
How can I send feedback?
You can use the ‘Send feedback’ link in the app. Alternatively, leave a comment on this post, or post on the cycle.travel forum. Thanks!
Comments
Thank you, Richard, for this awesome app! I'm sure there will be changes and additions in the months to come, but it's clearly an excellent tool already. It's what we've all been waiting for!
Great, Bare bones android ASAP if you can
Excellent timing for this release , was hoping it would be out before Aug 28 when I go from Bilbao to Athens over eight weeks . The turn by turn stuff will probably mean I don’t need to rely on RWGPS ,as good as that is for spoken directions . Seems intuitive so far , can’t work out how to download and use routes offline but will persevere . It’s great , thanks so much
First go tonight . Plotted and saved a route on laptop,it was instantly available as a saved route on the app. So,far so good. Started riding but no turn by turn announcements . Settings were set to “announcements-spoken” and phone (IOS 15.6) was not on silent and volume on full. The route was showing on the screen and my progress was marked by the dot faithfully moving along the marked route ,so if the phone was on show as Inrode I could have followed the route visually,but I imagined the directions would be spoken so I could have the phone in back pocket and headphones in, similar to RWGPS. I’m assuming the settings menu means there is a facility for spoken announcements and likely I’m missing something obvious !!
It does do turn-by-turn announcements so something is going wrong there! I’ll see if I can work out what.
So
Where do I get it?? TestFlight?
Is there an invitation code please? Love it love it love it!!