Best Map Applications (UK)

[mark7914]

Can anyone recommend the best map app for Android?

I went to use Google Maps today for the first time and, as expected, it asked for permisson to use my location, to which I agreed. Of course, the app needs that for this purpose.

What it doesn't need is "Location History" enabled so that Google keeps a record of where I've been. That has always been disabled on all devices and the Google pages always appear to confirm that it has no idea where I have been since that's disabled. I say "appear to confirm" - that's what it says, these days it's hard to be sure.

However the app won't work unless that's enabled, so I can't use Google Maps. Have uninstalled that now. Had to have my mate use his iPhone and the maps app on there to get us where we were going. I feel sure that when I had an iPhone I could use Google Maps, but it seems not on Android/more recent versions of the app.

What decent alternatives are there? We're in the UK. Thanks.

 

[B. Diddy]

What if you go to Settings>Location>Location History and toggle it off for the specific device you're using? When I tested that on my Pixel 2 XL, Google Maps still worked.

 

[TFBisquit]

For testing purposes I disabled location history on my s8+. Google maps still works.
Of course if you disabled location also, it can't work properly anymore. Then you need to download offline maps. There are several other navigation apps in the play store which don't require an online status.

But maps should work regardless. I had it running in another country with downloaded map pieces. Worse case scenario was it sended us into the woods lol. That was before I downloaded the map pieces and found roaming wasn't working.

 

[waveuk]

I use Here Maps for similar reasons.