I have been using Latitude because Google. But now I see that Latitude is being discontinued. In addition to recommending an app, can you also explain how to set the phone to track without using unnecessary battery life? I figure I should turn off Llama. My phone has a stock widget with wi-fi, bluetooth, GPS, brightness... and one other icon that I'm not sure about. It has two arrows going in a circle. I figure it's either 'pinging for notifications' or completely turning off/on 4G. I assume Airplane Mode is not what I want, because that would disable GPS. Any guidance would be appreciated.
Google My Tracks is the best I've found. Shows distance, altitude change, etc. Shows your hike path over Google Maps. Saves hikes to your Google Drive account for access via Maps anytime. Love it. Yeah, just make sure not much else is running. Tracks doesn't take up too much battery, even though it is using GPS. I think it uses about 5 to 8 percent per hour, maybe less. Here's a screenshot of the details and a partial of the elevation chart from a hike in the Smokies. Spoiler Click this link to see a hike I did last fall. Click the last entry on the left to see the detail summary as shown above.
Thanks! That looks good. I'm curious about the "recording time interval". It's defaulted to Smallest (on a list that goes down to 2 seconds) - but 15 minutes or so would be plenty for hiking. Otherwise, it seems like the GPS would be on all the time. I always wish there was more clarity with stuff like that. Maybe if I just use it with default settings it will work well, but I prefer to understand what is actually going on.
I've kept both distance and time intervals at default. I'm not sure I fully understand the options, but I think it means the distance between data points. So if you set it to a longer distance or more time, your trace will be courser. If you hike for an hour with 15 minutes between points, your track will look like a box (4 points) instead of a true track. I'm not sure though, I've never changed them.
I have seen an app called Backcountry Navigator Pro that looks like it would be good for this, and more topo map friendly, but haven't bought it or tried it yet.
