Cell Phone GPS/Navigation
GPS is free but the map comes over a data connection. The software marks where the GPS says you are onto a map coordinate. You need both pieces.
I googled it for you
https://www.androidpit.com/use-your-google-maps-offline
Sorry, I'm confused. There are situations where I'm using Google Maps to give me voice navigation for a route. It caches the map in the beginning when I call up the destination, but along the way, or upon return, it tells me "GPS signal lost," and can no longer direct me. The map is cached, but it's unable to track/direct me.
I'm a little spoiled by the voice nav so I don't have to fiddle with maps/phone/distraction while driving.
I don't know why your GPS signal is lost, but the GPS satellite broadcast is unrelated to your data plan.
If the GPS signal is lost in the same place, can you describe the location?
It is possible, I suppose, that the CPU on the phone is so busy managing searching for signal that it's starving the software that does the calculations on the satellite locations, and expiring timers are interpreted as a loss of signal. Try turning off data?
I use WAZE great app easy to use and the info comes from other users in near real time
Don't cell phones use aGPS rather than regular GPS?
gerardryan said:
I don't know why your GPS signal is lost, but the GPS satellite broadcast is unrelated to your data plan.
aGPS augments regular GPS. If the augmented information is not there (because you've no data connection or a poor connection) then the phone ought to default back to standard/unaugmented GPS.
You can lose the GPS signal for all sorts of reasons. A GPS receiver is happiest if it can locate four or more satellites so it can calculate your location. Those satellites are really high up, and the signals are pretty weak. It's amazing enough that this stuff works at all that we shouldn't be too surprised when it fails. My bike-specialized GPS has trouble catching a signal on cloudy days. There is interference and there are reflections in some places, particularly in Manhattan. My bike GPS tells me that I have ridden my bike diagonally though office buildings and into the Hudson River, but I'm sure I haven't actually done that.
I know I could probably Google this but I like you peeps better.
I'm on an Android phone and like to use Google Maps for voice navigation. Problem is my T-mobile coverage is not great and I get a lot of dropped service, always in the places one needs it most (small, poorly marked roads, etc.)
But isn't GPS supposed to be "free" and not dependent on cell phone service? Are there apps I can install that let me tap into the GPS that cars use, or is it a hardware limitation?