Live Tracking

Requires: Thru Hiker tier

Live Tracking turns your phone into a GPS recorder. It records where you actually walked, shows your position against the planned route, counts down to the next water source or junction, and saves each session as a trace you can compare against your estimates later.

Live Tracking is mobile only.

Opening Live Tracking

Live Tracking opens from the trip's Sections list, switched into Track mode:

Open a Trip and stay on the Sections tab
In the card header, switch the toggle from Plan to Track
Tap the section you are about to walk

The section opens straight into Live Tracking. The toggle is remembered between visits, so once you are hiking you can keep tapping sections and land on the tracker every time. Switch back to Plan for the detail tabs.

The screen opens with the map live and a Not recording chip at the top.

Recording

The record controls sit in the button column at the top right of the map.

State	Buttons shown	What they do
Stopped	play_arrow	Start recording. Asks for location permission the first time
Recording	pause, stop	Pause without ending the session, or finish and save
Paused	play_arrow, stop	Resume the same session, or finish and save

Pausing keeps the session open and freezes the stats. It is the one to use for a lunch stop, so a two-hour sit-down does not land in your moving average. Stopping closes the trace and saves it.

You can record several separate sessions in one section. Each is saved as its own trace.

While recording or paused, a banner across the top shows:

A red pulsing dot and Recording, or an amber dot and Paused
Distance covered, in KM or MI
Elapsed time since the session started
Elevation gain, in M GAIN or FT GAIN

One Recording at a Time

Only one section can be recording. Open Live Tracking on a second section while another is running and a red banner appears: "Recording in progress for another section", with "Stop the other recording before starting here."

Two buttons are offered: Go back, which returns you to the trip, and Stop other recording, which ends the other section's session there and then so you can start here.

The Map

Element	Description
Your position	A live marker pointing the way you are facing
Current trace	The line you are laying down as you walk
Previous traces	Earlier finished traces for this section, drawn in a different colour
Planned route	The section's GPX route, if one is loaded
Waypoints	Coloured circles with labels, one per waypoint on the section. Tap one for its name and description
Compass	A north-pointing dial in the top-left, rotating with your bearing

Map Controls

Control	What it does
Map view picker	Five display modes, see below
Recentre (my_location)	Snaps the camera back to your position
Compass lock (explore)	Locks the map to your direction of travel. Off again resets north up
Waypoints (location_on)	Shows or hides the waypoint markers and their labels. Only offered when the section has waypoints
Next waypoint (assistant_navigation)	Shows or hides the navigation overlay, see below
Zoom	Pinch, or the + and - buttons
Close (x)	Leaves Live Tracking. A recording in progress keeps running

Map View Modes

The Map view picker offers five modes:

Mode	What you get
Contour - Flat	The outdoor style with hill shading switched off
Contour - Hill shading	The outdoor style with its built-in shading. This is the default in Live Tracking
Shaded relief with tilt	Strong hill shading plus a tilted camera
Satellite	Satellite imagery
3D	A raised terrain mesh. Web only

The two tilted modes add a vertical tilt slider down the left edge of the map, with a rotate control for swinging the bearing round. Tilt is capped at 60 degrees.

Next Waypoint Overlay

When the section has a route and at least one Turn, Water or Resupply waypoint, an overlay across the top of the map shows how far ahead the next one of each type is, counting down as you walk. Those are the three types it tracks.

Toggle it with the assistant_navigation button. It is on by default.

Elevation Profile

A small elevation profile sits in the bottom-left corner of the map. What it plots depends on the situation:

Recording along a route: the route's profile, with a dot marking how far along it you have walked
Recording with no route loaded: the profile of the trace you are laying down, once there are at least two points
Not recording: the route's profile, if the section has one

How Often Points Are Recorded

The app records a point each time you move a set distance rather than on a timer, so standing still does not fill the trace with duplicates.

Both settings live at Profile → Trips:

Setting	Options	Notes
Tracking distance	100-500 m in 100 m steps, default 200 m	In imperial units the slider runs 300-1500 ft in 300 ft steps. Subtitle: "Record a point every N metres moved"
Location accuracy	Precision or Battery	Subtitle: "Precision for tight trails, Battery for long hikes"

Background Tracking

Recording continues when you switch apps or lock the screen, using background location with a persistent notification. The map catches up when you come back to it.

Battery notes:

GPS recording is expensive. Carry a power bank on long days
A larger tracking distance means fewer fixes and less drain. 500 m is kinder to the battery than 100 m
Battery accuracy takes coarser fixes, which helps on a long day at the cost of a scrappier line

Permissions

Live Tracking asks for location access the first time you tap record:

While using the app is enough to record with the screen on
Always is needed for recording to continue in the background

Without location access, the screen replaces the map with "Location permission is required to record your route. Please enable it in your device settings." Grant foreground access alone and you can record while the app is open.

Tip: Use pause rather than stop for breaks. Stopping closes the trace and starts a new one, which splits your day into fragments and makes the Actual column on the section's Analysis tab harder to read. Pause keeps it as one continuous session.