Offline Satellite Maps Android

[Laila Berri]

Afteryou download an area, use the Google Maps app just like you normally would. If your internet connection is slow or absent, your offline maps will guide you to your destination as long as the entire route is within the offline map.

Offline maps that you downloaded on your phone or tablet must be updated before they expire. When your offline maps expire in 15 days or less, Google Maps tries to update the area automatically when you're connected to Wi-Fi.

After you've downloaded an area, use the Google Maps app just as you normally would. If your Internet connection is slow or absent, your offline maps will guide you to your destination as long as the entire route is within the offline map.

I'd like to be able to implement this in an Android app, and I thought it was possible with the newest Google Maps API release, but I haven't seen much discussion on the topic. Ideally, you'd be able to download/cache maps for a certain region for later offline use. Is it only possible to do this via the Google Maps 5 application and not the API without violating the ToS? I know OpenStreetMap and others allow this, but I believe Google Maps still offers superior mapping and the most widespread usage.

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There are 3rd party Maps API-s which enable to do this, like Nutiteq maps SDK. Not with Google maps, as it is really against their ToS, but with Bing (with Enterprise license), OpenStreetMap (free) or other map sources.

You can try to use GoogleMapsRipper 2.0.4 from

GoogleMapsRipper is mapping software that allows you to download both satellite imagery, topographic and road maps from Google Maps, Bing Maps and OpenStreet Maps.

I want to use my own tile maps in google maps api for android .The tile maps are created using ArcGIS for server 10.2 . The cache size is about 400 megabyte .I can't copy the cache in mobile devices because i want to create small size apk . Is there any solution to use the caches in google map api for android?

We also faced the issue that the Mbtiles files were very large. In our case, one file containing satellite data was over 1.5 Gb while the other was about 200 Mb. So keeping these files in the APK Assets was out of the question. There are two possible solutions for this:

There is one more possible bottle neck you should be aware of in this workflow: The Activity/fragment which contains the Google Maps, needs to connect to Google's server at least once before it can show the map to the user. Hence need to open the map once when connected to the internet, before you can use it in an off-line mode.

Raster maps are significant and useful additions to OsmAnd vector maps. They allow you to combine various map sources with vector maps. For example, information about hills and slopes is displayed as a raster layer. You can display an overlay of hiking trails, rain maps, real-time traffic data, and an overlay of satellite imagery on a translucent base vector map. You can also switch the default maps to raster tiles on the web.

Online maps in OsmAnd are raster data. Raster data is made up of pixels (also referred to as grid cells) - set of small images (tiles). In contrast to vector maps which consists of binary data like roads, points, polygons. Raster map tiles are usually regularly-spaced and square. They often look pixelated because each pixel has its own value or class.

In order to mix raster map layers better, you can change layer transparency (by using a screen slider) and also you can change vector map style (hide polygons), so the underlay layers willbe more visible, especially useful for satellite imagery.

You can add one or two online tiles to the base layer maps, and all three will appear on the screen.

For example, you can open OsmAnd's base vector maps offline, then add a satellite view as an overlay, and place a map of bike paths below the base map as an underlay.

Hillshade and Slope are offline raster maps that show terrain relief. They are displayed as a special map layer, a second overlay on the base map. The maps contain additional elevation information to help you more accurately understand the slope and shadows of the landscape. Hillshade and Slope information is based on data from a single source, the Global planet file, and is divided into regions.

You don't need to switch between Hillshade and Slope layers, as they are merged automatically. You can select only one of these layers to display on the map, but you also have the option to combine them both as a underlay or overlay on other layers for a more visual representation of the terrain.

The 3D Relief feature is a mapping technology that allows the visualization of terrain on a map using three-dimensional models. This feature adds elevation information to a normal two-dimensional map, which creates a 3D and depth effect and allows you to better visualize the terrain.

How the 3D Relief feature works:

1. To create a 3D relief, OsmAnd receives information about the terrain elevation.

2. Based on the elevation data, a 3D model is created to display mountains, hills, valleys, and other terrain elements on the map.

3. OsmAnd then displays these three-dimensional models on a flat map. The map can be zoomed in, zoomed out, and rotated to view the terrain from different angles and perspectives.

4. The display of contour lines on the map does not depend on whether the map source is online or offline.

There are multiple ways how to add new raster map, copy it from another device, prepare it on PC and predownloaded tiles to be used offline. For example, you can create your own map package on PC by using special software as MOBAC, OsmAndMapCreator and etc. Typically raster maps are distributed as files with .sqlitedb extension.

Raster maps can take a significant amount of disk space, so you might need to regularly check it. For large datasets, it's recommended to use 'SQLite raster source' cause it will store all tiles in 1 large file (sqlite database).

Tiles are saved in the cache during usage of Online Raster maps as Main / Overlay / Underlay layer, you can see only the size of your SQ Lite file under name of your Online map in the list. Sometimes a regular cleanup is needed to speedup tiles display or to refresh data.

If you want to access raster maps offline, you may need to preload tiles. This can be done on your mobile device, but be aware that some services may block large packet downloads. You can also use the same feature to update already downloaded tiles for selected areas, otherwise, OsmAnd will continue to display tiles that are already stored in the cache.

For the Android version of the OsmAnd app, you need to select an area according to the screen size of your device and make a long-tap the map. Then select Actions in the map context menu and the Download map or Update map option. On the Download Map screen, make changes to the necessary settings and tap Download.

In the iOS version of the OsmAnd app, you need to long-tap the map, then select Actions and the Download map or Update map option from the map context menu. On the Download Map screen, you can select the required area and make changes to the necessary settings. After you set all the parameters you will be able to see the number of tiles and the download size.

Raster maps can be used as they already exist if the tiles are already mapped. If the raster maps are provided online, there is always a base URL that needs to be configured. There are a few more basic parameters that can be changed for raster maps, you can read about that in this section of the article. More complex parameters are encoded in the internal components of the SQ Lite format.

So, I've been travelling around the world a lot over the last couple of months, and one thing that I've been doing to avoid big roaming data charges on my personal phone, has been using the cached offline maps feature in Google Maps. This has worked without any problems in China, Australia, the UK and the US.

When I go to the menu in Google Maps and select Make Available Offline, I get the usual square overlay to select the area, and then it turns red and says "Offline maps is not available in selected area".

EDIT: note that in a July 2013 Google Maps update, Google made offline maps into a hidden feature with no menu option any more. More about how to make maps available offline here: Get offline maps in new Google Maps

I found that I was able to remove the version of google maps I had installed (which was 6.11.1) and downloaded and installed an older version (6.6.0) from here which allowed me to pre-cache the area I was previously not allowed to. But in the older version I had to go to settings,labs and turn on the pre-cache option and then long press on the map, click on the balloon, and then scroll to the bottom for the pre-cache option.

I don't understand why downloading maps of certain areas is not allowed in newer versions. Obviously its not a technical reason. Is there some sort of political or legal reason? Other map apps can download maps for the entire world. It really doesn't make any sense to me...

Early versions of google maps you can save offline large maps anywhere. Newer versions only allowed a smaller area to be saved and the latest verion makes the save function hard to find and you cant save some countries.

The Maps JavaScript API lets you customize maps with your own content and imagery for display on web pages and mobile devices. The Maps JavaScript API features four basic map types (roadmap, satellite, hybrid, and terrain) which you can modify using layers and styles, controls and events, and various services and libraries.

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