Do you consider yourself an outdoor adventure lover? Do you enjoy being amidst nature? At the same time, are you concerned about keeping yourself healthy and fit? If the answers to all the questions are ‘yes,’ then hiking is the best solution. So, to influence your adventure, we have collected the top 20 best hiking apps for Android.
Hiking is one of the best forms of exercise to keep your body and mind healthy and in touch with nature. But how can you make a perfect plan for hiking? In this situation, hiking apps will help you the most. A suitable hiking app can make your journey more enjoyable and safe.
What is Hiking?
In simple words, hiking is a form of walking. It is usually a walk of 7-12 miles for a half-day or 12-20 miles for a full one. It is a fabulous way to find yourself in an outdoor environment.
Hiking doesn’t require any special equipment for hiking. You only have to find a track, carry some necessary things, and start the trip on your feet. It would be more exciting and enjoyable if you could find one or more hiking partners. You can also take part in a hiking campaign.
Hiking will not give you any physical strain if you walk through a straight road. The average pace of walking for hiking is 3mph. But it depends on one’s physical capacity. Hiking helps to refresh your mind and makes your exercise an adventurous one.
Hiking’s Health Benefit
Hiking is a form of exercise full of benefits. It allows you to enjoy beautiful views, fresh air, and the beauty of nature. Besides that, hiking keeps your mind free from all the tensions of our day-to-day life. It also offers some physical benefits.
Hiking helps to control blood pressure and prevents heart diseases. It also helps to control weight and keep the body fit. It plays a role in reducing anxiety. Hiking can make you physically strong and improve your muscles and body joints. Taking proper hiking plans may make your life healthier and happier.
The Function of a Hiking App for Android
Usually, people find it fair to stay out of technical gadgets whenever they want to enjoy natural beauty. But with traveling or hiking, a simple app can make your journey more secure. A hiking app can help you choose your trail and stay connected with other hikers.
Hiking plays a significant role in finding out the best route for hiking. It also makes a hiker aware of the distance and duration of his journey. If you get lost, such an app can help you find your way. Hiking apps also provide unique benefits, like maps, recording tracks, navigation, etc. You can get help from any free hiking app or use a paid version.
Best 20 Hiking Apps for Android
You can find various hiking apps on the internet. But all of them are not equally productive. Moreover, there are pros and cons to every hiking app. To help you find the best app for hiking trails, I will provide you with a list of the best 20 hiking apps of 2021.
1. PeakVisor
PeakVisor is a popular hiking app. It is most useful for hiking in mountain areas. This app can use your phone’s camera and helps you to find out the names of about 1,016,681 mountain peaks worldwide. It previews the photos in a 3D art view technology.
PeakVisor helps to identify the hiking routes. This app is easy to use and also provides robust security. This mobile app will allow you to use the search bar. It can identify Mountain peaks by combining the functions of image recognition and GPS location. So, we can term it as one of the best GPS apps for walking.
The downloadable size of PeakVisor is 240,101.00 KB. One can use its free version or subscribe for $2.99/month on the App Store and $4.49 on Google Play. This app is improving day by day. But sometimes, it is slow, and some features are missing in the app.
2. AllTrails
AllTrails is one of the best GPS hiking apps in 2021. This app lets you choose your hiking plan based on difficulty, route type, or reviews. You can also search hikes based on tags like river or trail, dog/kiddo-friendly routes, etc. It can provide you with detailed information and a map of the trail. It also records the time to complete your hike and tracks the route.
Alltrails have the feature to custom maps and share your experiences with your kith and keens. It has many reviews from a vast community of people. The only drawback of this app is that you have to pay for it if you want to use an offline version. You can use the online version of Alltrails for free of cost. If you want to take the paid version, it costs $29.99/year.
3. Gaia GPS
Gaia GPS is one of the best topo map apps. It contains three subscription options-basic, paid membership and Premium membership. The basic version of this app provides topographical maps if there is an online connection. But the paid version makes it downloadable and makes it offline.
When you use the premium version of this app, you can access all the maps of every continent other than Africa and South America. You can also find hunting zones and ski trails and be able to get access to the Nat Geo Trails Illustrated map pack. It is an excellent alternative to google maps.
You can experience the best GPS hiking app with a premium subscription. This version provides modern topo maps and historical and classic printed maps. The paid version of this app costs $20/year. Pay $39.99/year to get a premium membership.
4. Google Earth
Google Earth is a beautiful free hiking app. You can use it while planning for cross-country treks, navigating the trailhead, or calculating elevation loss or gain. You can choose between 2D and 3D maps here, zoom in, and explore the distances of the trails.
Google Earth works well in searching trail features like slope angles or water sources. We can use Google Earth on a wide array of devices. Its features are up-to-date and very much detailed. It also offers historical views of the maps. The app has additional layers, and it is available in 45 languages!
Google Earth doesn’t have any offline version. It requires high bandwidth to perform the best. Maps of some areas, incredibly less developed countries, are shown poorly. It also has some coverage issues. The Google Earth Pro version is trying to meet these problems and has become more efficient in providing users with an updated satellite view of the Earth.
5. CAIRN
Among the best Hiking Apps for Android, Cairn is mentionable. We can operate it on iOS and Android platforms. The basic app is free for all. We need to pay $4.99/month or $26.99/year for the pro version.
Cairn performs well in identifying cell coverage spots. It also allows you to make an emergency call to your loved ones. It can notify your safety information to your contacts by making intelligent rescuing decisions. You can share your route plan, location, maps and record tracks by using it.
You can download track records and maps here. As a user, you can get all the information you need for hiking by using it. It is considered an excellent backpacking app too.
6. Hiking Project
You can use Hiking Project if you want the best app for hiking trails. It will help you find the best hiking trails near you. Besides that, it acts as a guidebook on hiking.
The hiking project will notify you about the highlights and challenges of the location. Now you will see the exact location of your track. The Hiking Project allows you to trace your route.
Hiking Project can also allow you to share your journey with others. The Hiking Project will record the distance and show how many miles there are. And all the features you can get are free of cost! You can enjoy high-resolution photos and images through this app.
But Hiking Project is a battery-draining app. Using the map and compass of this app will drain your device battery more quickly. So, a backup charger is required for using this app.
7. National Park Trail Guide
If you want to plan your trip to your favorite National Park, National Park Trail Guide will be your best hiking app. This app will never let you get lost inside the park. You can always see your location using a satellite map or vertical profile of the app.
You can also choose the best parks for hiking from the list made in it. This app is handy in planning a hiking trip with children. No cell signal is needed to use this app. It can work offline. You can make a to-do list, record your tracks, upload your images, and make emergency contact too!
National Park Trail Guide is an excellent app for planning a family hiking trip. You can use this app to know the difficulty rates of your hiking trail, camping, and lodging, find places for food or drinks, get guided tours, and whatnot! This app must keep your device’s GPS on constantly to drain the battery quickly.
8. SpyGlass Hiking Apps for Android
If you want a compass-based hiking app, then SpyGlass is for you! This app combines a modern-day compass, including a GPS navigation system. It also works as a binocular.
SpyGlass includes features like a heads-up display, a high-tech compass with offline maps, a GPS receiver, a speedometer, a gyrocompass, and a waypoint tracker. Moreover, it also works like a gyro horizon, rangefinder, sextant, angular calculator, and inclinometer! SpyGlass also has functions for finding Sun, Moon, and Polaris stars.
SpyGlass is undoubtedly a complete package for hikers and the best hiking Apps for Android. This app has various tracking options. Moreover, it can measure the angular position of 2 objects. It can zoom in on the camera and measure the longitude, latitude, and speed.
SpyGlass also has a sharing option. But this app requires some technical knowledge. You have to study some specific technical matters of navigation before using it. Still, if you consider the benefits of this app, then it is worth buying it for $5.99/year.
9. Google Maps
If you are searching for the best hiking map app, you may choose Google Maps. You may have used this app before in your daily life. But I can bet that you never used it to its full functionality.
Google Maps has the best feature for downloading maps offline. It will help you find your track even if you lose your internet connection. This app enables you to navigate your track using the downloaded map when using the GPS function.
You can easily choose your hiking trail with this app’s help. However, the user may easily download the selected area by highlighting it from the map and clicking to download. You can also download a customized region.
Google Maps is a free-to-use Android app. This app is helpful if you want to hike in an area with a poor internet connection.
10. Outdooractive
Are you an outdoor adventure lover? Then Outdooractive will be the best hiking app for you. This app will help you plan and navigate your outdoor adventures. The app allows you to record and share your experiences with your families.
Outdooractive is an intelligent app for smartphones, tablets, and Wear OS devices. You can take it as your perfect partner for hiking, mountaineering, or other outdoor activities. The Outdooractive enables you to download high-resolution Ordnance Survey maps for the UK. Moreover, you can get specific information about your hiking and cycling trails through this app.
Outdooractive is a global trial database that can suggest routes and complete information, including images, elevation profiles, and directions of the trails. We can also use it on a smartwatch. This app is fun in making new challenges and reaching goals.
You can access detailed information about hiking in its Mountain Hut Directory feature. The Pro version of Outdooractive will provide your satellite imagery views and unique Outdooractive maps, including official topographic maps from some specific providers.
11. iNaturalist Hiking Apps for Android
iNaturalist is an image-based recognition app. It is perfect for you if you are interested in wildlife and nature. It can make your knowledge about trees, flowers, and other elements of nature vast. While hiking, if you want to find a specific species of flower or plant, this app will act like your best friend.
iNaturalist can analyze any picture taken using your device and show all the necessary information. This app will also help you determine which flower or plant species are popular in different seasons and areas.
iNaturalist can provide you with a list of familiar animals and plants in your trail area. This app is very user-friendly and a suitable medium for learning while hiking. It will cost nothing to use this app. No account is required to use it. You may also earn badges for spotting plants and animals. But this app may not work accurately if the image is unclear and detailed.
12. PeakFinder AR
PeakFinder AR PeakFinder AR gives you a list of more than 650,000 peaks worldwide. It is an app for hiking in the mountain area.
PeakFinder will help you identify any peak in your track, whether a large mountain or a small hill. You only have to hold the phone at an angle that can cover the peak, and you will get a 3600 panoramic view along with the mountain name. You can also get information about the peak by capturing a landscape view.
This app requires low power usage. It has the facility of virtual ‘teleport.’ You can use the telescope button to zoom in on the image. Moreover, PeakFinder covers the surrounding maps of the peak.
Another feature of PeakFinder is we can use it offline. This app updates its peaks directory daily. You can get this app from Google Play or App Store for $4.99.
13. Komoot
Komoot is one of the famous route-planning apps. It helps you to connect disparate roads or trails enjoyably. With the help of this app, you can plan an adventurous trip you could never imagine.
Here, you have to create an account called ‘tours,’ and Komoot will recommend the whole plan for the trip. It also adds viewpoints, coffee shops, trail segments, etc., as highlights so you can find these easily in the new area.
After selecting the route, please save it to your profile and edit it whenever possible. The voice navigation tool is a unique feature of this app. It gives you relief from holding your device while hiking. However, this app has a better algorithmic capacity to create your route.
In a single app, Komoot can combine different sports, like hiking, running, mountaineering, etc. Komoot is a global app that covers a wide range of maps worldwide. You can create a route and download it as a GPX file here. You may also share it with others. Moreover, all these can be done without any cost.
Komoot can be termed as one of the best walking routes apps allows you. To use this app offline, you must buy it at $3.99 for each route. You may pay $29.99 for one time and use this app for all trips worldwide.
14. Walkmeter- Walking and Hiking App
Walkmeter tracks your basic information while hiking or doing other exercises. This app helps you to improve your speed and distance. Besides that, it can view and record your pace, distance, and speed while walking.
Walkmeter uses your phone’s GPS to record your distance and includes audio and voice navigation features. You can take challenges against yourself and improve your fitness. You can share your workout post via Facebook/Twitter. A feature also allows you to listen to your friend’s comments when you use this app.
Walkmeter can be considered an excellent fitness app and one of the best hiking apps for Android. For the premium features of Walkmeter, you must cost $9.99/ year. Sometimes The Specification of GPS does not work accurately if the device is not in the right place.
15. Star Walk 2
If you want to discover the mysteries of the sky while hiking, Star Walk 2 is the best app for you. You can enjoy the stars and planets and figure out how they move across the sky in a 3D model here.
The recent version of Star Walk 2 also offers a real-time sky map. Kids may also find it amusing! This app enables you to discover the sky at different wavelengths. You can easily journey amidst the stars, constellations, comets, and other celestial bodies through your device’s screen. But it gives only generic information about the brighter stars. Views of Andromeda Galaxy and other contents are now only available in an in-app purchase.
16. OS Maps
Ordnance Survey (OS) Maps is a popular app in Great Britain. It can help you find a lot of exciting routes according to your needs. It gives you instant access to 607 maps to view, print or download using OS Explorer and OS Landranger. You can take a printout of the map by customizing its scale, orientation, size, etc.
OS Maps also offers you 3D images of the viewpoints. You can get a huge opportunity to explore yourself amidst nature. However, OS Maps contains unique features like augmented reality and 3D walk flythroughs. These include the local hill names and landmarks too.
OS Maps has a web version that lets you view the map on a large screen. You can get the accessible version of this app from Google Play Store. The premium version will cost $2.99 for a month or $23.99 for a year.
17. MAPS.ME
Do you want to know about the best trail map apps on the Play Store? Then you can consider MAPS.ME. It is a well-known app for hiking. Since 2015, this app has secured a top position in the list of the best hiking apps. This app uses the open-source ‘OpenStreetMap data,’ which gives it a universal approach.
MAPS. I can provide you with a detailed map. Here you can use an offline version and search offline too! You can download offline maps and store them on your device.
You can use this app while backpacking, trail running, finding a new city, and driving. It helps you to find beautiful trails and makes you a perfect route plan. The speed of the navigation camera of this app is very much satisfactory. Costing no data, you can access the map on the spot.
MAPS. I provide you with accurate trail information whenever you want. You can share your location with your relatives. This app has many other features like- finding a hotel, booking an Uber, finding a new viewpoint or city, etc. You can also use public transportation and traffic overlapping features here by connecting your internet.
18. Guthooks Guide
Guthooks Guide is a beautiful app for hiking in the Pacific Crest Trails (PCT). Here you can find thousands of information about PCT, like- viewpoints, trails, and specific locations of any place you need to know with detailed descriptions and images. This app is published by ‘AtlasGuides.’ So, there’s no confusion about its accuracy. It provides you with an excellent guidebook that will undoubtedly justify the cost.
Githooks Guide has offline features too. It can provide you with offline maps and doesn’t need cell service. It has a GPS tracking system. Githooks Guide contains elevation profile features and an image of your waypoints.
19. Hiiker Hiking Apps for Android
If you want to navigate your hiking adventure, you can choose Hiiker as your hiking app. This app can give you access to over 2600 adventurous trails. It can help you discover trails nearby you and measure those distances. You can also suggest a location on the map that you think to be located there. You can plan longer trips with no tension about accommodation as
Hikker will help you manage it. The app has a climate analysis feature that gives regular weather updates. You can also get 8 different layers of maps here.
The Pro version of Hiiker provides you access to high-quality maps with no cell service. This app contains offline downloadable maps too. You can download GPX files for each trip and use them on your device. You may also print the maps. Trail planners of Hiiker will help you plan the best hiking trip.
20. ViewRanger
ViewRanger is a user-friendly app that converts your phone into a fully functioning GPS. This app requires cell service for the free version. But you purchase open-source web maps and governmental topographic maps to download and use without any cell service.
You can also plan and plot your routes on the map using ViewRanger. This app marks the track you have taken. You can easily read the maps with head-up and north-up view options.
You can mark any crucial places in ViewRanger and get the map in a 3D view. It is an excellent app for geo-searching. It has magnetic compass integration, which will make your navigation easier.
ViewRanger allows you to record all your trip documents, like- time, distance, graphical profiles, images, etc., in this app and share them. Using this app, you can also switch tour devices (i.e., cell phone to iPad). View Ranger drains the battery quickly. But the site has taken several steps to recover from this problem.
Conclusion
Hiking is one of the best exercises, which can take you close to nature. And it helps improve both your physical and mental health. A hiking app can help you find the best trail for your capacity and needs.
Using any hiking apps mentioned in this article, you can make your trip easier and hassle-free. The performances of these apps are pretty satisfactory from my point of view. So, I suggest you use hiking apps for Android to plan your hiking trips and make your tour more enjoyable!
