News Viewranger

The merger between popular navigation app ViewRanger and the OutdoorActive platform has left some users experiencing problems. Hanna Lindon investigates the issues

VIEWRANGER, the go-to navigation app for many hillwalkers, announced plans to merge with the Germany-based OutdoorActive platform in May 2020. Some users have since reported difficulties in transitioning to the new app, with criticisms including the loss of purchased map tiles, a cluttered user interface and a lack of clarity over which features will ultimately be available on the OutdoorActive app.

“The problem I have is that OutdoorActive does not have many of the crucial features that ViewRanger has,” says John Collister, who has used ViewRanger for many years in Scotland and western Europe. “OutdoorActive has failed to engage with existing ViewRanger users, failed to describe strategy and direction, and failed to describe a roadmap, if there is one, for what ViewRanger functionality will eventually be included in OutdoorActive. This has left many ViewRanger users uncertain about how long they can continue to use and update their maps in ViewRanger and unclear if OutdoorActive even aspires to building the functionality that is in ViewRanger.”

Timeline of a merger

ViewRanger officially merged with OutdoorActive in 2019. According to

Craig Wareham, ViewRanger’s CEO, the motivation was to combine OutdoorActive’s B2B capabilities and ViewRanger’s community platform, connecting tourism organisations with consumers.

ViewRanger is currently still operational. Existing users can choose to continue using the original app until their subscription expires or to move over to OutdoorActive – but ViewRanger subscriptions aren’t being renewed and there are long-term plans to make the ViewRanger app redundant.

“The goal is to move the ViewRanger capabilities, the ViewRanger content, into the OutdoorActive platform,” says Craig. “We are working hard to move the features across and a lot of the big-name features – such as the augmented reality and the Buddy Beacon location sharing – have already been moved and improved in the process. We can’t get everything across instantly and there are some things that are still being worked on, for instance coordinates. At some point – we don’t know when yet – it is very likely the ViewRanger app will stop. But we’re not going to just switch it off at a random date.”

Cause for concern?

Many ViewRanger users have been left concerned by the implications of the transition – particularly those who had purchased ‘lifetime’ map tiles, which can’t be transferred to the new app.

“As far as I know, you lose access to purchased map tiles,” says The Great Outdoors writer Alex Roddie. “You can still access any subscriptions, but not tiles that you have individually purchased.

I think this is extremely poor for longterm ViewRanger customers who never bought into their newer subscription business model, but who may have invested hundreds of pounds in maps over the years.”

According to Craig, it’s true that the OutdoorActive subscription model doesn’t allow the purchase of one-off maps and historical ViewRanger map purchases won’t be migrated to the new app. The plan is to compensate these customers by giving them a “significant discount” on an OutdoorActive Pro Plus subscription, which includes OS and Harvey maps as well as Swisstopo, IGN and other national mapping agency content.

To switch, or not to switch?

Despite the new offerings in terms of map content and features, there is still some doubt about whether OutdoorActive can currently support high-end users’ needs.

“I used ViewRanger for many years and found it the perfect outdoor navigation tool, with all my plotted routes, recorded tracks & POIs in one place,” says Andy Beavers. “After my subscription expired I switched to OutdoorActive, but I find it too cluttered and over-complicated to use.”

Some users have also questioned the reliability of the new app. “The app itself is slow and crashy,” says Alex. “It takes a lot longer to start up than ViewRanger and often glitches out in use. Plus it can’t cope with even moderately complex imported GPS files – the app simply crashes.”

Craig acknowledges that there have been some teething problems with OutdoorActive – particularly for Android users. “Some of our Android users have experienced less robustness and reliability,” he says. “It’s something else we’re driving forward within OutdoorActive.”

Not all feedback has been negative. One Twitter user said: “Been a @viewranger user for a number of years, but have moved over to @_outdooractive_ now. It’s pretty similar but somehow cleaner to read. I’m loving it.”

A work in progress

Clearly OutdoorActive is an app in progress. The plan, says Craig, is to continue moving key functions across from ViewRanger and to iron out any glitches, so the new app can offer the same performance as ViewRanger.

“I know people had what they thought was a perfectly good app and they’re suddenly being told they’ve got to use this new one,” he says. “That’s never a good situation to put people in, but hopefully we can demonstrate to them that with OutdoorActive we’ll be building a platform that actually is a lot better than ViewRanger. We’re not going to get there instantly. For some users we are, but for the high-end users it’s going to take longer to get to that point. Just give us a bit of time.”

Look out for an updated comparative review of the latest hiking mapping apps, including OutdoorActive, on the TGO website soon.