Craig Wareham Q&A
ViewRanger’s CEO addresses some of the comments and criticisms aimed at OutdoorActive by readers of The Great Outdoors
ViewRanger has a satellite map view, which isn’t available in OutdoorActive.
Actually, OutdoorActive offers the same satellite map layer as is available in ViewRanger, but it is a two-tap action to switch to that satellite layer. First, switch to OpenStreetMap or our own OutdoorActive outdoor map layer, then the satellite switch is shown. There’s no doubt that the UX [user experience] on this could be slicker – but the satellite data is available.
The Isle of Man 1:25,000 map isn’t available on OutdoorActive.
For the Isle of Man, 50k OS GB map coverage is part of the Pro subscription. The 25k leisure map that was available in ViewRanger is old, and actually not that popular, so it hasn’t been a priority to bring that across into the OutdoorActive Pro subscription.
Unlike OutdoorActive, ViewRanger allows a continuous scrolling display of coordinates as you move around the map, as well as entry of coordinates in search.
The engineering team is working on adding GB National Grid and other coordinate displays (the OutdoorActive app currently offers several including what3words).
This is due to be delivered around the end of June I think.
It is not clear if any of the settings used to tune GPS usage and battery drain are in OutdoorActive.
This is more complicated to answer – but in short, whilst the plethora of settings that a user could manipulate in ViewRanger are not in the OutdoorActive app (we found that very few users were actually changing these) the OutdoorActive app aims to be intelligent about minimising its battery use based on what the user is doing. So it’s doing much the same thing, but without the need for the user to explicitly control it. Right now, the battery usage of the OutdoorActive app is a little higher than ViewRanger under ‘average’ usage, but that is because it is doing more. But, under ‘average’ usage – using maps, navigating routes, etc – the app still gives a full day of battery usage. However, this is something the engineers are constantly reviewing, refining and improving – so it should only get better and better.
There is no clear way to import a file of unconnected points of interest (POIs) into the OutdoorActive phone app as there is on ViewRanger. All POIs on ViewRanger have different symbols applied to them indicating type, which have not been migrated to OutdoorActive.
Any POIs that exist or are added to the user’s account within ViewRanger will be automatically pulled across into that user’s account in OutdoorActive. So, whilst the GPX import capabilities of OutdoorActive are a little limited at the moment (though the web interface for creating content in
OutdoorActive is much better than the ViewRanger web interface was), it is still possible to bring new files of POI into ViewRanger and they’ll appear in your OutdoorActive app. Sorting was added recently (we heard the feedback): use the filter button at the top of the list of POI and scroll down that filter panel.
It’s unclear which ViewRanger functions are eventually going to be part of OutdoorActive and when they might be moved over.
There is a plan that we are working through. I can’t guarantee that every feature and setting is going to be moved across from ViewRanger to OutdoorActive, but I think all of the features that are popular, used regularly and are crucial to the outdoor experience will be moved across. We’re trying to listen to the community on this as we go.
There has been a lack of engagement with user concerns, particularly those expressed via social media.
This is a fair criticism – social media is an area where neither country has much of a history of engagement – but we are regularly sending email communications out and we’re trying to respond to the emails coming in. I would encourage everybody to provide feedback to our support desk. We’re responding to feedback and, where we’re not quite getting it right first time, we are trying to listen to the community.