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The best hiking apps for Android
Walking through the wilderness is a lot of fun. You get some fresh air, exercise, and some time away from things like the internet. Technology can’t really help all that much out there, but there are some apps that you can take along that might prove useful. Many of them are even usable offline in case you’re going way out into the middle of nowhere. These are also mostly good for camping, although we do have a separate list of camping apps if you need it. Here are the best hiking apps for Android.
The best hiking apps for Android
1Weather
Price: Free / $1.99
1Weather is helpful for planning hikes. It has all of the usual weather features: a weather widget, forecasts, current weather, a weather radar, and a 12-week forecast. That can be very helpful for planning excursions further into the future. All of the features are available for free. The $1.99 fee just removes ads. It’s not what you’d typically think of when it comes to hiking apps. However, many people don’t enjoy hiking in inclement weather. Or maybe you want to plan a trip during inclement weather. Whatever floats your boat. We also recommend MyRadar for its excellent radar capabilities if you need something better than 1Weather’s radar.
AllTrails
Price: Free / $29.99 annually / $59.99 for three years
Alltrails is a great app for discovering new trails around you or in an area you’re visiting. It includes trails for hiking, running, cycling, and even includes backpacking details, too. The app claims to have more than 100,000 trails available, with GPS support, topographical details, and the ability to download maps for offline viewing. Users can also record their route to ensure they don’t get lost or for later viewing. These details are supported by the ability to view stats, too.
BackCountry Navigator
Price: Free / $11.99 with in-app purchases
BackCountry Nav is one of the best hiking apps. It features a selection of offline topographical maps, which you can use to brave the great outdoors. It sources its maps from a variety of places, including USGS color aerial photography, OpenStreetMaps, NASA Landsat data, and more. It supports various countries, including the US, Spain, Italy, Germany, Austria, New Zealand, and others. You’ll want to try the free version before you buy anything. This one is rather expensive.
Compass (No Ads)
Price: Free
Compass is kind of a no-brainer when it comes to hiking apps. It would be best if you always had a compass on you. This app does the trick. It’s a simple app because it really is just a compass. It’ll show you the direction visually. There is also a degrees measurement for more precise navigation. That’s about all this app has to it. There are no ads and, thus, no internet connections. There is a premium version as a single in-app purchase for $3.49. It’s also easy to calibrate. This one is about as simple and as good as it gets.
Earthmate
Price: Free
Earthmate is an essential app if you own a Garmin inReach satellite communication device. For those in remote parts of the world, the app allows users to send and receive messages via the Iridium satellite network, and navigate using topographical maps and aerial imagery. The app also has light route planning features that plug into Garmin’s Explore platform.
See also: The best compass apps for Android
Icon Torch
Price: Free
Most smartphones come with a flashlight function already. However, some still don’t, and Icon Torch fixes that problem. It has no settings, no UI, and no ads. You tap the icon to turn the light on and then tap it again to turn it off. That’s it. It fits easily on your home screen or launcher dock. Additionally, the app is entirely free with no in-app purchases. That’s really about it. It’s simple, it works, and it gets your light on when you’re hiking in the dark.
Komoot
Price: Free / $3.99 / $8.99 / $34.20
Komoot is a planning app. It’s for hikers, bikers, and other outdoorsy types. You can check out trails and plan your route through them. It even features turn-by-turn voice instructions. There are offline maps that you can download as well. The app itself is fairly easy to use. You can get your first region for offline use for free just for downloading the app. You can also get additional regions for $3.99, or pay $8.99 for a region bundle. You can also purchase everything for about $34.20. It’s one of the few hiking apps that plan routes and don’t come with a subscription.
Knots 3D
Price: $4.99
Knots 3D is an app for tying all kinds of knots. You never know what you’ll need to tie and when, right? This one has a variety of knots that you can learn to tie. Additionally, it includes 3D video tutorials for tying those knots. You can watch them, rotate the video to see better, and more. The app also comes with a seven-day return policy. That’s a bit longer than Google’s. There are a bunch of knot tying apps out there, but we liked this one for its video tutorials. It’s one of the more useful hiking apps you can take with you.
Hiking Project
Price: Free
Like AllTrails, Hiking Project is a planning app at its heart that focuses on nearby routes. These routes includes complete GPS info alongside photographs, descriptions of places of interest, and the ability to report the condition of a trail. The app reportedly boasts “over 74,000 miles” of trails. For a free app, that’s a remarkable stat.
Mountain Project
Price: Free
Mountain Project is effectively Hiking Project’s sibling app. However, this app is largely geared towards those seeking out climbing routes. The app lets users sort through routes by discipline, user ranking, difficulty, and other facets. There are more than 155,000 routes available, according to the developers, covering several countries and regions across the world. Users can also download these routes and tote them along — especially useful if you’re heading deep into the wilderness.
National Parks Service
Price: Free
The newly-launched National Parks Service app is one piece of software that all adventurous US natives should own. It lets users search for parks, explore attractions within those parks, includes a host of hiking trails with official info for each, and a nifty audio tour guide feature. It’s by no means as complete a hiking app as others on this list, but it’s an extremely useful starting point. Plus, it’s free.
Water Drink Reminder
Price: Free / $1.99
Water Drink Reminder is an app that tells you to drink water. Realistically, any reminder app can work. It can be Google Assistant or your favorite to-do list app. However, this one is for water drinking especially. We can’t imagine what other reminders you’d need while hiking. This app graphs how much water you drink. Additionally, you get alarms periodically reminding you to drink more. It’ll sync data with Google Fit and Samsung Health as well. It’s all totally free to use with advertising. The $1.99 removes the ads. Staying hydrated is important, and that makes this one of the better hiking apps.
See also: The best water reminder apps for Android
Offline Survival Manual
Price: Free
Offline Survival Manual is exactly what the title infers. It’s a manual for surviving while lost in the wilderness. However, should that unfortunate event occur, this app is actually amazing. It provides lots of information on basic things like tying knots, building a fire, and avoiding poisonous plants. It also has deeper things like psychology tips for stress, procuring food, and surviving various environments and weather conditions. It’s free with no ads or in-app purchases. The app is also open source. It’s definitely one of the must-have hiking apps, just in case.
See also: The best Android survival games
Runkeeper
Price: Free / $9.99 per month / $39.99 per year
Runkeeper is generally for fitness. However, it can also be one of the more useful hiking apps. One of its many features is the ability to track how far you’ve gone. You can use this to track your hikes. After all, hiking is excellent exercise. You can also set goals and see your progress. The free version of the app covers the features we’ve talked about. You can also get a subscription that includes more features like weather insights, workout plans, and other stuff. Either way, it’s good to have along.
See also: The best running apps for Android
WikiCamps USA
Price: Free / $1.99
WikiCamps is a directory for campgrounds and RV parks. A lot of hikers like to have a camp nearby. This app can help you find ones in your area. You can then set up camp and go hiking all day long. Each app in the WikiCamps lineup is for a different region. There are currently apps for the US, Canada, UK, New Zealand, and Australia. It’ll even show you if it has RV hookups for sewage, water, electricity, etc. These are good for planning your next outdoor adventure, though they’re practically useless while actually hiking. Good luck!
That’s it for our list of the best hiking apps. Below are some related articles you might want to check out. You can also click here to check out our latest Android app and game lists.