Take these maps with you

Planning a trip soon? (I hope so!) Brian X. Chen, the personal technology columnist at The New York Times, talks us through the process of downloading maps on our phones for those moments when we might not have an internet connection.

With spring break — and vaccines! — upon us, many of you are probably planning road trips. Add this task to your to-do list: Download offline maps for your destination.

With offline maps, you store mapping data for your chosen destination on your smartphone. If you drive somewhere with poor cell reception, your maps app will still be able show you directions. This may come in handy if you visit a national park with very spotty reception, for example, and need to find your hotel or the entrance to a hiking spot.

Here’s how to download offline maps with Google Maps on iPhones and Android devices:

*Open the Google Maps app. Search for the place you’re planning to go. I’ll use Yosemite National Park as my example.

*At the bottom of the screen, tap on Yosemite National Park. Then tap the More button. That’s the icon of three dots in the upper right hand corner.

*Choose the option to “Download offline map.” Pinch your fingers together or apart to zoom in and out and select the map area that you want to save. Tap Download.
The New York Times