Start Screen
You see the start screen when you start the app. It has one button for each part of the app.
Some of the buttons are related to data that GPS Essentials stores in its database. GPS Essentials handles waypoints, routes, tracks, pictures, messages and tags. Each of these data types has a button so that you can see the elements, add new and delete existing ones. If you want to know more about these element types, refer to the appropriate chapter below.
The other buttons are related to concepts that deal with more than one element type at a time or that do not store data.
| Button | What it does |
|---|---|
| Dashboard | Shows navigation values in widgets that you can configure. |
| Camera | Shows the camera picture with orientation and target information. You can take pictures here. With Labs on, it opens the camera with the map and your data in the picture. |
| Compass | Shows north and the direction to your target. |
| Portable Maps | Shows your location, waypoints, tracks and routes on a map. With Labs on, it opens the new map. |
| Google Maps | Shows your location and waypoints on Google Maps. |
| Waypoints | Opens the Waypoints stream, where waypoints go when you create them without choosing a stream. |
| Routes | Lists all routes. |
| Tracks | Lists all tracks. |
| Streams | Lists all streams. |
| Satellites | Shows the satellites in the sky above you and the state of your GPS fix. |
| Pictures | Shows the pictures taken with the camera in GPS Essentials. |
| Messages | Opens the inbox. A number on the button shows how many messages are unread. |
| Tags | Lists your tags and the elements that have them. |
| Settings | Changes units, formats and other settings. |
| PRO | Lets you buy GPS Essentials PRO on Google Play. It removes the ads. |
We’ll run through the features that are behind every button in the course of this document.
If GPS is disabled on your device, you will notice a banner warning. Tap it to get directly to the system settings page to enable GPS.
Navigation Drawer
To open the navigation drawer, tap the menu button at the top left, or swipe in from the left edge of the screen. It lets you switch between screens without going back to the start screen.
- Streams: All Streams, All Tracks, All Routes, All Maps and Starred Streams open the stream list with that filter.
- Dashboards: Standard, Portable Maps, Google Maps and Compass.
- Below them: Camera, Satellites, Messages, Tags and Settings. Help opens the help for the screen you are on.
- The record button in the side bar starts recording a track. When you are looking at a stream, it records into that stream, otherwise into a new track. While a track is recording, it turns into a stop button.
- The camera button in the side bar opens the camera.
At the bottom of the drawer you find the Privacy Policy and the Terms of Service.
Activities
GPS Essentials, as most other Android apps, separates its workflow into activities. Every activity has its own user interface screen. You start an activity by pressing a button or selecting a command from a menu. When you are done, the activity will finish and your previous activity will appear again. Use Android's back gesture or button to finish an activity at any time.
Think of the activities as a stack of cards: Every time you open a new activity, it will be pushed onto the top of the stack and you can work with it. When you are finished, the activity will be popped from the stack and you see the activity below it.
Going back ends the current activity and brings you back to the previous one. The arrow in the top-left corner of the screen opens the parent activity and navigates “up” in the hierarchy of activities. For example, if you are in some waypoint details, the parent will be the list that contains the waypoint. The parent activity is not always the activity where you came from.