InstaMapper, GPS, tracking, cycling, app

The closure of Instamapper in December will leave a gap for cyclists who rely on live GPS tracking. The service, which lets users transmit location beacons and follow their progress in real time, has been a fixture on many rides and is often the first tool reached for when a route needs recording. It also feeds data into Social Hiking, a platform that pulls GPS information from third-party services so that routes and tracks can be displayed alongside tweets, images and other media captured along the way.

Why it worked

Two things made Instamapper hard to replace. The first was reliability. The second was battery life: its GPS Tracker app for Android appeared to draw less power than comparable apps. That impression was never tested rigorously, but it felt noticeably less hungry than the alternatives.

Many users, including this one, would happily have paid for a service that had always been free. Moving to a paid model was apparently not viable, because charging would bring its own costs in the form of map fees and greater demand on support.

The options for tracking a ride

For anyone who wants trips to appear on Social Hiking, the practical fallback is Viewranger, the other Android GPS tracking app the platform supports. It is a likeable app, but an earlier version had a habit of quitting unexpectedly mid-ride. On a bike, a silent shutdown can go unnoticed for miles, which defeats the purpose of sharing a route live. Reliability has to be absolute. The newer version may well have solved the problem, and it is worth trying again.

Other candidates include Endomondo, Strava and RunKeeper. Endomondo is a strong app, but it cannot share GPS data live with Social Hiking. Data can be exported and shared afterwards, and live is the whole point.

More Android tracking apps will be tested in the coming months, with findings to follow. Suggestions from readers are welcome.