Navigation and GPS

How does automatic rerouting work?

Short answer

When you move far enough from the route for long enough that it is not GPS drift, Walkable plans a new route from your current position towards the same goal. In a prepared offline area this happens on the phone with no connection.

Updated · 3 min read

The off-route notice: “You seem off the route — you're about 75 m from your route”, the line recalculated offline, and a Reroute button that waits for you to press it.
The off-route notice: “You seem off the route — you're about 75 m from your route”, the line recalculated offline, and a Reroute button that waits for you to press it.

Why it waits a moment

GPS wobbles. If Walkable rerouted every time the position estimate wandered a few metres, it would produce a new route every twenty seconds in a city street and be useless.

So it waits until the evidence is unambiguous — a real distance from the line, sustained rather than momentary — before recalculating.

What it aims for

The same intent you started with. On a route to a destination it finds a new way there. On a loop it works out a way to complete a walk of roughly the length you asked for and bring you back.

Offline

In an area with a prepared offline map, rerouting is calculated on the phone, so it works with no signal at all. Without map data for the area, a reroute needs a connection.

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