We want everyone to experience great adventures, and our maps help you do just that. That’s why we’re upgrading komoot maps from the great route planning tool you already know to a high-definition feature that’s even more user-friendly and detailed.
Our super-charged maps benefit every type of adventurer, whether your goal is to bag peaks or find the best cake on your Tour.
What do high definition maps mean for you?
HD maps open up opportunities for the komoot community (that’s you) to plan adventures more easily, and to enjoy the process of planning as much as the adventure itself.
Here are some benefits of planning your routes with HD maps:
- Crisp images with more detail enabling you to plan and visualize your route more easily
- Smoother zoom and consistently high-quality display as you pan across areas of a map
- Next-level zoom abilities which allow you to zoom in even closer
- Downloaded map files up to six times smaller use less space on your phone
Why are HD maps better for adventure-planning?
Non-HD maps do their job just fine, but you might’ve noticed a few small limitations. They take up lots of space when downloaded onto a phone, details like place names (such as tiny towns), or detailed terrain-type aren’t always clearly visible, and maps can be slow to adjust as you zoom in or pan across large areas.
The technical stuff – what is an HD map anyway?
The underlying difference between other maps and the HD komoot versions is file type. In short, the current maps are raster files, the new versions are vector files.
Raster vs Vector files
Raster files save the map as a collection of images. As you zoom in or pan across, each image is reloaded. This is why certain place names or minute trail details are sometimes missed on raster maps. In order to update a tiny detail, a whole new file needs to be generated.
When it comes to vector files, maps are saved as a collection of data points. That means that more information can be stored as the map only loads the data that you need. It also means that in order to add details, instead of creating a whole new image file, we can just update one or two relevant data points on the map.
When you zoom in, the map adjusts faster. This opens up a world of possibilities when adding detail to maps. Whether ensuring you take the right fork in the trail, or stick to the routes with the least climbs, HD maps help you plan your Tours more accurately.
Want to get HD maps?
High definition komoot maps are the new normal at komoot, paving the way for consistent improvements on our platform. Whether you’re using komoot on an Android or iOS device, or on komoot.com on your desktop, all you need to do is ensure you’ve updated komoot to the latest version. If you have maps saved offline, the app will prompt you to migrate your offline maps to HD versions.
We want you to experience more outside and we hope that high definition maps, and the exciting changes to come in future, help you do just that.
Head to the komoot route planner now to see the brand new HD maps in action.
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