integrations

Nobody has yet invented the single app that handles every need of an active outdoor enthusiast really well — which is why Trailmap concentrates on doing a few chosen things (the map and route planning, among others) better than anyone else, and works together with other leading apps and devices for everything else.

Trailmap can be connected to many different apps, so that users' needs get covered by apps working together. With the most important apps, the aim has been to make this teamwork as seamless as possible. This article goes through a few popular ways to connect Trailmap to other apps.

Garmin devices for navigation

Garmin's sports watches and bike computers are probably the most popular on the market — in bike computers especially, their position is very strong. For many people Garmin's most important features are recording rides, including distance, time, average speed and so on during the ride, and navigating routes.

Trailmap supports using Garmin for navigation in two ways:

• You can load a simplified version of Trailmap's map onto a Garmin
• Trailmap's routes and tracks can be sent to a Garmin to navigate

Sending routes and tracks to newer Garmin devices is very fast and easy: no more copying GPX files and messing about with cables. All you need to do is mark the route for syncing in Trailmap, or send it to the Garmin with a button, and the Garmin device fetches the new route from the cloud. I've often done this at the very last minute, a minute before heading out.

You can read more about how Trailmap works with Garmin in this guide, which also explains how to set up your Garmin so that navigation runs as smoothly as possible.

The red star button on the route card shown in the picture controls syncing with Garmin; all changes to the route are passed on to the Garmin automatically

Strava as an archive of your rides

Over the years Strava has become one of the world's most popular — if not the most popular — global sports apps and social media for exercise. It handles recording rides, analysis, archiving, sharing, and following other people's rides. Strava works excellently with Trailmap, the two apps complementing each other.

You can open Strava activities on the Trailmap map, where a proper map makes it easier to see where your rides went, and you can use them both for navigation and as a basis for planning new routes. You can also add Strava's heatmaps, in various forms, as an overlay on Trailmap's base map.

You can read more about Strava and using it with Trailmap here.

Transferring tracks as GPX and KML / KMZ files

Trailmap's routes and tracks can be transferred to other apps by saving them as GPX files. This lets you move routes to Suunto, Wahoo, Hammerhead Karoo, Polar and other devices, or to other apps, for navigation.

On the Trailmap map, in turn, you can open tracks imported from other apps as GPX / KML / KMZ files.

Tile hunting (Veloviewer, Statshunters)

The new Trailmap also supports the KML & KMZ formats, which lets you import data (use the "export" function in these apps) from Veloviewer, Statshunters and Wandrer — apps favoured by "tile hunters" — onto the Trailmap map, as a basis for route planning and an aid to navigation.

With traditional tile hunting you can also bring in your tiles as a dynamic overlay, using the vv.fork.pl service and Trailmap's "my maps" feature. Note: this requires a PLUS subscription! Do the following:

First, at https://vv.fork.pl/, create your own tile hunting map. Its tile server address will be of the form https://vv.fork.pl/*your personal id number*/{z}/{x}/{y}.png.

Then in Trailmap (web version) you do the following:

• Go to the "my maps" page
• At the end of the list, choose "create my own map"
• Fill in the form that opens as follows: come up with a name for your map layer, and give the tile server URL as https://cors-proxy.trailmap.fi/vv.fork.pl/*your personal id number*/{z}/{x}/{y}.png — i.e. you tweak slightly what you got from that site. Also tick the "overlay" box —> Save
• On the "my maps" page, select the new map you created and tick the second box from the left to get it showing in your overlay list
• Open the normal map view (home screen), choose map settings -> overlays -> your new map layer

OpenStreetMap mapping

OSM data is largely based on the activity of volunteer mappers. There are thousands of these mappers in Finland alone, and hundreds who focus on mapping trails. Trailmap was born out of the trail mapping community and has always supported mapping with various features.

In the Trailmap user settings (web version) you can switch on the "OSM mapper" setting. With that, the main menu gains a "mapping" option under "maps" — that takes you, on a computer or tablet, to the mapping page, which offers the following features to support mapping:

• Clicking the map with the mouse shows you the details of ways from OSM, in real time from Trailmap's Overpass server. Double-clicking opens the way's edit history view.
• The search features in the left sidebar let you switch on various filters that show which attributes relevant to mapping are missing from ways
• The "Open iD editor" button opens the OSM iD editor at the same spot as the Trailmap map, and if you have just one track open in Trailmap, that gets opened on the iD editor's map too — for example, after a ride, when you open your latest activity with the Strava feature, it's handy to quickly make OSM edits while the ride is still fresh in your mind.

You'll find more guidance and tips on OSM mapping here.