Completely rebuilt in 7.0: a new look, saved places, a far more interactive watch map, and navigation you can start straight from your iPhone.
Find your way with a glance at your wrist. Plan a route on your iPhone, then follow it on Apple Watch: spoken turn-by-turn directions over topographic maps. Record the outing while you are at it. The watch runs on its own, so the phone can stay home, and downloaded maps cover you where there is no signal.
FOR EVERY ACTIVITY
WristTopo is built for hiking, running, gravel and mountain biking, skiing, and paddling: 30 activity types across foot, bike, snow, and water. It adapts to however you move.
TURN-BY-TURN NAVIGATION
Stay on course with spoken guidance and turn alerts on your wrist. See the next turn and how far to it, and hear the direction called out. It works with routes you plan in WristTopo and with GPX files you import.
ROUTE PLANNER
Tap the map to drop waypoints and the route snaps to real trails, with distance and total climb updating as you add them. Close it into a loop, extend it into an out-and-back, or reverse it in a tap. Five routing modes cover running, hiking, biking, mountain biking, and straight lines for when there is no path at all. When the route is ready, one tap starts navigation on the watch without saving it first.
RECORD YOUR WORKOUTS
Start a workout from your wrist and follow distance, pace, elevation, and heart rate. The screens are fully yours: choose which metrics appear, how they are grouped, and in what order, with a separate layout for every activity. Everything saves to Apple Health, and finished workouts can go straight to Strava. If you would rather record in Apple's Workout app, run it alongside WristTopo. Recording and navigation stay independent.
QUICK ROUTE ON YOUR WATCH
Set a point on the watch map and Quick Route builds a path to it from where you stand. Useful when you spot a viewpoint on the far ridge and would rather not dig the iPhone out of your pack.
SAVED PLACES
Mark the trailhead parking, a water source, a shelter, a campsite. Save them on the iPhone while you plan, or drop one from your wrist the moment you stand there. Places sync both ways, carry their own symbols on the map, and one tap routes you to any of them.
BACKTRACK TO YOUR START
One tap while recording turns the track you have already covered into a route home, with turn-by-turn guidance all the way to the start.
OFFLINE MAPS
Download summer, winter, or satellite maps straight to the watch. Take a whole region for general use, or grab just the area along a route in one tap. The maps show contour lines, shaded relief, and marked ski trails, and they pan and zoom smoothly on the watch.
IMPORT YOUR OWN ROUTES
Import a GPX file on the iPhone and it reaches the watch in seconds. Generate turn-by-turn directions for any imported route and follow them by voice on Apple Watch. Toggle routes with a tap, show several at once, and read the gradient at a glance: orange for climbs, blue for descents, with arrows for direction.
ICLOUD BACKUP
Routes, places, and downloaded map regions sync across your devices through iCloud, and they survive a reinstall or a new iPhone.
PRIVATE BY DESIGN
No account to create, no ads, and no tracking. Your routes and recordings stay on your device and sync only to your own iCloud.
FREE TO START
The free version covers shorter days out:
• Up to 3 saved routes
• Up to 20 saved places
• 3 small offline map regions
• Plan with up to 5 route points
• Follow routes on your Apple Watch
UNLOCK PRO
Pro adds:
• Unlimited routes and places, larger offline regions
• Voice-guided turn-by-turn navigation
• Workout recording with Apple Health sync
• Quick Route planning on your Apple Watch
• GPX export and Strava sync
• Support independent app development
Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Privacy Policy: https://wristtopo.app/privacy
I have been looking for years for outdoor navigation on a watch that best suits my use case. As a hiker and mountain biker, but not a serious athlete in training, I have used Garmin watches and various apps on an Apple Watch. Having used this app for several months now, I think WristTopo is as close to perfect for me as any device or app I have found. And it keeps getting better! It rivals Garmin routing and navigation. Routes can be created in-app but if creating a route using other applications such as QGIS, OSMAnd, or other mobile apps then GPX imports are a breeze. WristTopo base maps are sourced from OpenStreetMap and updated more frequently than Garmin. Edits I make to trails in OSM appear much sooner in WristTopo than they do in Garmin apps. The developer is super responsive to inquires and issue reporting. Support this excellent independent developer and make a purchase now!
Need maps? Simple wrist maps without the Garmin price point
dwhitend93
Only 6 ratings?? This deserves way more attention. This is quietly living as one of the best hiking tools on the App Store. Anything else has more features than I actually need. I just need an easy reference map on my wrist that can help me check routes and plan new ones without being cumbersome and battery draining… somehow, this didn’t exist until this app! Thank you for making this. This turns my Apple Watch into a gps mapping machine, and kept me from spending excessive cash just to get a Garmin watch for maps. It fits perfectly in that “low battery use, long day hike” space that I needed it for.
Developer Response
Wow, thank you for the awesome review! 🙌 I’m really glad to hear the app’s working well for your hikes - that’s exactly what I built it for: clean, reliable, and battery-friendly mapping right on your wrist. If you think other hikers might enjoy it too, feel free to share it around. Thanks again for the support, and happy trails! ⛰️
Smooth route creation and topo map solution for the Apple Watch!
TrailWalker77
Really impressed by how fluid and straightforward the route creation and map browsing is with this app. I’ve found that the other topo map apps for the Apple Watch can be quite cumbersome (and expensive). Route navigation works very well on the watch once you’ve started your workout. Perfect for those that want to use the Apple Workout app but still want to follow a detailed route at the same time with turn by turn directions. Developer is super friendly and responsive as well! Looking forward to enjoying this app along with seeing where this app goes.
Developer Response
Thanks so much for the kind words! I’m really glad route creation and navigation have been working smoothly for you. Appreciate the support — and excited to keep improving the app!
Best offline maps app! Beats the most popular offline map apps imo
gggamer247
I’m ngl I expected this app to not work but this app has been better for offline maps for any use than Gaia maps or a lot of other apps. 10/10 app and I am now paying for the highest tier just to support this dev because this is a beautifully designed app. I love the simple ui and reliable functionality, it’s a shame this dev and app is not more popular than it is at the time of writing this review. Keep up the good work!!
Developer Response
As an indie dev, support like this means more than I can say. I’m really glad the UI and reliability are hitting the mark for you. If you ever get a natural chance to mention the app to fellow map nerds or outdoor friends, that kind of word of mouth helps a ton.Thanks again for the support!
• The Biggest Redesign Yet — The iPhone and Apple Watch apps are built around the map now. Lists are now cards you swipe to act on, and every route, place, and offline map opens full screen. You can even search for an area while picking one to download.
• Places — Save the spots worth remembering: where you parked, a water source, the hut you're heading for. Each one gets a symbol and a color, shows up as a pin on both maps, and you can route to it.
• Tap the Watch Map — Tap anywhere on the map to see what's there: how far, how much higher, what it's called. Route to it or save it without leaving the screen.
• Routes on the Map — The Map tab now draws your routes on iPhone, the way your Apple Watch always has, each in its own color. Show on Map covers both devices now, and the map settings let you hide them all at once.
New in 7.0.2:
• More paths on the map — bridle paths, plus the cycle paths that were missing.
• Further improvements to how elevation gain is calculated for your recordings.
• Starred routes now show a star on their start marker.
• Other fixes and improvements.
I've been working on this one for a long time, and a lot of it came straight from your feedback. I hope you like it.
Version 7.0.2
The developer, Piotr Janik, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .
Data Not Linked to You
The following data may be collected but it is not linked to your identity:
Purchases
Location
Usage Data
Diagnostics
Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age. Learn More
The developer indicated that this app supports the following accessibility features. Learn More