Pointz: Plan Safer on Bikes 4+

As an alternative to Google Maps for bicycle navigation, Pointz is wonderful. I’m very impressed with the routing algorithm, and I’m sure it can only get better. If you cycle only for commuting or recreation, then this is probably your best choice.

For cyclists who even care a little bit about things like statistics, speed, etc. though, it falls a little short. There is a limited route history section, but that’s about it. No detailed information, no recording of routes, no sharing location with others, etc.

I don’t think it needs to reinvent the wheel or be the new RideWithGPS, Komoot, or Strava, but at least some more powerful recording features would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your kind words! Let us know your thoughts on the 'Record' feature, which lets you track your ride without a route. We're also excited to release location sharing and a few more features in the near future.

This app is amazing for cyclists that worry about getting pancaked by distracted drivers. No other apps come close to letting you not only adjust how safe you want your route to be, but also allow you to adjust said route manually.

My only gripe is sometimes the app will launch on its own. You know how when you’re navigating somewhere, iOS will give you a blue bubble over your clock in your status bar indicating you’re on route via gps? Pointz does that even if you have forced the app closed. It does this even if you aren’t on your bike. It’s a little creepy. I only want to use this app if I have deliberately opened it. I emailed the developer about it a week ago and still haven’t heard anything.

My quick fix, even though it isn't ideal, is to uninstall the app when I’m not using it.

Thank you for sharing your experience, and thank you for writing in! We're thrilled to hear that you find Pointz's safety options helpful, and apologies for the app's unexpected launching in the background. We've removed this in the latest update that will go out soon (3.0.0). For now, you can go to 'Location permissions' from the Settings app and change Pointz's location permissions to only when using app. Also, if that doesn't work, please email me at trisha@bikepointz.com

I love the idea of this app so much and have used it a few times, however I needed to use some workaround for selecting my destination.

I’m not sure what underlying library or API the team uses for getting map data, but it seems like certain destinations just don’t exist that you’d normally find in most map applications like Google Maps. For example if I wanted to visit a friend at 12 Example St in Townsville, I may need to choose 50 Example St as the other option just doesn’t appear.

Hi ABR757,

Awesome insights, and glad the app is helpful! You are right that sometimes certain destinations do not exist -- we are currently fixing that up for our next update in a few weeks so be sure to check that out in the future update notes :)