GroupTrack — User Manual

GroupTrack is a trail app for off-road riders — side-by-side, UTV, ATV, dirt bike and Jeep — and it is complete as installed. It is two products in one: a complete personal navigation product that lets you share rides and maps with other GroupTrack users, and a true situational awareness product for your group on the trail.

On your own, it does the whole job. The trails and the maps live on your device, so it keeps working where there is no signal — which is most of where you ride. Plan a route by dropping pins that snap to the trails, or let the planner build several for you to compare; mark waypoints; download the maps along the route; record where you went. (The Ride Planning Map · Letting the planner build it · The Ride Map)

New: ★ Create a Ride. One ride holds the route, the trailhead, the date and time, the maps to download and the mesh radio configuration. Send it in one click; your friends open it in one click — and ride anywhere off grid in total confidence. Friends, organizers and clubs plan for each other and all ride from the same page. (The Ride · Sending a ride, and getting one)

Your identity. Your rider profile — your callsign and your email — is who you are in GroupTrack: your callsign on the map and in every ride you send, your email where rides reach you. It is private: it stays on your tablet and goes only to the riders you ride with. (Your rider profile)

Add a radio to experience full group awareness while riding

Add a Meshtastic radio — any Meshtastic radio — and you see your group on the map with no cell service: every cart where it is, with its callsign and role. GroupTrack sets the radio up for you. (Group Awareness)

• A private network for organizers and clubs. Your rides use your own radio network, named after you; riders who have ridden with you are already on it next time, and nobody outside the ride hears it. (The ride form)
• One standard language. Radios report in TAK, the format team-awareness apps use — your position with your callsign, even with the tablet in your pocket. (Setting up your radio)
• Roles and presence. Riders check in at the trailhead to claim a role — Leader, Middle, Tail gunner or Rider — and announce that they are there; checking in also sets the radio up for the ride. (Checking in and recording your track · Roles on the trail)

So a ride goes like this: tap the Ride invite — the route, trailhead and ride description are created and the maps imported; with a radio, check in at the trailhead; then REC. For the organizer, one step: build the ride and send it.

What is new in this release: the release notes.

There are two ways to ride with GroupTrack, and knowing which is yours tells you what to read and what to skip.

1. On your own. A tablet and nothing else: trails, maps, the planner, routes, waypoints, a record of where you went — and rides you can create, send and receive. Everything except seeing your group on the map. The record button reads ⏺ REC.
2. With a group. You also carry a Meshtastic radio, so you and the riders with you see each other on the map with no cell service. You join rides, check in, and take a role; the record button reads ✔ CHK IN › REC.

You can move between them. Nothing has to be decided now — connect a radio in GRP Awareness and the group side appears by itself.

You do not have to take it all on at once. Most riders never go past the second step, and that is a complete and useful app.

1. Ride and record. Trails on your device, maps that work with no signal, and a record of where you went. Nothing else required.
2. Plan before you go. Download the maps you will need, and bring in what you already have from Gaia or onX. And build the ride itself, two ways:
   • Draw it yourself. Drop pins along the way and GroupTrack snaps the line to the trails underneath, drawing straight only where there are none. Use this when you know where you want to go.
   • Let the planner build it. Give it a trailhead, how far you want to ride and any places you want to pass through, and it searches the trail network for you — then puts several routes side by side so you can compare distance, riding time and the trails each one uses. Use this when you know the area loosely, or not at all.
3. Ride as a group. See where everyone is, with no cell service. An organizer builds a ride and sends it; each rider opens it with one tap, checks in at the trailhead and takes a role. That can be you and a few friends on your own network, or a riding club that owns ten radios, hands them out at the trailhead and collects them afterwards.
   
   You do not need a tablet to carry a radio. The radio reports its location by itself, so a rider only has to put one round their neck to appear on everyone else's map.

GroupTrack is built around two maps, with your radio one tap away on both. The important thing to take away is use the right map for the task.

1. The Ride Map — the map you use in the field, on the trail. Simple and focused: check in, record, and see your group.
2. The Ride Planning Map — built to be used online, at home. Design a route or have the planner build one, download maps for offline use, and create and share rides.

Your radio and your rides are on both. GRP Awareness connects your radio and shows your group's activity; Work with Rides holds your rides. There is no separate radio screen to open or hide.

All navigation is text. Words you tap, down the right-hand side of either map. No icons to decode. And the two maps carry the same controls in the same places — learn one and you know the other. Every control is lettered on each map's picture in its chapter.

Everything GroupTrack draws is one of four things. Together they are what we call the Map Features, and they are what the Map Features panel controls.

Trail

Documented ground you can ride, motorized or not. Many have no name — that does not mean they are not real, or not documented.

Track

A recording of where you went.

Route

A line you plan to ride.

Waypoint

A place you marked.

New to GroupTrack? Install, then follow the Quick Start: it asks for your rider profile (your name, callsign and email), then loads the trails for your home state. A radio is not needed — maps, routes and rides all work without one. Riding with a radio? Connect it whenever you like, then set it up: GRP Awareness → Select a ride and apply settings to the radio → GroupTrack default (see Setting up your radio). GroupTrack asks once, at first start: Do you have a mesh radio to use with GroupTrack? — see The radio question at first start.

Your first start, step by step

1. Location permission — choose Allow all the time, so the map keeps your position while the screen is off.
2. Your rider profile — your name, callsign and email, how you usually ride, your vehicle and your colour; Save.
3. The radio question — Do you have a mesh radio to use with GroupTrack? YES connects it in GRP Awareness; NO leaves it for later.
4. Your home state's trails — GroupTrack offers the state you are in; load it, or choose another.
5. The import runs — it takes a while; keep GroupTrack open until it finishes. Then the map opens.

Updating from 2.6? The one-time steps — your rider profile, updating your radio once, and opening ride files with GroupTrack — and what has moved are in the release notes.

The first time you open this version, GroupTrack asks for your name, a callsign and an email address. It takes a minute, and you only do it once.

GroupTrack uses standard TAK messaging to put your group on each other's maps. That needs a name to show beside your cart, and an email so you can send ride details to the riders coming with you.

Your callsign is what everyone sees — on the map, and in every message your radio sends. Short and recognisable works best. Two riders can share a callsign; the radios still tell you apart.

It stays on your tablet. Nothing is sent to GroupTrack. Your details go only to the riders you ride with, over the radio, or in ride files you choose to send.

Settings → Your Profile → Edit rider profile. Everything is editable, though the callsign and email stay required — they are what your group and your ride files depend on.

The rest are defaults for each ride you join: how you usually ride (leader, rider, middle, tail gunner), your vehicle, and your colour on the map. You can change them on any individual ride.

Your default role — Leader, Rider, Middle or Tail gunner — is the role GroupTrack offers when you check in to a ride; most riders leave it as Rider. At check-in you can change it, and your callsign, for that ride only; your profile stays as it is. On a ride you created, Leader is offered instead. There is one leader per ride. (See Checking in and recording your track and Roles on the trail.)

[PLACEHOLDER — belonging to a club, leading rides under it, and what that means for your group's network.]

Every route has a trailhead — its first point. Every route is saved with its trailhead, as part of the save: the route's first point — where you pressed REC on a track, or your first pin in Route+. If a Trailhead waypoint is already within 0.1 mile of it, that one is used; otherwise GroupTrack creates one there and asks only for its name. Every ride built on the route uses that trailhead. You can rename it later; to use a different spot, add a waypoint there first (long-press the map) and set its type to Trailhead.

Saving a Route+ route with no trailhead at its first pin: SAVE asks "The route's first point is being created as a trailhead. Please name it" — name it, CREATE TRAILHEAD, then SAVE again.

With the planner. Build a route with Route+ on the planning map — draw it yourself or let the planner build it (see Route+ under The Ride Planning Map). A route built by the planner comes with its own story: what you will see, mile by mile.

From a track you recorded. A track becomes a route as part of creating a ride from it — see Creating a ride from a track. The track itself is never changed.

The route's description is part of the route: tap the route and it opens with the first line, the distance, and your text under ABOUT THIS ROUTE. Riders you send a ride to see the same.

Where it starts: the planning map. Find the route (the search box finds it by name) and tap it.

1. The route's panel opens. A route the planner built opens its description, with ROUTE DETAILS · CREATE RIDE · DOWNLOAD MAPS — tap CREATE RIDE. A route you drew yourself has no description, so it opens the detail panel — tap ADD A RIDE. (On a planner route, ROUTE DETAILS then ADD A RIDE does the same.) What each touch opens: The Ride Planning Map → Map gestures.
2. The map fits to the route and its trailhead. Every other layer is switched off, so the view shows only the route and where it starts; the ride's picture is taken from it. The map stays that way — turn layers back on in Map Features.
3. The ride form opens with the route, its trailhead and its picture — continue with The ride form.

FIT on a route's details shows the same view at any time.

Where it starts: the planning map. Tap one of your tracks — a recording of where you went — to open its details.

1. Tap CREATE RIDE on the track's details.
2. The trailhead is settled first. A Trailhead within 0.1 mile of the track's first point (where you pressed REC) is used without asking. Otherwise a box explains: "The trail's first point is being created as a trailhead. Please name it" — name it and tap CONTINUE; the trailhead is on the map before the route is made.
3. Name and describe the route. A box asks for:
   • Route name — the track's name to start with; change it if you like. A name another route already uses is refused.
   • Route description — in your own words: skill level, terrain, highlights, cautions. GroupTrack writes the first line itself: "Created from track <track> — N miles", measured along the track you recorded.
   The box shows "Trailhead: <name>".
4. Tap CREATE ROUTE & RIDE. The track's line becomes the route — straights are thinned out, but every turn is kept, switchbacks included (within about a metre of what you rode). The route is saved with its trailhead. The track itself is never changed, and the route stays even if you cancel the ride.
5. The map fits to the new route and its trailhead, and the ride's picture is taken.
6. The ride form opens — continue with The ride form.

Both ways of creating a ride — from a route and from a track — end here.

The ride's picture is the fitted view of the route and its trailhead, taken as the form opens.

The form, top to bottom:

• Ride name — the only thing needed to save. You can save a ride with just a name and finish it later.
• Private ride — off: a public ride (the default); on: private. The line under the switch says what each means (see Public or private below).
• Radio network — choose one: My organizer network (your own, used for all your rides) or Create a new network for this ride. Network assigned underneath shows the one in use (see Your radio network).
• Date and Rollout time — on one line. The date comes from a calendar; a ride can only be sent while its date is today or later. The time is optional.
• Leader's Notes — the ride's own notes: meeting point, what to bring, timing. A new ride starts from the route's description. The box appears when the route has no description (then it is required) and whenever you edit a ride.
• Trailhead — the route's own trailhead, shown for you. For a route saved before every route had one: if no trailhead is near its start, describe where to meet in the Trailhead box — it goes at the top of the Leader's Notes, and the ride can be sent.
• The route — its name over its picture: the route and its trailhead. The route cannot be changed.

Your name and email, and the zip code (worked out from the trailhead), are recorded with the ride automatically — they are not on the form.

Tap SAVE RIDE — or CANCEL to leave the form with nothing saved.

A ride's state tells you how far along it is: in progress while something is missing; completed once it has a route, a trailhead, a date today or later and a description — only a completed ride can be sent; sent previously once it has gone out at least once. After a ride has been sent, only its date can change — to reschedule it (weather, for example); then send it again so your riders get the new date.

The route stays with the ride. Tap the route on the ride screen and GroupTrack explains why — your riders plan around the route you sent. To use another route, delete the ride (before sending) and add a new ride from that route. Deleting a ride never deletes the route.

What the ride carries: the route with its trailhead and its story, the date and description, who created it (name and email), and — for groups with radios — the organizer's radio network.

Public or private. A ride is public unless you switch on Private ride at the top of the form. The invitation email says which: "This is an open ride. Feel free to forward this email…" or "This is a private ride for the riders invited. Please don't forward this email."

• Public — the invitation says riders may forward it to friends. At the end of the ride, each rider rates it and chooses — yes or no, every time — whether to share their track with the community. From 3.0, public rides are shown to the community through their organizer, and shared tracks help map the trails.
• Private — for the riders you choose; the invitation asks them not to forward it. At the end of the ride there is no survey and no sharing: every rider's track stays on their own tablet, and no public trails are added from it.

Your radio network. The first time you open the ride form, GroupTrack creates your own private network, named after you, and every ride you create uses it — so riders who have joined one of your rides are already on it for the next. Saving a ride makes you an organizer. On the form, choose My organizer network or Create a new network for this ride — for a one-off event. Network assigned shows the network's name (Fred K · GroupAB12CD) or, for a new one, Private – Group…: it is created the moment you choose it, used only when the ride is added, and removed again if you cancel. Every rider sets up their radio for a new network. Another organizer's network is never offered: theirs reaches your radio only when you join their ride. Once a ride has been sent, its network cannot change: to use another, delete the ride and add a new one.

The end of the ride. See Checking in and recording your track: every recording starts with a check-in, and ends with one form — the survey and the share choice on a public ride, only the name on a private one.

Send them the ride (see Sending a ride, and getting one). When they open it, the route, trailhead and maps arrive on their tablet.

Their radio. On their tablet — or on yours, with their radio connected — Work with Rides → Apply ride to radio / Nucleus, pick the ride, and type their callsign in Callsign for this radio. The radio joins the ride's network — the same one as yours, so you hear each other and nobody else does — and carries their name. Your own profile is not changed. (See Setting up your radio.)

What they need first: GroupTrack installed, and their rider profile filled in (GroupTrack asks for it the first time it opens).

Sending. Work with Rides → Rides, tap the ride, then Send. Your email app opens with the ride attached — choose who to send it to. You can send the same ride again at any time. (Send a ride via email in the menu still works the same way.)

Getting one. Tap the email's attachment and choose GroupTrack, then Always — from then on every ride file you tap opens straight in GroupTrack. Android offers one GroupTrack. If ride files open somewhere else, or an earlier choice sends them to the wrong place: Android Settings → Apps → GroupTrack → Open by default → Clear defaults, then tap the file again.

GroupTrack keeps the ride and opens the import panel with its route already ticked — no file to find. Check which maps you want and tap IMPORT. A ride file saved to your tablet opens from Work with Rides → Import a ride (the file picker opens in Downloads).

What arrives: the route, its trailhead waypoint, its story (tap the route to read it), and the ride's details. The maps along the route download for you — the download queue shows them. The ride also brings its radio network, ready for Apply ride to radio. The ride appears in your Rides list as received from its organiser.

The radio question at first start

GroupTrack 2.7a moves to TAK messaging, so every radio used with it must carry the GroupTrack configuration. GroupTrack cannot tell whether you own a radio, so the first time it starts it asks, just before it loads your state's trails:

• YES — have the radio with you and switched on. GRP Awareness opens: connect the radio, then SELECT A RIDE AND APPLY SETTINGS TO THE RADIO, choose the GroupTrack default, and apply. If your tablet asks for a pairing code, 123456 is the default; a radio with a screen may show a different code — use that one.
• Your callsign becomes the radio's name. More than one radio? Repeat this for each one, and change the callsign on each additional radio so it does not inherit yours.
• NO — set the radio up later, before your first ride: GRP Awareness → connect → select a ride → apply.

It asks once. After NO, or once a radio has been set up and checked, it does not ask again. A tablet that already holds a GroupTrack radio configuration is not asked at all. The first time GroupTrack sets up a radio it keeps the radio's original settings, so the compare in Saved configs can show what changed.

Experienced mesh users: Meshtastic's own Export configuration (RADIO SETTINGS in GRP Awareness) saves a complete image of a radio before you change it.

Which radios. GroupTrack works with any radio running Meshtastic — handheld trackers such as the SenseCAP T1000-E, radios with a screen, base stations, and the Nucleus IP-mesh box. Connect it in GRP Awareness; checking in to a ride sets it up for that ride, or you can set it up here. Every radio is set up the same way and reports in the same standard format, so riders can mix radios on one ride.

GRP Awareness → Select a ride and apply settings to the radio (or Work with Rides → Apply ride to radio / Nucleus). Connect the radio first, in GRP Awareness. Your own radio is set up for you when you check in (see Checking in) — this screen is mainly for a guest's radio, or the GroupTrack default. At the top:

Callsign for this radio — the name this radio will carry on every map. It is there mainly for setting up someone else's radio — at the trailhead, a rider without GroupTrack hands you their radio: connect it, type their callsign here, and their radio joins the ride under their own name, not yours. For your own radio, leave it as it is — your callsign is filled in. The screen reminds you when you are setting up a radio for someone else, and your own profile is never changed. (Your callsign for a ride is set when you check in — see Checking in.)

1 · Pick what to put on the radio: GroupTrack default (GroupTrack's own network — for setting up and testing, and the one-time update from 2.6) or one of your rides. This list shows only the default and rides; a radio's saved setups are on their own screen (below).

2 · Check the changes. GroupTrack lists what it will change on the radio. It only changes the settings it manages — the network, the callsign, the radio's role, its power and how often it reports — and leaves everything else as it was. Tap Apply.

3 · Leave the screen open — about 3 to 4 minutes. GroupTrack writes the settings in steps, and the radio restarts between steps. At the end GroupTrack waits for the radio to settle and reconnects once more by itself, so your tablet sees your radio straight away — you do not need to disconnect and reconnect by hand. A log shows each step.

4 · The result. GroupTrack reads every setting back from the radio and ticks each one. All ticked means the radio really holds them. Tap Done — back to the map. If a step could not finish, the screen says which, and why.

Saved setups. The first time GroupTrack sets up a radio it saves how it found it ("As found"); after every setup it saves the result, named after the ride — and after the rider, when you set up someone else's radio. Each radio has its own saves. Review / apply saved configs lists them, with Radio now — what the radio holds at this moment — at the top:

• Apply — tap a saved setup, then Apply: the same steps as above, straight to its list of changes. This is how you put a radio back.
• Compare — tap one, then Compare with…, then tap another: every difference between them, managed settings first (what an apply would change), then everything else, for information. Comparing never changes the radio.
• Close returns you to where you were.

What your radio does afterwards. It reports your position and your callsign by itself — even with your tablet off — at least every 15 seconds standing still, and as often as every 4 seconds on the move. It transmits at its own full power, within the legal limit.

⚠ Set your radio up with GroupTrack, not by hand. Android's radio settings offer only minutes and hours; a radio set by hand can report far more often than it needs to and crowd the channel for everyone.

Everybody checks in first thing at the trailhead. Radio on, GroupTrack started, check in. Checking in is what puts your radio on the ride's network — until then it cannot hear the group. The Leader, Middle and Tail gunner check in among the first, so the whole group learns their roles; the ride starts once everyone has checked in.

Check in first. With your radio connected, the red record button on the ride map reads ✔ CHK IN › REC: you cannot record until you have checked in. No radio connected? Then it reads ⏺ REC — a solo ride: tap it and GroupTrack records straight away, no check-in. It switches by itself as your radio connects or drops. Tap ✔ CHK IN › REC:

• Which ride? Every ride on your tablet that has not been removed, newest first, opened at today — scroll up for upcoming rides, down for past ones (a rescheduled ride is there too). All or one organizer's rides, from the buttons above the list. If exactly one is dated today, it is already chosen. Pick No scheduled ride for a recording that is not part of a ride.
• Callsign for this ride — yours to start with; change it for this ride only (a shared cart, a guest driver). Your profile is not changed.
• Role — Leader, Rider, Middle or Tail gunner, always asked (with No scheduled ride too); your profile's default to start with, and Leader when it is your own ride. There is one Leader, one Middle and one Tail gunner: if another rider already holds the role you choose, a red window says who holds it, and you choose another.
• Your radio — GroupTrack compares it with the ride: "Radio ready for this ride", or it will be set up when you check in.

Tap CHECK IN. If your radio is not on the ride's network yet, CHECK IN sets it up first — the same steps as Setting up your radio, about a minute, with its progress on screen — then checks you in. If the setup cannot finish, the check-in reopens with your choices kept. Checking in does not start recording: the button now reads ⏺ REC — tap it when the group rolls out.

At the end, tap END. One form saves your ride:

• A ride: the track is named after the ride — every rider's recording of it carries the same name, and it cannot be changed.
  • A public ride — rate it (1–5 stars), its difficulty (easy, moderate, hard), whether you would recommend it, notes if you like, and Share this ride's track with the community? — Yes or No, every time; there is no default. SAVE becomes available once they are done; a line under the form says what is still missing.
  • A private ride — no survey and no sharing: your track stays on your tablet.
• No scheduled ride: you name the track; no survey, no sharing.

Your survey belongs to the ride — one per rider per ride; saving again replaces it. The track is yours: only you decide whether it is shared. DELETE still asks before throwing a recording away. After saving, the button reads ✔ CHK IN › REC again: each recording starts with its own check-in.

A quieter channel. GroupTrack's radios use the MEDIUM_FAST setting, and report every 15 seconds standing and at most every 4 seconds moving. Measured with two radios, the share of airtime they use fell from about 22% to 4–5% — so many more riders fit on one ride before the channel gets crowded.

The trade-off is range. On a T1000-E, plan on about ¾ mile between riders in open country; terrain and trees shorten it, a clear line of sight lengthens it. Radios with a bigger antenna or more power reach further. These are estimates, to be measured on real trails.

Radios relay for each other. A rider out of direct reach is still heard through the riders between you, so a strung-out group stays connected as long as no gap between riders is longer than a radio's reach.

Strong radios make a backbone. A radio with a good antenna — 1 watt, mounted high on the vehicle — reaches much further, and hears weak radios better too. Put strong radios at the lead, at the tail, and in the middle of a long group. The leader's radio matters most: it carries the leader's track to everyone behind.

Every radio on a ride must use the same setting. GroupTrack sets this for you when you apply the ride; radios set differently cannot hear each other at all.

Your role is chosen when you check in — Leader, Rider, Middle or Tail gunner — for that ride only (see Checking in). There is one leader per ride.

Everyone is a Rider unless they check in as the Leader, Middle or Tail gunner. When those three check in, their tablets tell the group — over the radio, for a few minutes into the ride — so every cart learns who holds each role. Nothing is set on the radios themselves.

What you see: every cart's callsign and role beside it on the map and in CHECKIN / SELECT CART; the lead and tail markers follow the riders who hold those roles. When the Leader is known, REC does not ask you to choose the lead cart.

Roles stay put for the ride — a cart that drops out of range keeps its role. They end with the ride.

One of each. A ride has one Leader, one Middle and one Tail gunner at most; any number of Riders. The Leader is the key role — the Leader's cart is the lead cart. With no Tail gunner, the last cart is the tail.

Each rider sets only their own role. Nobody can give a role to someone else, and a role someone already holds can't be taken until it is released.

Changing roles at a stop: open CHECKIN / SELECT CART and tap CHANGE MY ROLE (or your own cart in the list). Choosing Rider releases your role. One rider at a time, and the Leader changes last — for example, to hand over the lead: the Leader changes to Rider, then the new Leader takes Leader. Every tablet follows within seconds.

The lead cart: when REC is pressed with no Leader known, GroupTrack asks you which cart leads — on your tablet only. As soon as a Leader is heard, the lead moves to them. This works on every ride, scheduled or not.

These now sit with the control that opens them: Work with Rides (5.18), GRP Awareness (5.10) and GPS (5.17).

Returns to the Ride Map — the one you use on the trail.

Three slots, each holding a map source you chose. Tap one and the map redraws in that source. What is drawn on top does not change.

Which source sits in which slot is yours to choose, in Settings.

Map downloads run in the background so they do not tie up the screen.

Leave the screen and carry on — the download continues. If the device is turned off it picks up where it stopped rather than starting again.

Managing the queue

• A job can be held, cancelled, or purged once complete.
• Anything waiting can be promoted to run next.

What runs first

The queue sorts itself so the work you need soonest happens soonest.

1. Tile deletions — freeing space before filling it.
2. Anything you promoted.
3. Corridor downloads — a route's tiles.
4. Area downloads — a bounding box.
5. Map source refreshes — last, and they wait.

There is a limit on how many downloads run at once. It is already tuned — worth leaving alone.

Search repositions the map so what you searched for is centred. It is what lets you plan a ride anywhere in the country from your living room.

Finding one of your own

Searching for a track, route or waypoint produces a list. Tap the name of the one you want and the map moves to it.

Finding a place

Qualify the name with its state — "Panguitch UT". The same name exists in many states, and landing in the wrong one is not obvious: the map moves, trails draw, and everything looks right.

Everything you can do with a route, a track, a trail or a waypoint starts with one tap. Tap it on the map, or find it with Map Features → SELECT, and its panel opens — a route the planner built opens its description when tapped, its detail panel from SELECT. Routes and tracks are where rides are created (★ Create a Ride, new in 2.7a); trails and waypoints have their own functions.

• A route → 4.5.2 Routes — ★ Create a Ride
• A track → 4.5.3 Tracks — ★ Create a Ride
• A trail → 4.5.4 Trails
• A waypoint → 4.5.5 Waypoints

Map Features also controls how the features are displayed, so you can put your focus on what you are working on and take away the clutter around it.

The same four feature types as on the Ride Map, with the same OFF, ALL and SELECT — and three things you cannot do in the field: importing trail data, importing from other apps, and Route+.

4.5.1 ★ Create a Ridenew in 2.7a — from a route, or from a track you recorded

This is the only place rides are made: tap a route or a track on the Ride Planning Map. A ride is always built on a route — one you drew, one the planner built, or one made from a track you recorded. Tap it, tap the ride button, and the ride form opens with the route, its trailhead and its picture. Then save it and send it. (On the Ride Map the same tap opens the details with no ride button.)

Create a ride from a route

Requires: a saved route — Route+ builds one.

1. Tap the route on the Ride Planning Map. Can't see it? Map Features → Routes → SELECT shows just that route, or search for it by name.
2. A route the planner built opens its description — tap CREATE RIDE. A route you drew opens its details — tap ADD A RIDE.
3. The map fits to the route and its trailhead, and the ride's picture is taken.
4. The ride form opens — fill it in and save (The ride form), then share it (Sending a ride).

Create a ride from a track you recorded

Requires: a track you recorded or imported.

1. Tap the track on the Ride Planning Map. Can't see it? Map Features → Tracks → SELECT.
2. On its details, tap CREATE RIDE.
3. Name the trailhead if there is none within 0.1 mile of the track's start.
4. Name and describe the route, then CREATE ROUTE & RIDE — the track becomes a route, every turn kept; the track itself is never changed.
5. The ride form opens — fill it in and save.

The full walk-through, step by step: 3.2 Creating a ride from a route · 3.3 Creating a ride from a track.

4.5.2 Routesdescription, details · ★ create a ride

Tap a route — on the map, or SELECT it in Map Features. What opens depends on how the route was made:

• A route the planner built opens its description — the planner's story of the route — with ROUTE DETAILS · CREATE RIDE · DOWNLOAD MAPS.
• A route you drew (or tap ROUTE DETAILS) opens its detail panel: RENAME · DELETE · SHARE · EXPORT · OVERVIEW · ADD A RIDE · BUILD ROUTES FROM RECIPE · SAVE MAPS · FIT.

CREATE RIDE / ADD A RIDE

★ Make this route a ride — Create a Ride.

SAVE MAPS / DOWNLOAD MAPS

Download the map corridor along the route — Along a route.

OVERVIEW

The route's description, for a planner route.

BUILD ROUTES FROM RECIPE

Loads the planner's answers that built this route, ready to build six more routes.

SHARE / EXPORT

Send the route as a GPX file, or save it to Downloads.

RENAME · DELETE · FIT

Rename it, delete it, or fit the map to it.

4.5.3 Tracksdetails · ★ create a ride

A track is a recording — where you actually went. Tap one, or SELECT it in Map Features, and its detail panel opens: RENAME · DELETE · SHARE · EXPORT · CREATE RIDE · SAVE MAPS · FIT, with its distance, duration, speed and source.

CREATE RIDE

★ Turn the track into a route and a ride — Create a Ride. The track itself is never changed.

SAVE MAPS

Download the map corridor along the track.

SHARE / EXPORT

Send the track as a GPX file, or save it to Downloads.

RENAME · DELETE · FIT

Rename it, delete it, or fit the map to it.

4.5.4 Trailswhat is known about it

Tap a trail, or SELECT trails by category in Map Features, and its detail panel opens with what is known about it: its type (the Map Keys category), source, land status and use. Functions: SHARE · EXPORT · FIT. Trails come from the map data, so they cannot be renamed or deleted — except rider trails, which you made from your own tracks.

4.5.5 Waypointsa place you marked

Tap a waypoint — on either map — and its detail panel opens: RENAME · DELETE · CHANGE TYPE · FIT. To make one, long-press open map (Long press — add a waypoint). Details below.

4.5.5.1 Waypoint details — tap a waypointnew in 2.7a

Tap a waypoint — on either map — and its detail panel opens: RENAME, DELETE, CHANGE TYPE (from the twelve waypoint types) and FIT. A route's trailhead can be neither retyped nor deleted while the route uses it.

4.5.6 Controlling how map features are displayedfocus, and removing clutter

Press a track's name in the selection list to see its details.

4.5.7 Importing trail datastate or area

Trail data is what everything else depends on. Import it for a whole state, or for an area.

By state

Search or scroll to your state and press LOAD TRAIL DATA. It takes about twenty minutes and pulls from every public source covering that state.

Use wifi, not mobile data — this is a large download. And import every state you ride in, including ones you only cross into. A ride that leaves your loaded states has no trail data underneath it.

By area

Smaller and faster when you only need one part of a state.

4.5.8 Importing from Gaia or onXGPX from other apps

Tracks, routes and waypoints you have collected in other apps come across as GPX files.

1. Export from Gaia or onX. If you do it on this device the file lands in Downloads and GroupTrack finds it.
2. Exported somewhere else? Get the file into the Android Downloads directory however suits — email, a website, cloud storage.
3. Choose what to import.

There is no direct connection between the apps. It is export, then import, and the file passes through Downloads on the way.

Sharing a route with another rider

Export a route and the file carries more than its shape. The narrative travels with it — the summary, what you will see, the cautions — and so does the recipe, the settings it was built from.

That means the rider you send it to can open BUILD FROM RECIPE and search again on their own device. They may get different routes than you did, and that is the point: the recipe is a set of instructions, not a copy of your answer. Their trail data is not yours.

Opened in Gaia or onX, the route still reads normally — those apps see the name, the description and the points, and ignore the rest.

Why you should import all of them

Importing your old tracks is worth more than keeping a record of where you have been. Where one of your tracks crosses ground that no published map covers, GroupTrack adds that stretch to your trails as an unnamed trail.

Published trail data misses a great deal. Roads and tracks that riders use every weekend are simply not in it. Your own rides are proof that ground is rideable — you rode it — and that is better evidence than any survey offers.

So every track you bring in makes the map more complete, and the route planner is only as good as the network underneath it. A planner working from published trails alone will route you the long way around ground you know perfectly well.

Load your states first. A ride that crosses into a state you have not imported has no trails underneath it, so the whole stretch is treated as new ground — even where trails already exist there. Import the states you ride in, then import your tracks.

After that the order does not matter. Each track is checked as it arrives, so you can import them whenever you like and there is nothing to run afterwards.

How to import them. Put the GPX files in Downloads on your Android — save them from an email attachment, or download them straight from your navigation app. Then tap Import Trails on the Map Features screen from the planning map, and pick the files.

To select several files at once, press and hold the first file, then tap the others.

Removing one

Tap a rider trail and you get a DELETE button. Surveyed trails do not have one — deleting those achieves nothing, because the next trail reload brings them straight back from the catalogue.

A rider trail comes back too, if the track that made it is still on the device and trails are cleared and reloaded. To be rid of one for good, delete the track as well.

The commonest reason to remove one: a recorder left running on the drive to the trailhead. Highways are not in the trail data, so the whole drive reads as new ground and gets added.

What each category means

Open Map Keys and press CATEGORIES EXPLAINED at the foot of the panel. Every line on the map is one of these:

• OHV — posted trails for ATV/OHV use only.
• Track — two wheel tracks, farm, forest or open country.
• Forestry / access — access unless posted otherwise. Look for a sign.
• Shape only — shape and route of reported trails that are otherwise unclassified. Somebody drew the line; nobody said what it is — check the satellite imagery before you plan on it.
• Rider trails — ridden on a recorded track, so UTV accessible. This is ground you have been on, which is the strongest thing the map knows.
• Unofficial / uncertain — not available for riding.
• Hiking & biking, Hiking, Biking, Equestrian, Steps / bridge — non-motorized. Off by default; switch them on in Map Features if you want to see them.
• My tracks and My routes — your own recordings and plans.

Tap any name in the key panel to change its colour, line pattern or thickness. Those choices are yours and stay on your device.

What these trails look like

They are unnamed, and they carry their own colour so you can tell them from surveyed trails at a glance. They are filtered and displayed like any other trail.

They are honest rather than perfect: a rider trail says you rode that ground, not that it is a maintained road or that anyone else may use it. Check ownership and access the same way you would anywhere else.

Routes you built before will come back different. Once there is more network to work with, the planner finds rides it could not find before. That is the improvement working, not a fault.

4.5.9 Route+build a route to follow

Route+ builds a route to follow. Two ways: draw it yourself, or let the planner build several and compare them.

A ride is created from a route. Tap any route on the planning map: a route the planner built opens its description with CREATE RIDE; a route you drew opens its details with ADD A RIDE. The ride form opens with the route, its trailhead and its picture. Map Features → ★ Create a Ride · Creating a ride from a route · from a track you recorded: Creating a ride from a track

If you left a route half-built, it is offered here — continue it, or start something new.

4.5.9.1 Drawing a route yourselfdrop pins, it snaps to trails

Use this when you know where you want to go.

Drop a pin at each point along the way. Where there are trails underneath, the line snaps to them. Where there are none, it draws straight between your points.

A route can be saved in progress and picked up later, or saved as complete when it is the ride you want.

Next: make it a ride. Tap the saved route and ADD A RIDE — Creating a ride from a route.

4.5.9.2 Letting the planner build itsix questions, up to six routes

Six questions, then it searches the area's trails — up to 10,000 of them in some places — and brings back as many as six routes that fit what you asked for.

What you answer is saved with the routes you keep, so you can build six more from the same brief at any time.

Get to where you want to ride first. Search for a town, region or feature, or open one of your own tracks or waypoints, and centre the map on your starting point.

Planning stays in portrait — the comparison needs the height.

1 · How long a day?

Set the shortest and furthest you want to ride, and an average speed. Together they give a ride duration. Move the mileage until the hours match the time you have.

Leave the average speed alone until you have a few rides behind you. It is set from measured riding on this kind of ground, and changing it changes every estimate the planner makes.

2 · Where you will park

Tap the waypoint where you will park. If there is none there, press and hold for a second to create one — creating it selects it, so you do not need to tap again.

Pick a spot that visibly reaches the trail network: several trails leaving in different directions, not a single dead-end spur.

3 · Points to cover

Optional. If there are places you want the ride to reach, tap the closest trail to each. Tap a pin again to remove it.

The planner includes as many as it can, as long as it can find a route over existing trails to reach them. One it cannot reach, or one that would push the ride past your distance, is refused with a reason rather than quietly ignored.

4 · Where you finish

A loop back to where you started is what most day rides use. The other option is a different endpoint — a second trailhead, or somewhere you are staying.

5 · Review

The planner reads back what it will do: where it starts, how far, how long, and at what pace.

6 · Compare

Each route is drawn in its own colour and listed against the others — distance, riding time, and the trails each one uses. Tap a route's name to take it off the display while you look at the rest.

Keep what you want. The rest are deleted.

When you save, the planner offers to download the map tiles along your routes, so the ground is on your device before you leave.

Next: make it a ride. Tap a route you kept — its description opens — and tap CREATE RIDE (Creating a ride from a route).

Results depend on the trails on your device. Planning a route in a state you have not imported will return less than it should — import it first.

The same control as on the Ride Map — see the Ride Map, J · Map Keys.

The same control as on the Ride Map — see the Ride Map, K · Help.

The same control as on the Ride Map — see the Ride Map, L · GRP Awareness.

Downloads the satellite and topo imagery so the map works with no signal. It is the one preparation that cannot be done at the trailhead.

4.9.1 By areadraw a box

It tells you what the download amounts to before it starts.

4.9.2 Along a routethe efficient one

Far more efficient than an area — a corridor follows the line and takes only the ground either side of it, rather than a box that is mostly ground you will never ride.

You can also start this from a route or track’s own popup.

4.9.3 What you already haveblue is yours, red is coming

Pan around before you leave and check the area you are riding is blue.

You can also see what you hold for each map source, level by level, and rebuild a source if you change it.

Zoom in and out with the + / − buttons, or pinch. The maps stop at the deepest zoom their tiles support.

Everything you can do with a route, a track, a trail or a waypoint starts with one tap. Tap it on the map, or find it with Map Features → SELECT, and its panel opens — a route the planner built opens its description when tapped, its detail panel from SELECT. Routes and tracks are where rides are created (★ Create a Ride, new in 2.7a); trails and waypoints have their own functions.

• A route → 4.5.2 Routes — ★ Create a Ride
• A track → 4.5.3 Tracks — ★ Create a Ride
• A trail → 4.5.4 Trails
• A waypoint → 4.5.5 Waypoints

These are documented once, in 4.5 Map Features. What every touch on the map does — taps, long press, pinch — is in 4.14 Map gestures.

On the Ride Map the same taps open the same panels, without ride creation.

The same control as on the Ride Map — see the Ride Map, U · Work with Rides.

Long press on open map and New Waypoint opens, already set to Trailhead. Pick a type, give it a name if you like, and tap Create. Left blank, the name follows the type. Choosing Other asks once — Save as Other? — so a waypoint is never filed as Other by accident.

To change a waypoint later, tap it: its detail panel offers RENAME, CHANGE TYPE, DELETE and FIT. A route's trailhead cannot be retyped or deleted while the route uses it — remove the route first.

Two kinds of touch work the planning map. Moving it is the map's own gesture. Touching a feature opens that feature's screens — the same screens as Map Features → SELECT, so their pictures are shown there.

Moving the map

• Pan: drag in any direction — left, right, up, down.
• Zoom in and out: pinch, or the + / − buttons (L · Zoom).

Creating a waypoint

Long press on open map — New Waypoint opens, starting as a Trailhead; choosing Other asks once. (Long press — add a waypoint)

Touching a feature

The one screen only a map touch reaches — a route the planner built opens its description:

With a radio connected, the button first reads ✔ CHK IN › REC — check in to your ride, then tap ⏺ REC. See Checking in and recording your track.

Press the red button to start. Do it before you set off — the first part of a ride is usually the part you most want on the map afterwards.

Riding with a group

If you are riding with a mesh group you are asked to pick the lead cart. That cart lays down a track which is visible on every device in the group — so everyone behind can follow the line the leader actually took.

If someone else takes the front later, change it from SELECT CART.

What you will see

Keep the screen where you can see it. Riding alone, your cart sits in the centre with your track behind you and the ground ahead.

In a group you also see the lead cart's track laid out ahead of you, and a pin for every other cart.

If you stop for a while

GroupTrack notices when you have not moved for a time and pauses recording itself, closing the connection to your radio as it does.

You come back to a flashing red banner. Tap it to carry on — the radio reconnects and the recording continues into the same track.

Ending the ride

1. Give the ride a name you will recognise later. The date is kept for you.
2. Save keeps it — it appears on the map and in your tracks.
3. Delete throws it away. There is no undo.

Switches to the Ride Planning map, where everything you do before a ride happens. Back to Ride in its top-left corner brings you back.

Three slots, each holding a map source you chose. Tap one and the map redraws in that source. What is drawn on top does not change.

Which source sits in which slot is yours to choose, in Settings.

A toggle. NET uses internet map sources. LOCAL uses only what is already downloaded to the device.

Use NET for ride planning, where you want everything available.

Switch to LOCAL before you leave and pan around the area you are riding. What you can see is what you will have on the trail. Anything blank is ground you will have no map for.

Map downloads run in the background so they do not tie up the screen.

Leave the screen and carry on — the download continues. If the device is turned off it picks up where it stopped rather than starting again.

Managing the queue

• A job can be held, cancelled, or purged once complete.
• Anything waiting can be promoted to run next.

What runs first

The queue sorts itself so the work you need soonest happens soonest.

1. Tile deletions — freeing space before filling it.
2. Anything you promoted.
3. Corridor downloads — a route's tiles.
4. Area downloads — a bounding box.
5. Map source refreshes — last, and they wait.

There is a limit on how many downloads run at once. It is already tuned — worth leaving alone.

Search repositions the map so what you searched for is centred. It is what lets you plan a ride anywhere in the country from your living room.

Finding one of your own

Searching for a track, route or waypoint produces a list. Tap the name of the one you want and the map moves to it.

Finding a place

Qualify the name with its state — "Panguitch UT". The same name exists in many states, and landing in the wrong one is not obvious: the map moves, trails draw, and everything looks right.

Turn any of the four on or off as a group. SELECT narrows to a single feature, or a combination you choose.

Working with trails on and off

Turn trails on while you are planning a route or recording your track — that is when you want them. Turn them off when you are looking at a larger area.

5.7.1 SELECT on tracks, routes and waypointschoosing from a list

1. Press SELECT on the row you want.
2. A list appears of everything of that type in the current view.
3. Tap what you want drawn.

Your choice persists — it holds as you pan and comes back next time. The only thing that overrides it is a function that needs the map its own way, such as route comparison.

5.7.2 SELECT on trailsnarrowing by category

Trails work differently, and they have to. There are 60,000 unnamed trails in Utah — searching by name helps nobody.

So you limit trails by category instead:

• Private land — include it or leave it out. Near a town, leaving it out removes the residential street grid.
• Motorized and non-motorized — take a whole group in or out.
• Individual categories — choose exactly which kinds you want.

GroupTrack installs showing motorized trails on public land only. If a trail you know exists is not on the map, that is usually why.

GroupTrack installs with solid lines for motorized trails and dashed lines for non-motorized, with colours defined for each type. The legend tells you which is which.

What these mean

At the foot of the legend, CATEGORIES EXPLAINED opens this list:

Motorized types are drawn as solid lines, non-motorized as dashed; the legend shows each colour. Non-motorized types are off by default — switch them on in Map Features.

5.8.1 Changing how something is drawncolour, pattern, thickness

1. Tap the name of the item in the legend.
2. Choose a colour, a line pattern and a thickness.
3. The panel shows the line as it is beside the line as it would be.
4. Apply redraws the map. Your choice is kept.

Every item on the legend can be arranged to your own preference.

• Quick Start — must reading for anyone new to GroupTrack. It will get you working very quickly.
• Release News — the features and functions in this specific release.
• User Manual — this. Cookbook style: what to expect in each function.

Both the Quick Start and the release notes link into the matching section of this manual, so you can go deeper wherever you want to.

All three work with no signal.

GRP Awareness sits where Mesh was, on both maps: white text on a green box when your radio is connected, a red box when it is not, and the box pulses as the group is heard. Tap it:

• Connected to — your radio's name, DISCONNECT, and Last applied: the ride (and date) last set up on it.
• Available radios — the radios your tablet can see. CONNECT one. A radio marked New to this Android needs PAIR first (the code is 1234 unless your radio came with its own). FORGET a radio that has stopped connecting: GroupTrack and Android both let go of it, so you can pair it again cleanly. ADD A RADIO opens Android's Bluetooth settings.
• Select a ride and apply settings to the radio — the radio setup screen (Setting up your radio); this is how you set up a guest's radio under their own callsign.
• Radio settings — ⚠ for experienced mesh operators only: opens the app's own radio settings. Android's back button returns you to the map.
• Meshtastic side menu — the full Meshtastic menu, for anything not here yet.

Pressing ✔ CHK IN › REC with no radio connected opens GRP Awareness with "Connect your radio to check in"; once your radio connects, the check-in opens by itself.

The list of things you can customise — your map sources, how long error messages stay up, and so on. Most are self-explanatory.

Hides the readout and the button row along the bottom. Purely a preference — it gives the map that space.

Every cart carrying a radio appears here, with some basic information about it. Two things you can do:

Remove a cart

A breakdown, or someone heading home early. Removing them takes them out of your tracking so the readout stops counting a rider who is no longer on the ride.

Change the lead cart

The lead is chosen when recording starts, but riders swap. If someone else takes the front, set them as the lead here — it is an easy change.

5.13.1 Remove and activate a cartnew in 2.7a

Every other cart in the list has REMOVE: it leaves the map and the group on this tablet. A removed cart shows ACTIVATE to bring it back. END sets every cart back to Active. (SET AS LEAD and REMOVE FROM RIDE are no longer on the cart detail.)

5.13.2 Change my rolenew in 2.7a

Change my role changes your own role only, and only to a role no other cart holds.

Wherever you have panned to, MY CART brings you straight back to your own location at zoom 18 — and then follows you, panning the map to keep you in the centre as you ride.

This is the one to press after searching somewhere else.

Riding alone

GROUP gives you a zoom 16 vantage point — more of the trail ahead, while keeping your cart centred.

Riding with radios

It shows every member of the group, scaling the map so every cart fits. Front to back, with the gaps between them.

The readout

The display at the bottom left follows whichever you have selected — GROUP or MY CART.

• SPAN — from the lead cart to the last.
• Carts, Active and Lost — how many are in the group, how many are reporting, and how many have stopped.
• Lead and Tail — the front and back of the ride.

In and out. The map also pinches, and MY CART and GROUP set a zoom for you.

On the ride map, above the HUD at the left edge: the GPS button (a satellite), and beside it two numbers:

• How often your radio sends your location while moving — for example 4 s. Standing still, it sends every 15 seconds.
• How busy the radio channel is, in green (plenty of room), yellow (getting busy) or red (congested).

Tap GPS to change it: the window shows the current value, the channel use and the number of carts. Key in 3 to 10 seconds and tap APPLY. Your radio is set once, then disconnects and reconnects by itself (about half a minute) — the window shows each step. CANCEL changes nothing.

When to change it: green — leave it. Yellow — send less often (a higher number) to free the channel. Red — the channel is congested; lengthen the interval and let the group know. Checking in sets your radio back to the ride's standard value.

5.17.1 Reconnect timingnew in 2.7a

After APPLY the radio restarts and GroupTrack reconnects to it — twice; the second reconnect waits 20 seconds. If a cart does not reappear, open Reconnect timing and raise the wait and the gap.

Work with Rides is a label on both maps, just under Mesh. Tap it for the one menu that holds everything to do with rides. Every option is lettered on the picture below.

Each letter has a heading underneath, and each heading opens — that option in full: the screens it leads to, in the order you meet them.

5.18.1 A · Rides — share, edit, delete

The Rides list. Every ride on your tablet, newest first — the ones you created and the ones you received. The chips along the top filter them: All, or one person who created rides (your own name included). Tap a ride, then:

• Send — emails the ride.
• Edit — your own rides only. Opens the ride form filled in. Before it is sent, everything but the route and the network can change; once sent, only the date (the form says so) — send it again after saving. A new date also restarts its 30 days.
• Delete — any ride, after you confirm: "The ride file, its record and its radio config are removed. Radio backups made for this ride are kept." The route is never deleted.

Rides tidy themselves. A ride is removed automatically 30 days after its date. A ride you received always appears in the list, even if something about it was incomplete.

Entries that are not ready say so when you tap them.

While you record, the red Distance readout at the bottom right shows the miles recorded on this ride.

Tapping is the quickest way into a feature's screens. What each touch opens, and what you can do there, is listed in 5.22 Map gestures; the screens are the same as Map Features → SELECT.

Tapping a trail, track, route or waypoint opens a panel of what you can do with that one thing.

On the Ride Map the panel has no ride creation — no ADD A RIDE or CREATE RIDE; rides are built on the Ride Planning Map.

5.20.1 Waypoint details — tap a waypointnew in 2.7a

Tap a waypoint — on either map — and its detail panel opens: RENAME, DELETE, CHANGE TYPE (from the twelve waypoint types) and FIT. A route's trailhead can be neither retyped nor deleted while the route uses it.

Long press on open map and New Waypoint opens, already set to Trailhead. Pick a type, give it a name if you like, and tap Create. Left blank, the name follows the type. Choosing Other asks once — Save as Other? — so a waypoint is never filed as Other by accident.

To change a waypoint later, tap it: its detail panel offers RENAME, CHANGE TYPE, DELETE and FIT. A route's trailhead cannot be retyped or deleted while the route uses it — remove the route first.

Two kinds of touch work the ride map. Moving it is the map's own gesture. Touching a feature opens that feature's screens — the same screens as Map Features → SELECT, so their pictures are shown there.

Moving the map

• Pan: drag in any direction — left, right, up, down.
• Zoom in and out: pinch, or the + / − buttons (S · Zoom).

Creating a waypoint

Long press on open map — New Waypoint opens, starting as a Trailhead; choosing Other asks once. (Long press — add a waypoint)

Touching a feature