I cannot seem to find a good GPS/Navigator software for my smartphone that doesn't rely upon having internet access. I am not confident that I could always get sufficient internet signal whenever I happen to be lost, especially on the fringes of the city or beyond. I don't drive in unfamiliar areas often enough to warrant buying a specific GPS device just for the car, but it would be handy to have something on my smartphone. I use Android. Does anyone currently have an app they are happy with?

If you use Maps 6.x or lower, just make the area you intend to visit available for offline use through the menu.

If you have already upgraded to Maps 7, I see no reason not to downgrade to 6 as the older version is way better.

You can still do it in Google maps, only now it's hidden if you have the new version...

Pull up the area you want to cache offline, then write "ok maps" into the search bar and it downloads. If you have the old version, offline is built into the options.

Yeah; you can but the area is not as big as it could be in 6 and it also doesn't stick that well over updates of the OS/Maps software. The offline data disappears every now and then. Also, having to type "OK maps" is just silly.

What's more, you can not have a "My maps" overlay or a measuring tool anymore, and the scale indication disappears after a second. All of which are very unpractical if you're trying to navigate.

So I switched back to 6 today, and I decided that there's really no reason to update to 7 as of now.

Ok thanks, I'll try those ideas. So it looks like there are no specific offline apps?

I think the Google licence partly prohibits storing their data offline, hence whenever I have looked I have found apps that do it, but they are ma fan to get working and say "respect the map company license". Orux maps was one I remember like this, CITYMAPS2GO I think you could store offline too, but I think it's open street maps, not google.

Or, get an iPhone. It has several offline mapping apps that are very good.

Such as?

Maps 3d, Motion-X GPS, City Maps to go, GPS Stone, Measure Map, GPS SMS to name a few.

THere are many many many. But I regularly use these.