Can't add waypoints using android touch screen


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By fxfocus on 06/01/17 at 10:53am

When accessing the map via chrome browser on my android tablet I find I can't add way points. Touching the screen over the map does not seem to be recognised as a click?


By TallPaul on 06/01/17 at 12:24pm

Indeed, the app wasn't designed to work with touch screens. The fundamental problem is that you need a more precise pointing device that a finger to add and move waypoints.

There may be a solution to this, perhaps involving a graticule that you could drag around (although I fear that's going to be clunky) but we've not got one at the moment. If you come across any existing apps which have solved this conundrum that you can point me to ...


By fxfocus on 08/02/17 at 12:21pm

Just for information. Not a request for time consuming changes that I doubt most would need. :)

Well I had the bright idea of using a cheap OTG adaptor to connect a mouse to my android tablet. Was excited to find it functioned instantly upon plugging it in and using it to navigate the chrome browser with no setting up or extra drivers required. Unfortunately the mapping software still does not allow waypoints to be added.


By TallPaul on 08/02/17 at 3:48pm

Hmmmm ... "cheap" you say. Have you got a URL for it? ...


By TallPaul on 08/02/17 at 9:33pm

Aha, just remembered I had a USB OTG cable kicking around (which I've never really used). So I plugged it in, plugged in the USB wireless mouse widget which normally provides me with a mouse on my Chromebook and ... tada ... a mouse pointer appeared on the screen. Right. This is cool. I doubt I can detect its presence (although I'll check) but I suspect it would be pretty easy to add a menu option for people on touch devices to toggle mouse mode.

I'll take a look. :D


By TallPaul on 08/02/17 at 9:57pm

OK, well the news is not good: the mouse appears to be working fine: you can drag the map around and click on the '+' and '-' icons to zoom however the scroll wheel doesn't register an event so you can't zoom in and out that way. More significantly if you click on the map it doesn't register as an event either so we can't do route1 editing which is what you really needed.

This isn't our doing: the tune ups for touch screens only affect layout, not behaviour.

The other news is that mouse support in Android seems to be patchy. My Tesco Hudl running Android 5.1 knew it was there and at least let you drag things and open links and apps but my Wileyfox Swift phone which is on Android 6.1 didn't recognise the mouse at all.

Oh well. :(

  1. A route describes where you are intending to go, point by point. For more information click here.


By fxfocus on 08/02/17 at 11:17pm

Not to worry. I'm not sure my initial idea of using my tablet for this purpose when wild camping is practical anyway. Two things that are always in short supply on these trips are mobile signal and battery capacity. :)


By wintonian on 10/02/17 at 12:14pm

This actually kind of does work.

On my LG G3 (ver. 5.0) using the stock browser or Firefox, I can move waypoints. Admittedly with great difficulty (trial and error) due to my finger not being precise enough to grab hold of it (a stylus is slightly easier), increasing the area of sensitivity would solve this I think. However adding a waypoints is alluding me - maybe shortening the time before a tap registers as a 'click and hold'? As for then deleting them I suspect some innovative solution would be needed.



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