1. Add a Track

After opening the app, tap “Start recording” at the bottom. The track is named after the place name of your current location. You can tap in the upper right corner and select “Tracks”, then long press the “Recording” track and choose Edit to change the track name.

Note: If the track location is offset from the actual location, you can tap in the upper right corner and select “Settings”, then try turning “GPS Location Fix” on or off and record again.

The track is displayed with a red, yellow, and green gradient according to different speeds:

Green: slower speed, usually useful as a reference for walking tracks
Yellow: about 18 km/h, suitable for indicating cycling speed
Red: faster speed, useful as a reference for travel by vehicle

Through the color changes, you can not only see where you have been, but also intuitively understand your movement status on different road sections.

On the Settings page, you can select the step length for recording (10–200 m). The system adds one track point at each interval of this length (changes take effect from new recordings). If the error in the current GPS location information is greater than the step length, “Weak GPS Signal” will be shown in yellow on the map. You can adjust the step length to increase the error tolerance range (this will not affect the step length of the current track recording). If there is no GPS signal, “No GPS Signal” will be shown in red.

On the “Settings” page, the “recording map type” option can be set to “Satellite” to display a satellite map.

After recording is finished, tap at the bottom, then tap “End of record” at the bottom to end the track recording.

Information related to the current track is displayed below the map. You can tap at the bottom to open or close it. It includes the following information:

Distance	Distance traveled
Steps	Number of steps walked in the track
Elevation	Elevation gain in the track
Update	Last track update time If you find that the update time has stopped changing, please go to the Settings page, tap “Location Permission Settings”, select Location, and choose “Always”.
Duration	Track duration

Current track information

2. Add Places and Calculate Distance

Tap in the upper right corner and select “Places”, then tap “Add Location” at the bottom. The location search screen will be displayed. Enter a place name in the search box, and matching place names and distances will appear below. Tap a place name to add it to the place list. If you cannot find the place, try changing the country or region on the left and search again.

Tap “Update Location” at the bottom (if a location permission prompt appears, please allow it). The name of your current location will be displayed above, and the distance between your current location and added places will be shown on the right side of the place list. Tap in the upper right corner to enter the “Map” page, where the map will focus on your current location. You can also tap at the bottom of the “Map” page to update your location.

Tapping a place or the current location name will show the following options:

Add as place: add the current location to the place list.
Set as origin: change the origin for distance calculation. When you enter the “Map” page, the map will focus on the origin location.
Edit: edit the place name or add notes in the details.
Delete: delete the place.
Weather: show the weather for this place for the next 24 hours and the next 7 days.
Street View: show the street view for this place (supported only in some regions).
Nearby facilities: search for nearby facilities (such as restaurants, convenience stores, etc.). You can choose between Google and Apple Maps as data sources. You can set the search radius in “Settings” (tap in the upper right corner and select “Settings”).

Tap “Edit” in the upper left corner, select several places, and enter a group name to group these places in the place list. You can choose which group to display in the upper right corner.

3. Map

Tap in the upper right corner and select “Map”. When you are not recording a track, tap the icon button at the bottom to quickly focus on your current location.

Places added on the Places page are shown on the map with white text on a blue background.

A blue arrow in the upper right corner of the map also shows your current heading direction, helping you judge your direction of travel more intuitively and reducing wrong turns or detours.

On the Places page, tap the distance number next to a place to display the route from the current origin to the target place on the Map page.

You can choose according to your needs:

Walking route
Driving route
Cycling route
Public transportation route

Public transportation routes are shown with colored solid lines, making it easy to distinguish different transit segments. Walking, driving, cycling, and other routes are shown with dashed lines, keeping the map information clearer.

If you want to view more detailed route information, simply tap the icon at the bottom to open or close route details, including travel time, distance, bus stops, route information, and more.

Tap in the upper right corner to see the following options:

Auto-focus on current location	After you start recording a track, every time a new track point is added, the map automatically focuses on that point. If you want to browse the track in other locations, you can select this option so browsing will not be interrupted.
Reference	Select a previously recorded track and display it on the map as a reference. The reference track is shown as a dashed line, so it will not interfere with the current route and can help you compare it with paths you have taken before. You can choose a year in the upper right corner of the screen to select tracks from other years. At the bottom, you can choose whether to “Show labels for reference tracks”.
End	End recording. If the track was recorded with Apple Watch, it is recommended to end it in the Apple Watch app.
Marker	After starting track recording, add a marker at the current location and attach a photo taken there (see Section 5).

Recording options

4. Use Apple Watch to Record Tracks

Open the “Journey GPS Tracker” app on Apple Watch. If prompts appear asking for permission to read and write health information, please choose to allow all. Then tap “Cycling”, “Hiking”, “Running”, or “Walking” as appropriate. Open the “Journey GPS Tracker” app on your phone and confirm that the current track page shows a track named after the current place. If a location permission prompt appears, choose “While Using the App”. You can then view the track recorded by Apple Watch on your phone. During this time, even if the phone app is closed, Apple Watch can continue recording data and will automatically sync with the phone app the next time it is opened.

You can change the track name using the same method described in Section 2.

The information shown in the Watch app is:

🔥	Calories consumed during the track
📏	Distance traveled during the track
♥️	Current heart rate (beats per minute)
👟	Number of steps walked in the track
🔄	The time difference between the latest GPS coordinates sent to the phone and the current time (“Just now” is shown if less than 60 seconds).
🔋	Battery level. 🪫 is shown when it is below 20%.

Information shown on Apple Watch

Swipe left on the Apple Watch screen to display the control screen, where you can pause/continue, end, or mark the track. After ending the track recording, you can view the workout record in Workouts in the built-in Fitness app on your phone.

5. Add Markers

After recording starts, tap at the bottom, or tap in the upper right corner and select “Marker” from the pop-up menu:

The camera screen will appear. After you take a photo or close it, the Edit Marker screen will be displayed. You can change the name (by default, it is named after the marked place), attach a photo from the album, or take another photo. After editing, tap “Add” at the top to add a marker containing the image.
Tap “Save” at the bottom to save the photo you took to the album.
After selecting “Take Photo”, slide your finger over the image to display a square with a green border. Tap the “Cut” button at the bottom to crop the image inside the square.

Tap a marker added on the map to display the marker information and thumbnail.

Tap in the upper right corner and select “Tracks”, tap the relevant track, and select the marker page at the top to browse the list of markers for the current recording (as shown on the right):

Long press the marker name to edit or delete the marker.
Tap a marker to display detailed information. Tap the image to show it full screen, and use gestures to zoom the image in or out.

6. Browse Ended Tracks

Tap in the upper right corner and select “Tracks” to view a list of all records, including the record name and start recording time. Long press a track name to choose “Edit” to change the name or “Delete” to delete the record.

Long press a track name and drag it onto another track name. A prompt will ask whether to merge the tracks. Select “Confirm” to move the data from the dragged track to the target track and delete the dragged track.

Tap the corresponding record name to view the recorded track. Tap in the upper right corner to show the following options:

On the “Settings” page, the “history map type” option can be set to “Satellite” to display a satellite map.

7. Settings

Tap in the upper right corner and select “Settings” to see the following buttons and features:

Auto Sync	Tracks, places, and marker data in the app are automatically synced to your other devices through iCloud (this feature cannot be turned off).
Step Length	See Section 1.
Nearby facility search radius	See Section 3.
GPS Location Fix	Fixes the GPS location offset issue in mainland China. If you find that GPS tracks deviate in other regions, try turning off this option and recording again.
Location Permission Settings	Set location permissions. To use this app normally, please set location permission to “Always”.
Show places on map	When selected, added places are displayed on the map using blue squares.
Show heading direction on map	When selected, a blue arrow in the upper right corner of the map shows the current heading direction.
Map Type	Choose Flat or Satellite maps for the map and history tracks.

8. FAQ

Apple Watch cannot locate tracks after reinstalling the app
- You can try the following method to reset location permissions and other security settings: go to System Settings > General > Transfer or Reset iPhone > Reset > Reset Location & Privacy.
The recorded track is offset from the actual location
- You can go to the Settings page, turn “GPS Location Fix” on or off, and then record again.
How do I continue recording on a track that has already been saved?
- Version 1.20 no longer supports continuing to record ended tracks. You can record a new track, and after ending it, drag and drop the second track onto the first track in the history track screen to merge them. If you want to display the previous track while recording a track, you can tap the menu in the upper right corner, select “Reference”, and choose the previous track as a reference.
Can it be used on Mac?
- You can click Download at the top of the page or search for the app name in the Mac App Store, then select “iPhone & iPad Apps” on the right to find and download the app.

Export to GPX	You can export the track as a GPX file. On the History page of the “Journey GPS Tracker” app on another device, tap in the upper right corner and select “Load from GPX” to import it again. Note that exported tracks do not include step-count information or marker images.
Export as KML	You can export the track as a KML file.
Edit Track Range	Select the range of the track to display. Tap “Cut” to delete the track points that are not displayed.

“Journey GPS Tracker” User Manual