Waypoints

A waypoint is a named point on the map — a trailhead, a summit, a good photo spot, a cabin, the place the car is parked. Each one has a name, a colour, and one of 32 symbols.

Adding a waypoint

At a specific place (long-press the map)

Long-press on the map where you want the waypoint. A sheet slides up with:

• Name — optional. Defaults to “Waypoint” if you leave it blank.
• Notes — optional description.
• Latitude / Longitude — auto-filled from the tapped point; editable if you want to tweak them.
• Elevation (m) — optional. Leave blank if unknown; fill in when you want the waypoint to carry a specific altitude (e.g. a summit height you looked up). Tap the small download icon on the right side of the field to fetch elevation from a worldwide terrain model (~30 m accuracy) using the typed Lat/Lon — handy when you’re typing coordinates by hand. Greyed out until both Lat and Lon parse to valid numbers; brief spinner while fetching; a “Couldn’t fetch elevation” toast if you’re offline.
• Symbol — pick from 32 icons.
• Colour — 16-colour palette.
• Save / Cancel.

By typing coordinates

Open menu → Waypoints → tap the blue + FAB at the bottom-right. Same sheet as above, but the Lat / Lon fields start empty. Type coordinates (or paste a lat, lon string into the Latitude field — the app auto-splits into both fields).

By importing a GPX file

Open menu → Waypoints → tap the blue folder icon FAB at the bottom-right. Pick one or more .gpx files. Any waypoints inside the files are imported. Duplicates (same name, within ~11 m) are skipped automatically.

At your current location

Turn on GPS (tap the crosshair button if the triangle isn’t showing), long-press on the triangle itself (or anywhere very close to it), and the dialog opens pre-positioned at your fix.

From an imported GPX (via share / open-with)

GPX files opened from another app (WhatsApp attachment, Gmail, file manager) also import their waypoints automatically. If the GPX has no name for a waypoint (some exporters drop the coords into the name field), ApexGPS detects that and shows “Waypoint” instead.

Viewing a waypoint

Tap any waypoint on the map. A panel slides up from the bottom with:

• Icon + name.
• Coordinates (lat/lon to 6 decimals).
• Elevation (if set).
• Distance from your current GPS position (blue — live).
• Description (if you entered one).
• Navigate button (walking person, blue) — starts straight-line navigation to this waypoint. See below.
• Share button — sends the waypoint via WhatsApp / SMS / email. The recipient gets a text with the name, coords, elevation, and two links (ApexGPS App Link + Google Maps). If they also have ApexGPS installed, tapping the link opens the app directly with a red bullseye marker at the spot — they can Save it as their own waypoint.
• Edit button.

Dismiss by swiping down.

Navigate to a waypoint

Tap the Navigate icon (walking person, primary-tinted) in the waypoint overlay. The overlay closes and:

• A light-blue dotted line draws from your live GPS position to the waypoint.
• The bottom bar becomes: “Navigating · 0.42 km · 045° NE · [Stop]” — distance updates live (blue when auto-updating), bearing is in degrees + a cardinal direction (N, NE, E, SE, S, SW, W, NW).
• The DIST field in the bottom stats row also shows this live distance in blue.
• Auto-stops when you’re within 20 metres of the waypoint (“Arrived” toast).
• Tap Stop to end navigation manually at any time. The waypoint is still there — tap it to reopen the overlay.

This is the same go-to mode that shared locations use. Straight-line bearing, not turn-by-turn — for hiking off-trail it’s usually what you want.

Tap the waypoint again anytime during navigation to reopen the overlay (navigation continues in the background).

Editing a waypoint

Tap the waypoint → Edit in the overlay, or open menu → Waypoints and tap a row.

Same sheet as when adding. Name, Notes, Latitude, Longitude, Elevation, Symbol, Colour are all editable. On Save, the app validates the coordinates (lat ∈ [−90, 90], lon ∈ [−180, 180], both must be numbers) and shows an inline red error if they’re out of range. The download icon inside the Elev field re-fetches elevation from the terrain model — useful after dragging a waypoint to a new spot or after correcting Lat/Lon.

Moving a waypoint

Long-press-and-drag the waypoint on the map. Drag it to the new position. When you let go, a bar appears at the bottom:

• Move — commits the new position.
• Cancel — snaps it back to where it was.

Nothing is saved until you press Move. Useful if the drag was an accident.

The 32 symbols

Grouped by purpose so you can browse them in the picker:

All 32 are selectable when adding or editing. The symbol is stored with the waypoint and survives export → re-import.

The Waypoints list (menu → Waypoints)

Every waypoint, with count in the title.

Filter

Filter icon → two sections:

• Colour — tap a chip to show only that colour. Tap Any to clear.
• Symbol — scrollable list of all 32 symbols with their icons. Tap one to filter to only waypoints using that symbol.

Active filters turn the icon blue.

Sort

Sort icon — three keys, and re-tapping the active key flips the direction (the active row shows the directional name + ✓):

• Newest first / Oldest first — by import / creation date (newest is the default).
• By name → Name (A→Z) / Name (Z→A) — alphabetical.
• Nearest first / Farthest first — closest to your current GPS location. Shows “(no GPS)” if the phone has no cached fix.

Tapping a different key resets to that key’s natural direction (newest / A→Z / nearest); re-tap to flip.

Search

Type into the search box to filter to waypoints whose name OR description contains your text.

Select multiple

Long-press a waypoint in the list → selection mode. Tick more, then:

• Bulk share (share icon) — bundle every selected waypoint into a single .gpx file and open the share dialog. See Share tracks & waypoints.
• Bulk delete (trash icon, red) — with confirmation.

There’s no bulk colour/symbol change for waypoints (yet) — use Edit per waypoint for that.

Remove duplicates

If you’ve re-imported the same GPX multiple times with earlier app versions, you may have stacked duplicates (same name at the same coords). Tap the ⋮ overflow → Remove duplicates. It keeps the oldest copy of each and deletes the rest; shows how many were removed.

Deleting

Single: swipe / tap the trash icon on a row, or use the Delete button in the edit dialog.

Multiple: selection mode + bulk delete.

No undo. Keep a backup if you’re nervous.

Showing a waypoint on the map

From the list screen, tap a waypoint → the app navigates back to the map and pans to that waypoint. Follow-me is paused so the pan isn’t immediately overridden by the next GPS fix.

Related: Tracks → · Backup & restore → · The map screen →