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Show HN: Tired of entering map directions on iPhone? I've streamlined it

itunes.apple.com

185 pointspheelicks81 comments

I built this after getting tired at how many actions it takes to enter directions in Maps on iPhone. Often I just wanted to navigate from the current location to a common place (eg home, work). With Quickmaps, all I have to do is launch the app and with single gesture I'm done. Feedback is most welcome

For a feature suggestion I've been craving (not quite in-line with your app, but possibly a useful pivot): let me specify a route[-gesture] with multiple stop-points, possibly even returning to the start--so that the start of each route is the end of the previous. (Say, go to a friends' to pick something up, then from there to the grocery store, then back home [where I already was while entering the route.]) The one thing I find absolutely tedious is saying "from Current Location, to B", then after arriving at B, having to change that to "from Current Location, to A", rather than just being able to say "from B back to wherever the Current Location was when I was coming here."

I've also wanted this for a long time.

This is AMAZING. Installed it on my phone, and it works exactly as advertised. I'll be telling everyone about this. Thank you thank you thank you.

Nice, this is one of those 'duh, that makes a lot of sense' apps. I would have liked to pay for it.

I just had to double take - it's listed as free? Why?! This is a fantastic idea, and I feel many would gladly pay.

"getting tired at how many actions it takes to enter directions in Maps on iPhone."

I've never thought this was a pain point. Were you using map bookmarks? It's 5-10 seconds of clicks that I'm regularly comfortable doing while driving.

Very smart. Great work. I have definitely felt this pain, next time I do I will use your app!

Thank you. As a transit rider, this is exactly what I wanted. The existing form is not so bad if you define those locations in contacts, the form will autocomplete, including "C" for current location, strangely. But this is just that much better.

I look forward to Apple stealing this. Charge money for it while you can.

I still don't have any good mobile integration between my Google Calendar and maps, though. The phone knows where I am, and with the calendar it knows where I'm supposed to be. Why doesn't it notify me at the right time to leave where ever I am, based on estimated travel time in my usual transport mode? Surely someone's done this already...

great idea. And it should use how often you are late to improve that notification.

On this topic -- add your common locations (home, work, trader joes) as contacts in your iOS address book. Then when you need directions, just click on the address book icon in Maps under Search, and select the location, and you're good to go.

I was an iOS user for several years before figuring this out -- it's saved me a lot of time. I probably typed in my home address a hundred times unnecessarily. Although, since I'm going to try out this app, this tip maybe isn't so useful. :)

Why is that any better than using the bookmarks feature?

it's easier than that: you can just start typing a name, and the maps app will auto-complete from your address book or from the maps app's saved bookmarks.

pheelicks' app is a good idea, but it really does need Contacts integration. There's no way I'm going to type in a bunch of addresses I already have on iCloud (that got there through manual entry).

Or even better, just ask Siri for directions. It understands "work" or "home" if you've added them to yourself in the Address Book.

Yeah, I don't see the benefit. If you default "from" to Current Location, the maps interaction is three taps (edit, bookmarks, choose). While this app would be one swipe, there's the added decision of which app to use when wanting directions, and I think that probably takes up more brain space than the extra tap.

At first I thought, "Hmm, nifty idea. Could be useful."

But then I stopped to examine the use of it. It seems that this idea is inherently kind of pointless because the places you frequent you already know how to get to. On the other hand places you don't frequent, the case in which this would be fantastic, won't be in there.

What are your thoughts on this? Have you considered using prediction (perhaps by scraping the user's calendar) to show places they have not driven to many times?

Great job with the design by the way.

I commonly commute between a small set of places at different times on public transportation. Depending on what time I'm travelling, the best route through public transportation can be completely different. I know how to get to all of these places by walking/driving, but I don't always know the best way to get there given the time, which is why this app is so useful.

I regularly need to get "directions" to places I commonly visit, because I use the map app to give me bus times. I suspect folks who drive, might do this allot with traffic information.

What I really need is an app to send an address I've looked up in Google Maps on my iPhone to my Garmin Nuvi via Bluetooth.

Search on the Nuvi for places > 5 mi away takes forever. It's so much faster (and easier since Google guesses many of the address details) on the iPhone w/ Maps, and it'd be awesome to add a button that say "Send to Nuvi" and be on my way :)

I like the iPhone TomTom app which incorporates Google Local Search. The IQ route planning and traffic avoidance are excellent also, I've found them taking 10% off of city based journeys where I previously thought I knew the roads well.

My first thought is to use this on vacation. Let's say I go to San Diego... I enter in the hotel, the zoo, ocean beach, little italy, la jolla, etc. Then, as I randomly explore the area, I click from current location to any spot I've already entered. I LOVE this.

My most common words on vacation are "How in the hell do I get back to the hotel".

"And where did I park the car??" :)

My first thought was that I don't think I've ever needed directions to or from a location more than once or twice, once it's familiar I know where it is.

But then I realized I do need transit times between familiar locations every time I use mass transit.

So then I went to buy it, and it's free -- is there a way I can give you money?

>is there a way I can give you money?

Was thinking the same thing. I have paid for far less useful apps. This should be 99c

Brilliant. This is such a common use case I can't believe it's not more optimized in the OS level.

If somebody drives often between two locations they know the way, right? Am I missing something?

Not for this app per se, but for a public-transport journey planner it'd be useful for getting the next set of travel options to a common destination.

Quick suggestion: style the "Current Location" bubble differently from the rest.

Also, I'm not sure what "?" is. I assume that it lets you enter an address, but it's best if I don't have to try it to figure it out.

Agree on both. Current location and the one-off entry button should be distinct from the preset buttons.

I love the simple but powerful UI. It's not often you see something that makes you think "Why hasn't this been done before?".

I would even gladly pay a buck or two for an Android version ;)

EDIT: grammar

Agree that it could be clearer. The idea of the '?' is to let you enter a location without the hassle of having to save it first. Useful for times when you want to go someplace, but it's not common enough to warrant saving it

To me, it seems like this (the ? ) is the strongest feature of the app. My kneejerk reaction is that if you go to a place often enough to save it, you probably don't need directons anyway (or won't after one or two trips).

Nitpick aside, this is a beautifully simple interface.

I would guess that the most common use case is getting from the current location to a new destination (?). What if those 2 were more prominent? Saved locations could be an additional option but to make this more efficient, I would bring those 2 options to the forefront.

Needless to say, but well done!

The "?" button is definitely useful, but often I use Google Maps on Android to get transit directions home (or some other recurring place).

I know where home is but I still don't know whether or not I have to run to catch the next train.

Next: please make an app that tells me what direction I should be walking to find 7th ave if I'm on 8th ave? You'd think the gps should help but it doesn't. You often end up walking more than half way before the gps will sluggishly tell you you're headed in the wrong direction.

Any tourist in NYC would buy it. It's less painful than asking someone like me(happens few times a week).

Come on man! A brief & polite human interaction never hurt anyone!

Wouldn't just enabling the compass mode help with that?

wow! hurry and get this out for android - otherwise I'll do it for you ;)

On Android, you can just hold the search button to bring up voice search and say "navigate to $address" and google maps navigation will guide you to the address, no need to type anything. You can even say "navigate to $business_name" and it will lead you to the closest one.

I'm sure everyone on here knows that you can do that on either platform. Presumably people don't think that is as good.

There goes my weekend...

Not sure if it's ICS only but there is now a widget that you can set up to navigate or get directions to a specific location in 1 click.

I'm not sure if it was just a CM7 widget or not, but before I got my Galaxy Nexus, there was a widget available to do that. When you place the widget, you put in the address it should go to (one thing I didn't like is I don't remember autocomplete or any contact selection being available for it, so you had to know the address).

If you know frequently used destinations (routes are familiar) like work, park, Aquarium etc why at all you need maps? Will be useful when going to a new place for which you don't know the route. In any case you need to type the location right. I am not getting the usefulness of this App. Am I missing some thing??

My reaction: That's awesome, I wonder how much it co… (holy *@$!^&) hit download immediately. This is an elegant solution for a problem that should really be better taken care of at the OS level. Hopefully Apple has the decency to carve out a chunk of it's billions and buy this idea from you. Great work!

Consider adding calendar integration? i.e. a "next appointment (3pm / 1313 W. 54th Ave)" bubble...

OP here. Thanks for all the feedback, wasn't expecting to get such a positive response!

There are a bunch of great suggestions here which I plan on adding in the future. Follow me: @pheeelicks (yes, 3 e's) for updates (inc Android version)

(Sorry for the extra post - it's too late to edit my original)

Looks like a great app. Does it offer any password protection?

Dan loses phone, Andy finds phone. Andy emails Dan's wife saying he lost his keys, and can she leave a spare behind the shed? Andy uses phone to find house, Andy robs house.

Just a thought. :)

Probably better to depend on the OS security for this.

Maybe so, but iirc the iPhone pin-code is pretty easy to bypass.

Perhaps it's just me that's paranoid! :)

Oh well sure, more security is always better. :-)

I was just thinking that if they were able to reach email then the map app security isn't as much of a concern.

You can configure the lockscreen to require a fullblown passphrase if you think pins are too short.

Of course, but there have been security flaws in the past that allowed you to easily remove a pin or passphrase.

I'm just nervous about saving my "home" address. Your car has keys, but you're still advised not to save your home address under "Home" on your satnav. It's the same thing.

Hm, there are some provisions in the secure keychain that supposedly encrypt keychain data with the pin/passphrase. Wonder if those lockscreen bypass flaws affect that? (Google "kSecAttrAccessibleWhenUnlocked" for a start)

Presumably it is on your registration or do you not keep that in your car?

I do not keep that in my car.

UK law allows me to carry only the license part and leave the paper part at home. In the event that I should be required to produce it, I am allowed four days to take it to my local police station.

Exactly why I'm wary of this program although it looks like it's VERY useful.

The one pain point for me in the app, which I installed, is that when I enter/edit a location I want to just drop a pin on the map - ala google maps. And not just be redirected to the native maps app.

I am a bit confused, why do you need the starting point? I guess you would be there and for navigation you would need a GPS position anyways.

Sometimes GPS isn't working. What if you're in an underground parking lot?

I do agree though, it seems like a bit of a fail if the OS knows that it has a good fix on GPS, you shouldn't even need a "current location". Just tap the location you want and go. If you want to do a route from A to B, then do the swipe. But I expect the difficulty there is that getting a GPS fix takes time, and mobile apps in 2012 can't do it in the background.

Cute interface. The aesthetic could be a little more refined but the behaviour and the animation is quite charming.

Hrm. I only use my nav to get to _new_ places. That being said, I do see value using this app to swipe to the "?".

That was my initial thought as well. An interesting extension of this concept would be to have generic circles too (eg "Bars") that connect the user to a list of nearby places that the user can select from. Still no typing.

I don't really see the point. Getting from my favourite places to my favourite places I usually don't need a map.

Why would I need a GPS to take me to dad's or a particular cafe after I've gone there once or twice?

wow! cool idea bro! installed it! I am sure I will be using this all the time when I need the maps!

One request: If you can write a blog/comments about number of downloads after making to top of HN, it would be interesting metric to look at :-)

what GPS app do you guys use? all the iphone GPS apps I've used are terrible, I still use Siri w/ google maps, which takes more attention than it should when i'm driving.

The Motion-X suite of products are a little bit hardcore geo-nerd, but they work for me.

I use Navigon. I'd give it a 4/5 rating.

Siri actually makes it rather simple to query map directions

This is really awesome. I would have gladly paid $1 for it.

Very, Very clever. Definitely going to give this a try.

Brilliant. I would have paid for this, fyi.

good job!! question -- did you design outlook and icon yourself? any suggestions?

Did all the design myself, except the icons which came from the excellent glyphish (http://glyphish.com/) icon collection. The icon is also based off one of these.

thanks. is this design in illustrator?

Inkscape

Nice app, I'm impressed!

Thank you, thank you!

Clever app, nice job. Love the animation on the selection and how it just leaves you in google maps and doesn't try to re-invent the map interface. Might want to change

Swipe from one location to another

Drag from one location to another

Thanks for making it.

i can see how the UI is awesome from going one place to another, but really, anyone 'navigate' from anywhere that is not your 'current location'?

i don't. so it's an honest question.

thinking about it, the only few times i do search from A to B instead of "here to B" is when i'm getting the subway, but then, i always have to click the nearest station i'm willing to walk anyway... don't see i having one bookmark for each one

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