Spring updates on the website – plan your routes and share them with anyone

Spring is just around the corner, and with it comes the urge to get outside—whether it’s for a bike ride, a hike in the mountains, or your first weekend trip with friends. And for everyone who loves to plan together, we’re introducing several important new features in the route planner web.locusmap.app. You can now share your planned route with anyone— simply, quickly, and without restrictions. We’ve replaced the map engine for faster and smoother performance. Plus, we’ve added login method management directly in your user profile. 

More major updates to our mobile apps are just around the corner, but we didn’t manage to release them before the start of spring, so you can look forward to them throughout April.

Share your planned route with a single click

You know how it goes—you plan a great route and want to quickly send it to your friends so they can take a look and tell you what they think. Until now, that meant exporting the route and forwarding the file. Now it’s much easier.

You can now share a link to a planned route directly from the web planner, even without saving it. Just plan the route and send the link. The recipient can open it in a browser or directly in the mobile app, view the route, elevation profile, and details—all completely free, with no Premium subscription required.

Important note: The shared link transfers the route points you’ve clicked on, as well as all router settings and selected profiles—including any custom adjustments. The recipient will thus see the route exactly as you planned it, with all parameters included.

Three ways to share

You can share your route in three ways — choose the one that works best for you:

• Shortened link — generate a short URL that’s perfect for sharing in chat, email, or on social media.
• QR code — Each planned route has its own unique QR code. Just scan it with your phone, and the route will open immediately in your browser or in the app.
• Full URL from the address bar — copy the link directly from your browser.

Who can benefit from this?

Route sharing is perfect for anyone planning group trips. All it takes is for one member of the group to plan the route—the others can simply open it via a link and view it, even if they don’t have a Premium subscription. No need to send files or deal with complicated settings.

Imagine a typical situation: you’re planning a weekend hike with friends. You open web.locusmap.app, plan your route, send the link to a group chat—and in no time, everyone is looking at the same map and sorting out the details. Simple.

Smoother map performance

A lot of work has been going on behind the scenes of the web planner—we’ve replaced the entire core of the map application and switched to the MapLibre platform. What does this mean for you, the users?

• Panning and zooming on the map is now much smoother and more responsive
• The app can handle much more user-generated content on the map—up to 100,000 points or 100 routes
• In the future, the system will allow for the addition of more maps—whether our own LoMaps or maps from other providers. We are currently developing a vector map and detailed terrain shading, and you may even see a 3D view in the future.

We’ve also adjusted the style of the planned route so that it’s more visible on the map. Now you won’t confuse it with the bike paths:

Manage login methods

The second update concerns your user account. You can now add or change your login method for your Locus Map account directly in your profile settings.

Do you sign in with Google and want to add email and password sign-in as well? Or would you like to add Apple sign-in to your existing account? Now you can—and it only takes a few clicks.

What exactly can you configure?

• Add a new login method — for example, link a Google or Apple account to your existing login.
• Change the email address for the account you’re logging into using the email/password method.
• Manage existing methods — all in one convenient place.

You can find the login methods settings in user profile settings — click on your profile icon in the top right corner.

You’ll especially appreciate this improvement when you switch phones, switch platforms, or want to be sure you can always access your account—no matter what service you’re using at the moment.

Try out the new features today

Both new features are now available at web.locusmap.app. Open the route planner, plan your first spring route, and share it with your friends—either via a link or a QR code.

We’d love to hear your feedback—let us know what you think of the updates!