Post #2158715

2026-04-28 16:16 UTC

I've spent the last five years working towards having the best possible mapping experience on the wrist possible. This has involved building a completely custom mapping engine which runs natively on the watch and working with a cartographer to create a highly legible dark mode map. I use it for all the navigation on my longer walks and once you have a map on your wrist it is hard to go back.

Replies (6)

@_Davidsmith@mastodon.social 2026-04-28 16:20

I also built a new "Expedition Mode" workout system for this update. This allows for up to 40% better battery life. While most of the time the battery life on an Apple Watch is good enough for a typical outing, especially on older devices this can really extend how far you can go. All while still having the navigation/mapping features still there. Building this was a lot of fun...as it required taking dozens of extremely long hikes/runs over the last two years while I worked on it.

Open ##2158716
@ianiv@mastodon.social 2026-04-28 16:43

@_Davidsmith looking forward to using these next week in Scotland :) Where is the best place to send you feature requests?

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@b3ll@mastodon.social 2026-04-28 18:09

@_Davidsmith wow this looks beautiful. Really great work!!

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@petersibley@mastodon.social 2026-04-28 18:22

@_Davidsmith it looks great

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@josh@appdot.net 2026-04-28 20:19

@_Davidsmith Please say more about the custom mapping engine! And congratulations - it looks gorgeous.

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@netwolfuk@mastodon.social 2026-05-13 19:50

@_Davidsmith@mastodon.social has made a very cute watch face that looks like a map! I especially like the details like using roads for the hands. (jokes) @siracusa@mastodon.social

Open ##2584004