Track Your Outdoor Travels Without Your iPhone In YoNav

There are quite a few GPS tracking and telemetry apps that works with the Apple Watch. Try to find one that doesn’t need to be tethered to your iPhone, though, and it’s a different story. At least one app, however, has done just that. YoNav leverages the latest features of the Apple Watch Series 2 to put a cutting-edge waterproof standalone GPS on your wrist. It really can track your outdoor travels, even without your iPhone nearby.

Why Would I Need YoNav on my Apple Watch?

It’s a fair question, even though cases have already been made for joggers and runners to be able to work out without carting along their iOS device. Still, there are even more reasons you might want to cut loose from your iPhone and still have GPS capability on your Apple Watch. Sailors, kite-boarders, surfers, and folks who enjoy other water sports will love YoNav. Any way you can track your outdoor travels even when you can’t (or won’t) carry along your iPhone is a good use case for this app.

The app on your Apple Watch really is able to track your your outdoor travel independently of your iPhone. I tested this by turning my iPhone off and running YoNav from my Apple Watch. While it takes a little bit of time to synchronize with the GPS satellites, the app does display important telemetry for you during your activity. Take a look at the screenshots below, showing it in action.

You’ll notice the Watch icon, indicating it’s using the Apple Watch Series 2 model’s integrated GPS chip. When you’re paired with your iPhone, that icon changes.

Other Great YoNav Features to Track Your Outdoor Travels

The app can also provide you with a built-in timer for following routes, offering haptic feedback during the countdown. It tracks your calories burned during your activity, and keeps a running log of your position. When you get back to your iOS device, you can synchronize the Apple Watch app with your iPhone or iPad, and see your route on a map with color-coded tracks to show speed variations.

By default, the main YoNav Apple Watch screen displays your course and speed. Force Touch your Apple Watch screen, and you can modify this layout. In the app’s settings, you can configure up to four data fields. You can choose to display speed, course, bearing to way point, distance off course, along with many others.

Other screens within the app provide you with a timer as well as your geographic location using latitude and longitude. Note that the app only provides untethered tracking with the Apple Watch Series 2, and continual use could drain your battery pretty quickly. YoNav is available on the iOS App Store.