The “off-season” is when the iHunter team does the vast majority of significant app improvement and development. This year is no exception, and we have been working hard on improving both the iOS and Android apps. Here is a list of upcoming features/fixes that you can expect:

Android and iOS

1. Ability to bulk-cache landownership maps, and cacheable base maps. If the base map can be cached (labelled as such in the settings), then you can manage that cache. You can select a region of the map, choose a zoom level to cache to, and start downloading. You need to be on wifi, and we limit you to 100 MB of data per download, but the end result is that you can pre-download areas of the map so that when you get into areas with little to no cell reception, you can still have full mapping capabilities.
2. Addition of a new base maps, from public sources. We are adding a few new Topo maps, and a couple road maps as well.
3. Allowing custom base maps to be added to the app. Do you have access to a TMS or WMS based map that you want to use instead of the maps we provide? If so, you can enter that map information, and use that instead of our maps (our maps will not be shown, and your map will be base layer). There are all sorts of maps out there on the internet that you can add (assuming you have permission / license to do so).
4. Allowing custom map layers to be added to the app. Just like the previous point, but you can add map layers on top of the other base maps. Your province or state might have map layers available to show private land boundaries, wildlife habitat densities, or similar information. You still want another base map underneath though, as these layers might only cover part of the map. Like other cacheable maps, these can be bulk-downloaded as long as you confirm that you have a license to do so.
5. Provide direction to waypoints. When tapping on a waypoint in iHunter, you will be presented with an option to get driving directions to that location from either Google or Apple Maps on your device. We don’t have the manpower to do a full directions based GPS navigation system in iHunter, so we rely on other apps for the actual turn by turn navigation. You can disable this in the settings if you never use the directions.
6. You can opt to use smaller waypoint icons if you find the standard size icons are too big. As more and more waypoints are added to the map, they can be a bit overwhelming, and this gives those users the option to make them a bit smaller less conspicuous.
7. Current altitude will be shown in the Location info drawer for quick reference.

Android only

1. Greatly improved readability of the land ownership and base map layers on higher resolution devices. High resolution devices (pretty much every modern device), were “upscaling” many of the maps and making them pretty difficult to read. This is fixed and will be available shortly.
2. Updated settings view to more closely replicate the experience on iOS.
3. Improvements when selecting images within waypoints.
4. Chronic Wasting Disease drop off locations are now shown on the map, and CWD affected zones are highlighted with a yellow caution sign (Alberta only).

iOS only

1. Addition of Google road, satellite, terrain and hybrid maps in addition to the Apple and third-party maps. Although it required a re-write of the entire map portion of the app, the maps differ from Apple maps, and many users have been asking for it. As with Apple maps, these are not “cacheable” like our third party maps, as we don’t have access to the raw map data, and rely on Googles own caching mechanism.

We have also hired on another full-time developer that is going to help us keep on top of bug fixes, keep the Android and iOS apps at feature parity, and continue building new features for the different provinces and states. Please let us know if there is something in particular you would like to see, and we will consider it as we prioritize new features.

Thanks,

Mark Stenroos