FAQ

You don't need an invitation any more: anyone can join, straight from Google Play.

On the Android phone you will test with, signed in to your Google account, open the Maple Maps testing page on Google Play and tap to become a tester. Maple Maps then installs from its Google Play page like any other app.

If Google Play says the app is not available, give the opt-in a few minutes, and check that the phone is signed in to the same Google account you used to become a tester.

On an iPhone, install TestFlight from the App Store first, then open the Maple Maps TestFlight link on the same phone.

Yes, and you don't need us to: send them the link for their phone.

On an iPhone: install TestFlight from the App Store, then open the Maple Maps TestFlight link on the phone.

On Android: open the Maple Maps testing page on Google Play on the phone, signed in to their Google account, and tap to become a tester.

You don't need an invitation any more: anyone can join on iPhone.

Install TestFlight from the App Store first, then open the Maple Maps TestFlight link on the same iPhone.

If TestFlight opens on a screen asking you for a code, go back and open the link instead: joining this way needs no code.

On Android, the answer above has the Google Play link.

Email hello@maplemaps.ca, or reply to any message we have sent you. Say what you expected, what happened instead, and roughly where you were. A screenshot helps enormously; a screen recording helps even more for anything that moves, like the arrow or the voice timing.

Every note is read by a person. Nearly every change in the release notes started as an email from a tester.

In the app, open Settings and scroll to the bottom: the Version line shows the version and, in brackets, the build number, for example 1.0.0 (62). That number is the most useful thing to include when you report a problem.

On an iPhone you can also open TestFlight and tap Maple Maps. On Android, if there's no Version line yet, open Maple Maps on Google Play and look under "About this app".

TestFlight's own emails come from Apple and go to the address Apple has for you; that isn't something we can change from our side.

Our beta emails are separate: they go to the address you signed up with on maplemaps.ca. To get them somewhere else, sign up again with the new address, then use the unsubscribe link at the bottom of any of our emails to the old one.

There's no date yet. We'd rather open it when it's ready than pick a day and miss it, and the beta is how we find out when that is. When it happens, we'll say so in our beta emails and here.

In the meantime, the beta is open to anyone: see how to join.

The places in Maple Maps come from open sources we gather into our own index: OpenStreetMap, the Overture Maps places dataset, Canada's national address register, the national EV charger register, and the transit agencies' own stop lists. On top of that we hand-check the places people rely on most, such as airports, hospitals with an emergency department and border crossings, and we fold in corrections of our own. Open data is thinner outside the big cities, so that's where a shop is most often missing or sits in the wrong spot.

Tell us about it at hello@maplemaps.ca, with the name, the town and what's wrong, and we'll fix it on our side. The next build adds "Add a missing place" and "Suggest an edit" in the app, and business owners can add or correct their own listing at maplemaps.ca/owners. If you edit OpenStreetMap yourself, the change reaches Maple Maps with our weekly map data update, so allow up to about a week.

We started out on TomTom, a Dutch company, on purpose: not American, good at maps, and with terms that let a small Canadian company build on top of them. Since then we've moved almost everything to our own servers in Québec, built from open data: the map itself, search, driving directions, transit and speed limits.

TomTom still does three things. Our servers read their live traffic, and nothing about you is sent to get it. They step in as a backup when our own search finds nothing, or when our servers can't answer. And they supply the satellite imagery, plus a backup map the app shows for a while if ours can't load. Our privacy policy explains exactly what reaches them in each case.

Yes, since version 1.0. The Transit tab, beside Drive, Bike and Walk, covers every Canadian transit agency that publishes its schedules openly: bus, LRT, subway, train and ferry. It runs on our own servers. Where we've connected an agency's live feed, a green LIVE badge means the times come from the vehicles themselves. Otherwise you see the scheduled times.

On a trip, the app tells you the stop to walk to, the minutes left and when to get off, in the same voice as driving directions. Tap any stop on the map for its departures, or type the number on a stop sign into search.

Hours come from three places, in this order: the business owner, if they've added them on our owners page; our own hand-checked list, for places like airports and hospitals; and OpenStreetMap, where volunteers record them. If none of those has the hours, the card shows none rather than a guess.

If you own the business, the quickest fix is maplemaps.ca/owners, where you can add your hours, phone number and website. Anyone can add or correct hours in OpenStreetMap with a free account. Or write to hello@maplemaps.ca and we'll look into it.

Tell us from the app. At the bottom of the search results, "Can't find it? Add a missing place" lets you add it, with a pin where the door is. On a place's own card, "Suggest an edit" lets you fix its name, address, hours or pin, or report that it has closed.

Each one goes to a person here, who checks it before it changes the map. If you don't see those yet on Android, they arrive with the next update from Google Play; until then, email hello@maplemaps.ca with the place's name and town.

Yes. On the route card, tap the From row (it says "Your location" until you change it) and choose a starting point: search for one, or tap Home, Work or another saved place. The route is worked out from there, and when you press Start, guidance follows the phone as usual. To go back to starting where you are, tap the × on the From row, or choose "Use my location".

That is a bug, and it is fixed in the next build. A navigation app should keep the display awake while it is guiding you, and the current build does not, so your phone's own screen timeout takes over. It has nothing to do with Bluetooth or the mount.

Until the update reaches you, lengthening the screen timeout in your phone's display settings gets you through a drive.

Yes. Turn the phone sideways and the app turns with it, which suits a phone in a car mount. If it stays upright on Android, landscape arrives with the next update from Google Play.

The sign in the bottom-left corner of the map shows the posted limit recorded in OpenStreetMap for the road you're on, and it changes as you cross into a new stretch. Where no limit is recorded, often on residential streets and some rural roads, the sign disappears. We don't guess a limit the map doesn't have.

If a limit is wrong or missing, tell us the road and the town at hello@maplemaps.ca. If you correct it in OpenStreetMap yourself, the change reaches the app with our weekly map data update.

CarPlay: Maple Maps doesn't have its own screen in CarPlay yet. Apple requires a separate permission for navigation apps, and ours is still waiting. Until then, with your iPhone connected, you hear the voice through the car's speakers, and a small card on the CarPlay dashboard shows the next turn, the distance to it and the minutes left.

Android Auto: it's built. If Maple Maps doesn't appear in Android Auto yet, it arrives with the next update from Google Play. Once it's there and doesn't show among the navigation apps, Android Auto's "Customize launcher" setting lets you add it.

The app uses the voices installed on your phone and picks the best one it finds. Settings › Spoken directions › Voice lets you choose; tap a voice and it says a sample line.

Apple does not ship a Canadian English voice, so English defaults to the best American one. French uses Amélie, which is Canadian French. Your phone may have better voices than it uses by default: on iPhone, Settings › Accessibility › Spoken Content › Voices lets you download higher-quality ones, and they appear in our picker after a restart. On Android, the equivalent is in the Google text-to-speech settings.

Yes. When a route uses a toll road or a ferry, the route list shows an orange Toll or Ferry tag beside it. Tap the tag and the app avoids them for that trip.

To avoid them every time, go to Settings, under Avoid, and turn on Toll roads, Highways or Ferries. The app keeps your choice until you change it. While toll roads or ferries are avoided, the route list says so, with a line you can tap to allow them again.

Yes. Before you set off, tap "Add stop" under your start and destination, and add as many as you need. The app takes you to each one in the order you list them; it doesn't reorder them for you, so put them in the order you'll drive.

If you don't see "Add stop" yet on Android, it arrives with the next update from Google Play.

Once a day, the app tells our server that this phone opened Maple Maps. That is the whole message: a random identifier the app made up when it was installed, and the date. No location, no searches, nothing about where you went. On the server the identifier is scrambled before it is stored, so the record cannot be traced back to a phone, and it is deleted after about thirteen months.

It exists so we can answer two questions: how many people use Maple Maps, and do they come back. That is the only way to tell whether it is worth continuing. There is a switch in Settings to turn it off, and reinstalling the app resets the identifier. The privacy policy has the full wording.

A solid leaf means Canadian-owned and Canadian-controlled: we confirmed it, and every entry carries a source. A hollow leaf means a Canadian head office or Canadian roots, but ownership that is foreign, mixed, or that we could not confirm. Tim Hortons is hollow, for instance, because Restaurant Brands International's own annual report gives its head office as Miami.

The list covers nearly six hundred brands and is meant to grow. Some entries will surprise you, and they are meant to; the point is to let you decide for yourself. If you think we have one wrong, or have missed one, use "Suggest a Canadian-owned business" in Settings or write to leaf@maplemaps.ca with the name and where it is. A source, such as the company's own site, speeds things up.

Two marks, two questions.

The maple leaf answers a question about ownership: is this brand Canadian-owned and Canadian-controlled, so the profits stay here? We research each one by hand, from the company's own filings, press releases and site, and every entry on the Canadian brands list carries its source. A solid leaf means we confirmed it; a hollow leaf means Canadian roots with ownership that is foreign, mixed, or unconfirmed. The leaf is for brands, the names you meet in many places.

The LOCAL badge answers a different question: is this an independent business in the community? One shop, one address, no chain behind it. We do not research the ownership of a single café, and the badge does not claim to; it says only that this is the local option, so it is easy to spot beside the others.

Where the badge comes from, in order:

• City business licences. Where a city publishes its licence roll as open data, we load it, keep the storefronts, and drop anything with more than three locations in that city or that matches a brand on our list. Edmonton and Calgary are loaded today and refreshed weekly. Other cities are added as their data becomes available.
• Owners. A business owner can add or claim their listing in the owner portal. We verify them through an email address at the business's own domain, and a verified listing shows a check on the badge and the hours, phone and website the owner keeps.
• Suggestions. Independent businesses that testers send in, and that we can confirm are a single shop, are listed by us until the owner claims them.

Think a badge is wrong, or missing? Use "Not right?" beside the entry on the list, or write to leaf@maplemaps.ca with the name and where it is.