Navigation

Navigation

Planning a route

1. Search for a destination. Roadstr opens the route planner.
2. Add stops if you want: an A → B route can have freeform waypoints.
3. Pick the mode — car, cycling or walking — and, optionally, Transit for public transport (Public transport).
4. Roadstr shows one or more alternatives, with a traffic preview. Choose one and start.

A destination can also arrive from another app: see Integrating with Roadstr.

Routing providers

Chosen in Settings → Map → Routing provider:

Provider	Key needed	Notes
OSRM (public)	No	The default. Nothing to configure.
GraphHopper (self-hosted)	No	Give your server URL, e.g. http://localhost:8989/route
GraphHopper Cloud	Yes	API key from GraphHopper
OpenRouteService	Yes	API key from OpenRouteService

All support car, cycling and walking. Avoid unpaved roads (Settings → Map) steers routes away from tracks and dirt roads when a paved way exists — a preference, not a guarantee, since surface data is incomplete. Routes can also be computed on the phone with an installed offline package: see Maps and offline use.

While you drive

• Turn-by-turn guidance with spoken instructions (Voice guidance). The map rotates so that the vehicle points in the direction of travel, and the zoom adapts to speed.
• Keeps going with the screen off. The trip, the voice and the GPS are held by a foreground service with a notification, so locking the phone, rotating it or swiping the app away does not end a trip. Allow notifications for Roadstr and do not restrict its battery use.
• Speedometer HUD in five styles — Classic, Digital, Analog, Sport, Minimal — and a movement cursor you can choose (Standard, Formula 1, SUV, Racing car, Electric car, City car, Classic Fiat 500) and colour (Settings → Navigation appearance).
• Speed limit display. Shown when OpenStreetMap states the limit (maxspeed). If the map does not, the display says nothing rather than guessing.
• Arrival and off-route handling. Roadstr recognises arrival, and recalculates when you leave the route.
• Weather along the route (Open-Meteo, free and key-free).
• Imperial units (miles and feet) are available in Settings → Map.

Warnings

Warning	Source
Speed cameras	Reports from other people (Nostr kind 1315) and an OpenStreetMap baseline fetched from Overpass and cached
ZTL / ZAC / limited-traffic zones	OpenStreetMap, with restricted stretches coloured on the route and live "inside / nearby" notices
Hazards, police, jams, closures…	Road reports from people nearby — see Road reports
Traffic lights, pedestrian crossings, speed bumps	Optional map overlays from OpenStreetMap (Settings → Map → Map element overlays)

Restricted-zone data is tagged per street in OpenStreetMap and varies a great deal from city to city. Treat a missing warning as no information, not as no restriction.

Performance profiles

Chosen at first start and in Settings → Performance and energy saving:

Profile	Map	Frame rate	GPS while navigating
Eco	2D	up to 30 FPS	1 Hz
Balanced	2D	up to 60 FPS	1 Hz
3D Eco	MapLibre 3D	up to 45 FPS	1 Hz, adaptively up to 2 Hz
Performance	MapLibre 3D	up to 60 FPS	up to 2 Hz

Eco is the right choice for long trips and modest phones; Performance for recent ones.

Screen and display

Keep screen on applies during navigation; Keep screen on outside navigation too extends it to browsing the map. Minimum screen brightness stops dimming below a level — useful on OLED phones. Center on my position at startup uses GPS only if location permission was already granted. Show altitude adds a small elevation readout.