Hiker's Watch

A simple, private, on-device GPS display for Android. Shows your current latitude, longitude, altitude, accuracy, and reverse-geocoded address. Share the location, copy it to the clipboard, or open it in your preferred maps app.

No accounts. No ads. No trackers. No data leaves your device.

Live on Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nv.nvgeowatch

Features

• Real-time GPS readings (lat, lon, altitude, accuracy)
• Reverse-geocoded street address
• Compass with true / magnetic north toggle (rotation-vector sensor)
• Speed and bearing readouts (auto-hide when stationary)
• Live satellite count (in-fix / in-view)
• Barometric pressure and altitude (devices with a barometer)
• Sunrise, sunset, solar noon, day length, and moon phase for your position
• Open a geo:lat,lon link from any app — see distance + bearing to the target
• Quick Settings tile and home-screen shortcut to copy your coords instantly
• Keep-screen-on toggle for trail use
• Share / Copy / Open-in-Maps from any fix
• Graceful recovery from denied permissions, blocked permissions, or disabled Location Services — no dead ends
• Approximate-location (coarse) support for users who only grant it
• Light and dark themes
• Edge-to-edge UI for Android 15

Build

Requirements: Android Studio Hedgehog+, JDK 17, Android SDK Platform 35.

./gradlew clean assembleRelease         # signed APK
./gradlew clean bundleRelease           # signed AAB (for Play Store)

Outputs:

• APK: app/build/outputs/apk/release/app-release.apk
• AAB: app/build/outputs/bundle/release/app-release.aab

The release build is signed via keystore.properties (git-ignored) — see the file's comments for the expected keys.

Publish to Google Play

Two paths, documented in scripts/README.md:

1. Manual — Drag the AAB into Play Console → Test and release → choose a track → release notes → roll out.
2. Automated — python scripts/play_deploy.py … once you've created a service-account key (one-time browser setup).

Privacy policy

Hosted via GitHub Pages from docs/privacy-policy.html:

https://naveenverma1.github.io/Hiker-Watch-Android-/privacy-policy.html

To enable: GitHub repo Settings → Pages → Source: "Deploy from a branch" → Branch: master / folder: /docs.

Permissions

Permission	Why we need it
INTERNET	Lets Android's system Geocoder resolve coordinates to an address.
ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION	Precise GPS. Preferred.
ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION	Approximate location. Accepted as a fallback when the user only grants "Approximate".

No background-location permission. The app stops requesting updates when you leave the screen.

License

Personal project by Naveen Verma. All rights reserved.