Lost? How to Use Backtrack on Apple Watch to Retrace Your Steps

[aloshka]

Damn that's actually a pretty cool feature.
Strangely, I watched every keynote and never heard of this before.

It's not really a cool feature. Almost useless. With no map, there is no way to really tell a) which direction you were headed, b) you cannot pan the map, only zoom out/in. So if you traveled quite the distance, it's all just one blob, and you can't really tell where you need to go, or it's so zoomed in, you can't see what an edge of a line actually means.

Basically, got lost, got more lost with the apple watch, and in the end the battery died so it didn't matter.

I think for those that are really in the back country, unfortunately, Garmin watches are still the way to go. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the smoothness of the apple watch, accuracy of the compass, the style of it as well, but it's a city watch that you use to run, walk, etc. I think it's for people that get lost in a city or something but feel like they are in the back country.

 

[jasoncarle]

"Backtrack uses the GPS on your Apple Watch to create a virtual breadcrumb trail of your route so you don't have to worry about keeping track of where you're going."

Worst. Advice. Ever.

 

[clg82]

I was camping and fiddling with my watch last weekend (you can long press on the side button and backtrack comes up) when I discovered backtrack. An hour later we had hiked up part of a mountain and parted ways with who we were following as they wanted to go further but my kids were done. Suddenly I realized I didn't know the best way back. I remembered this feature and it worked like a charm! I was so happy that I remembered it and it wasn't frustrating!

Maybe I'll be used at the next Apple Watch event...only I don't think my life was on the line .

Which side button? The action button?

 

[aloshka]

The reason I can think of is privacy. You wouldn’t want someone secretly turning this on and being able to see the exact route you took unless they literally retraced it with the watch themselves. I can see how they may have beta tested with a map and many people raised this concern and this was their solution.

I'm all for privacy and do see your point, but if they can turn on backtrack while you are wearing your watch (since it can't be turned on unless it's unlocked on your wrist), i think map tracing isn't your biggest worry when it comes to privacy.

That said, I really do think it was just too big of a feature to add because getting offline maps on a watch is a huge feature that isn't easy to implement. Especially since it can't just be apple maps (you'd need terrain, elevation, etc). Which means they'd need a contract with an existing provider that has terrain maps (trying to recreate trail maps, etc from scratch would take years)

 

[ponzicoinbro]

I can understand backtrack if you are in some wild place with no food, no street signs, no landmarks and no people.

 

[PrecisionGem]

Potentially great feature, but needing to turn it on in advance (?!)… who plans on getting lost? It should be one of those things always running in the background, available WHEN you discover you need it.

I would think this would be something you would maybe use when on a hike? In your normal day, often do you get lost When walking?

 

[testcard]

Coming a little late to the party...
Trying out my new Ultra 2 today with an Outdoor Walk. I was vaguely familiar with Backtrack, and assumed that it would turn on automatically when I began the walk, but apparently not. Seems a little strange that something that should be baked into certain workouts (walks/hikes) is a separate function.