Offline Mode – Use Android Route Planner App Without Internet
While out in the field, your delivery drivers, field service technicians, or field sales reps may need to travel out of the city, operate in poor weather conditions, service clients located in underground facilities, drive through long tunnels, and go to other places where the internet connection might be poor or absent at all. Since having 100% signal strength even in major cities at all times is unrealistic, the Route4Me Android route planner app can also be utilized as an offline route planner, allowing you and your field employees to capture customers’ electronic signatures, collect proof of delivery (POD), attach notes to stops, save images, mark stops as Visited and Departed, make video recordings, and more. Once the connection is restored, the app will automatically synchronize all saved data with the servers and instantly make it accessible across all associated computers and mobile devices. Moreover, after loading a particular route on your Android device and opening it in the in-app voice-guided navigation or a third-party navigation app, you can continue navigating this multi stop route without having to be online all the time.
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How Can You Check Data Synchronization?
The Unsynced and Synced icons on each stop of your routes allow you to check whether the data added to a particular stop is fully synchronized with the servers and available on all associated computer and mobile devices. When your device has no internet connection and you’re using the offline route planner, the data that is added to stops is stored on your device locally. The corresponding icons indicate so by switching to Uncynced. Once the internet connection is restored, and the pending data is synchronized, the corresponding icons indicate so by switching to Synced.
What Actions Can You Perform Offline?
With Route4Me’s Android app, you can perform the following actions while your device is 100% offline:
- View loaded routes, routes’ stops, and open them on the map;
- Use the integrated voice-guided navigation or third-party navigation applications;
- Mark stops as Visited and Departed;
- Add notes with attached images, videos, text, captured signatures, and more;
- Send messages through the Activity Feed;
- Scan barcodes.
Once the internet connection is restored, all captured data and performed actions are automatically synchronized with Route4Me’s servers and become available on all associated computer and mobile devices.
Checking Unsynchronized Events and Manually Synchronizing Pending Data
All captured data and performed actions are stored locally on your Android device when using the app as an offline route planner and then synchronized automatically with the servers once the connection is restored. The Pending Data screen allows you to view all unsynchronized events that are locally stored on your device. Moreover, if you want to push data synchronization when your Android device is back online, you can do it manually with the touch of a button.
To view all events that happened when your device was offline and manually synchronize the pending data, first tap on the three dots menu icon in the top right corner of the screen and then select Pending Data from the list.
On the Pending Data screen, you can view all unsynchronized data stored locally on your device. All events on the Pending Data screen are displayed in chronological order with the corresponding timestamps and descriptions.
To manually push the synchronization of all pending events and data, tap on the Synchronize All button at the bottom of the screen.
When the Pending Data screen displays the following message, it indicates that all performed actions and captured data are synchronized with the servers and are currently available across all computer and mobile devices that are associated with your Route4Me account.
Once the pending data is synchronized for any particular stop, the Unsynced icon on this stops switches to the Synced icon, respectively.
Route4Me provides near real-time data synchronization across all associated and authorized computer and mobile devices so that any changes made from Route4Me’s iOS and Android route planner apps become instantly available on the Route4Me Web Platform and vice versa.
Visit Route4Me's Marketplace to Check out Associated Modules:
- Operations
Custom Data Add-On
- Operations
Advanced Team Management Add-On