SkyPin
Your position when the phone's GPS gives up
SkyPin reads the raw satellite measurements your phone still receives at a window seat, in a train or on the road, and turns them into an approximate position with an honest confidence figure.
Android · closed testingWhy it exists
Inside an airliner the phone's own GPS usually reports nothing: too few satellites, too weak a signal. Yet the receiver often sees four or five of them through the window. SkyPin takes those raw measurements, adds satellite orbits downloaded in advance, and computes where you are, how high and how fast. When even that is not enough, it keeps the estimate going from the last known speed and course, and says so.
What it does
Works offline
A world map is bundled with the app, and detailed regions can be downloaded for the trip. Satellite orbits are fetched before take-off and stay valid for hours.
Says how sure it is
Every value, speed, altitude, climb rate and heading, comes with a confidence percentage. Positions too uncertain to be useful are not shown at all.
Knows the destination
Pick the arrival airport and see distance, bearing and an arrival time that accounts for the descent. Nearby airports appear on the map.
Keeps the track
Trips are recorded in the background with turns and speed changes preserved, coloured by altitude or speed, and exported as GPX.
Four modes
Honest about limits
This is not a replacement for the phone's navigation. The accuracy depends on how many satellites the receiver sees through the window: tens of metres on the ground, hundreds of metres to a few kilometres in flight. SkyPin shows that uncertainty instead of hiding it. Phones must expose raw GNSS measurements; most Android phones since 2017 do. SkyPin uses GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, BeiDou and QZSS together.
Get it
SkyPin is in closed testing on Google Play. Write to [email protected] with your Google account e-mail to join the test. Available in 18 languages.
Join the test