Overlanding takes you where help is far away and the phone often has nothing. No single app covers it all. These are the ones worth having, by what each does best. We built LastBar, so we have put it among them and said so; the others are there because they are good at their job.
iOverlander
Good for: finding campsites, water, fuel and mechanics on the road
A database of places kept up by travellers themselves: established and wild campsites, hostels, fuel, water, mechanics and border checkpoints, with notes on amenities and on mobile reception. Most of it works without signal. Entries are user-written, so check how recent one is.
Free, run on donations
Tracks4Africa Guide
Good for: offline maps and guides of Africa's remote roads
Detailed offline maps of Africa from Tracks4Africa's own data, with gravel roads, sand tracks and 4x4 routes marked, and points of interest from camps and lodging to fuel and services. It is a planning and orientation tool rather than turn-by-turn navigation.
iPhone and Android · Free base map of Africa; country guides bought in the app
Gaia GPS
Good for: offline topographic maps and route planning
Download maps before you go and keep navigating by GPS with no signal. Premium adds a catalogue of maps and overlays, among them off-road layers in the United States.
Free to start; offline maps with Premium
LastBar We built this
Good for: knowing where the signal ends, and getting back to it offline
A map of where phones measured signal, and where they measured none, made by the people who use it, carrier by carrier. It keeps the map of the places around you and of the areas you save on your phone, so Find Signal can give you the distance and direction to the nearest signal with no connection: for an emergency call on any carrier, a call or SMS on your own, or data. It shows the emergency numbers of the country you are in, and water, shelter, clinics, police and fuel from OpenStreetMap. Android phones map signal in the background as you go; an iPhone maps while the app is open. Where nobody has been with it yet, the map is empty.
Android 8.0 and up, iPhone with iOS 16 and up · Free, with Pro bought once
onX Offroad
Good for: trail maps and offline navigation in the United States
Trails filtered by vehicle, with difficulty, photos and open and closed dates, offline maps and offline turn-by-turn navigation. Its trail data is of the United States.
Subscription after a free trial
what3words
Good for: giving an exact location in three words
Every 3-metre square of the world has three words, which the app finds offline. Many emergency services accept them; in South Africa ER24 asks callers to read their three words out over the phone. You still need signal to call or send them.
Free
The app of your satellite messenger
Good for: SOS and messages where no network reaches
If you carry a Garmin inReach or a ZOLEO, its app on your phone lets you write messages and see your plan. A satellite messenger reaches help where no mobile network does, which no app on its own can. See how it compares with LastBar.
A device and a service plan
How they fit together
- Plan with Tracks4Africa or Gaia GPS, and iOverlander for where to sleep.
- Save the area in LastBar before you lose signal, so you know where the last bar is.
- Carry a satellite messenger if you go where no network reaches.
- Know the emergency number of the country, and that an emergency call works on any network your phone can reach.
What each app does and costs is as its own website, its store listing or its help pages said on 26 October 2026. Apps change; check before you rely on one.
