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Offline Maps.
Trail before signal.
Recording always works offline. But the map under your route usually doesn't. PeakPulse fixes that: cache the tiles before you go, and your map looks just as good in the backcountry as it does at home.
The gap between "recording works" and "it's useful"
Most workout apps will technically record without a signal — GPS doesn't need cellular. But everything else stops working. The map underneath your blue dot turns to a grey grid. You can't see where you are relative to the trail you're on. You can't see where Beacon viewers are. You can't see anything except your own dot, floating in nothing.
The fix is the map tiles. Map tiles are images, and image servers need a network. Cache the images locally before you head out, and everything else snaps into place.
If the map only works when the signal does, it doesn't really work.
How offline maps work
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01
Pick the region you'll cover
In the maps tab, draw a box around your trailhead and the area you'll travel. Or, if you have a planned workout with a route, PeakPulse offers to cache just that route's bounding area.
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02
Download the tiles
PeakPulse fetches the map tiles for that region at the zoom levels you'll actually use during a workout. The download happens on Wi-Fi by default; you'll see a progress bar and the final cache size.
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03
Everything works offline
Recording, Beacon viewer thumbnails, Co-Running Overlay, Route Editor — anything that draws a map pulls from your local cache first. No spinning placeholders; just maps.
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04
Manage your library
Cached regions are listed with their size and last-updated date. Delete the ones you don't need; refresh the ones you do. Cached tiles auto-expire after 90 days so your map data stays fresh.
What gets cached
Common questions
How much storage does an offline region take?
Roughly 30-60 MB for a typical local-trails region — say, a 10-square-mile area with reasonable zoom coverage. Bigger regions or more zoom levels scale up from there. You'll see the exact size before you confirm the download.
Do offline maps work on Apple Watch?
The Apple Watch doesn't display raster map tiles even online — the watch map shows your route as a polyline on a dark background. So in practical terms, the watch has "always offline" maps: your route line plus context, no network needed.
Can I cache a region from outside my home area?
Yes. Pick anywhere on the map and draw a box. Useful for trips, ultras in another state, or recon for an upcoming event.
What happens if the trail data changes after I've cached?
Cached tiles expire after 90 days and PeakPulse will prompt you to refresh on Wi-Fi. You can also manually refresh any region from the offline maps screen. For most trail areas, changes are infrequent.
Will this work on cellular if I forget to download in advance?
Yes, if you have signal. Anywhere PeakPulse has signal, it streams tiles normally. Offline caches just guarantee the map is there when signal isn't.