The Bishvil Guide

The Routes tab (Premium) brings your planned, imported, and recorded routes together in one place, sorted by most recently opened or saved.

The orange cloud icon marks a route saved in the Bishvil cloud. A route you plan and save on the website or in the app appears automatically under "Routes" — as long as you're using the same account.

Routes without a cloud icon are local — GPX files you imported, or rides you recorded on that device, that were not automatically uploaded to the cloud.

Tap any route to open it for navigation. Tap the ⋮ menu on a row for:

• Rename — change the display name (doesn't touch the underlying file).
• Share / export GPX (Premium) — send the file via the Android share sheet, e.g. to WhatsApp or email.
• Download route map for offline use — downloads the map for the area around this route so navigation keeps working without signal; starts right away, with no confirmation prompt.

Routes can only be deleted from the app — there's currently no delete action on the website. Deleting a route marked with the cloud icon removes it from both the device and the cloud. Without a connection, the deletion is queued and syncs once you're back online. A local route without a cloud icon is deleted from that device only.

Downloaded route maps are listed under Settings → Maps → Offline Routes, along with the storage each one uses and a way to delete them.

Open the Navigate tab. The map centers on your current position and follows you automatically as you ride.

Top bar:

• Status label (left) — shows "Free nav"
• Current time
• Battery percentage
• Map-mode icon (right) — tap to switch between North-Up and Heading-Up

Map modes:

• Orange ship wheel = Heading-Up: map rotates with you, arrow always points forward.
• Red compass = North-Up: map always faces north, arrow rotates with your heading.

The speed pill (bottom-left) shows your current speed in km/h. Pan or pinch to explore freely — auto-follow resumes after about 5 seconds once you start moving again.

The Bishvil map loads automatically — there's no manual map switch. It only falls back to OpenStreetMap on its own, briefly, if the Bishvil map server is temporarily unreachable.

Buttons (right side by default; configurable in Settings → App → Navigation → Buttons side):

• Green folder — load a GPX file from your device, or reopen a saved route.
• Coffee cup — show cafes and bakeries with outdoor seating (premium; orange ring = active). See Coffee Points below.
• Red video camera — record a GPX track of your ride and save it to Routes (premium). See Ride Recording below.

Tap the green folder button and select a GPX file. Files shared via WhatsApp or opened from Downloads load automatically.

Offline-download suggestion:

• Appears a few seconds after the route loads, if you're online and there's no offline copy of it yet.
• Covers the route plus about 2 km on each side.
• Download saves it for offline use; Not now dismisses the prompt.
• Turn it off from Settings → Maps, or download manually anytime from the Routes tab (see Planning and Routes → Routes in the App).

Route colors by slope:

• Dark blue — steep descent (> 6%)
• Light blue — descent (3–6%)
• Light green — flat (−3% to +3%)
• Orange — ascent (3–6%)
• Red — steep ascent (> 6%)

Direction arrows show which way to ride. Green dot = start, checkered flag = finish.

Top-left status:

• Far from route — orange arrow + "X km to route" pointing toward the start.
• On route — remaining distance · elevation gain · ETA (e.g. "6.2 km · +420 m · ~45 min").
• ETA adapts in real time to your actual climbing and descending speed.

Off-route alerts:

• Top-left turns orange showing distance back to route.
• Double beep plays once, then a subtle tick every 30 seconds.
• Mute Off Route button appears to silence the ticks.
• Single chirp plays when you return to the route.

When GPX is loaded, the folder is replaced by a red X to clear the route.

Reverse route:

An orange circular-arrows button appears on the side when a GPX route is loaded. Tap it to reverse the route direction in place — no need to reload the file.

• Coordinates flipped end-to-start, swapping start and finish markers.
• Elevation data reversed in sync — profile stays correct.
• Off-route detection and turn state reset from your current position.
• Slope-aware ETA counters reset to zero.
• Past breadcrumb trail stays on the map unchanged.

While navigating a route, Bishvil gives spoken and on-screen instructions as you approach junctions where guidance is needed — a visual arrow plus a voice cue — so you can stay focused on the trail instead of constantly checking the map. Alerts are based on junctions on the map rather than the turn angle of the route, so they appear where you actually need to choose a way, not at every bend in the trail.

• Turn right / left
• Keep right / left
• Continue straight — where guidance is needed

Each alert comes in stages: an early heads-up, a closer reminder, and a final cue at the junction.

Turn alerts are on by default for Premium. In Settings → App → Turn alerts you can set the Alert level — Few, Normal (default) or Many — toggle the visual arrow and the spoken voice cues independently, or turn alerts off completely.

This covers GPX files you open on this device — separate from routes you plan and save to the cloud with the Route Planner; see Planning and Routes → Routes in the App.

Bishvil automatically keeps every GPX file you open, so you can reopen it later without hunting for the original file. This is on by default — GPX files you open from WhatsApp, Downloads, Drive, other apps, or the in-app file picker are saved locally so you can open them again from My saved routes. Saved routes are stored only on your device — no cloud sync, no account, nothing shared.

To turn it off, go to Settings → App → GPX routes and disable Automatically save imported GPX routes.

Opening a route — the green folder button:

• No saved routes yet — tapping it opens the system file picker directly.
• One or more saved routes — tapping it opens a small "Open route" sheet with two choices: Open GPX file (orange) opens the file picker, and My saved routes (muted) opens your saved list.

My saved routes:

Each row shows the route name, the date it was saved, and — when available — distance and elevation gain. Tap a row to open that route for navigation, complete with slope colors and elevation, exactly like a fresh import. Tap the trash icon to delete a route (after confirmation); this removes it from this device only.

Save behavior (when the toggle is on):

• Opening a GPX from any source saves it and briefly shows "Route saved to My Routes".
• Re-opening the same route does not create a duplicate — no toast.
• Route names come from the GPX or filename; the fallback name is "Imported route".
• If saving fails, the route still opens — only then you'll see "Route opened, but could not be saved."

Tap the coffee cup button to show cafes and bakeries with outdoor seating along your ride. An orange ring around the button means the layer is on.

Two kinds of points appear:

• Plain cup icons — cafes and bakeries from OpenStreetMap.
• Cup icons with a small "i" badge — places Bishvil has curated with extra details.

Tap a badged point to see its opening hours, phone number (tap to call), and links to its Facebook, Instagram, or website where available.

Tap the red video-camera button to start recording a GPX track of your ride. This works independently of GPX-guided navigation — record in free navigation or alongside a loaded route.

While recording, a timer pill appears below the top bar and the button turns into a solid red stop square. Recording keeps going if you switch tabs, lock the screen, or background the app.

Tap the button again to stop. A summary sheet shows your distance and duration, with three choices:

• Save to Routes — name your ride and save it; it shows up in My saved routes and the Routes tab, just like an imported GPX.
• Continue Recording — resume the same session instead of starting a new one.
• Discard recording — delete it (asks for confirmation once you've recorded something meaningful).

Past trail: while recording, the map traces everywhere you've ridden this session in your chosen style (Settings → App). The trail appears automatically once recording starts and disappears once you save or discard the ride.

Go to Settings → Profile to view and edit your account (Profile moved here from its own bottom tab — that slot is now the Routes tab).

Editable fields:

• Display name, bio, and phone number.
• Ride types (multi-select): Trail, Enduro, Gravel, Road.
• Skill level, pace, birth year, and gender.

Tap Save to apply changes. These preferences affect which rides appear in your Feed and which riders see your rides.

The Premium Status card shows where you stand: on trial (expiry date + Subscribe), expired / not subscribed (Subscribe), or subscribed (expiry date + Manage subscription). All new users receive a 30-day premium trial automatically, and Restore purchases is available if you've subscribed on another device.

Bishvil Premium is ₪49/year and unlocks offline maps, coffee points, ride recording, and route management (rename/export) in the Routes tab.

Tap Sign Out at the bottom to log out.