Rides and runs happen in places with no phone signal. Aster is built for that. Here's exactly what happens when you go off-grid.
Your activity keeps going
- You can start with no signal. As long as you're signed in, and for an event, registered (registering downloads the route and map data to your phone), the app uses your phone's GPS and works entirely on the device. No network needed to begin.
- Your position keeps recording. Every GPS point is saved on your phone.
- The app never stops your ride on its own. It won't end because you lost signal, your screen is off, the phone killed the app in the background, or a network request failed. Your ride ends only when you finish or abandon it, when you cross an event's finish line, or when the organiser's cut-off passes.
- The app never signs you out. A login problem shows a small banner asking you to sign back in when convenient; it never drops your session mid-ride.
What watchers see while you're offline
Your live location pauses at your last known position, because your new points can't upload yet. The moment your phone gets signal again, the saved points upload and your position and trail catch up: your route fills in and the leaderboard updates.
Finishing offline
If you finish with no signal, the app records the exact moment you finished on the phone. When signal returns, your ride uploads with that original finish time, so your result is honest about when you actually finished, not when you reconnected. Points recorded after you finished are discarded, so your trail ends cleanly at the line.
If your battery dies
Everything you've recorded is saved to the phone's storage. Charge up, re-open the app, and it picks up where it left off, uploading whatever is queued.
The persistent notification
On Android, while tracking, the app keeps a notification in your tray: "Just Ride — tracking" on a Just Ride, or "Activity tracking" in an event, with a line underneath telling you it's recording. It's mostly informational: it tells you tracking is alive. The only button on it is Finish…, and tapping it simply opens the app on your ride's end screen, the same slide-to-end control you'd reach from inside the app. It doesn't stop, pause or otherwise change your tracking by itself, so a stray tap from your lock screen can't end your ride. Ending it always still needs your explicit action on that screen. On iPhone, iOS shows its own background-location indicator instead; Aster doesn't add a custom action to it.
The rare edge cases
Two situations can still cost you the very tail of a ride's trail (your finish time and result are always safe):
- You stop in a dead zone and never re-open the app with signal for a long time, queued points are kept on the device for about a week before they expire.
- You stop offline and immediately start your next ride still offline, the app clears the old queue to keep the two rides separate.
Both are uncommon, and even then your finish time keeps your result correct.
Tips
- Pick a battery mode that matches your ride length, see Battery modes.
- Let the app finish its GPS warm-up at the start for the most accurate first fix.
- If a save fails offline, you'll see a retry prompt, tap it once you have signal.