Pointz Reviews

this app was a great app a few months ago. Then they went to a payment based app. Fine. But for $60 for a full year? No, thank you.

The data that Points uses comes from two sources; Google and YOU! The User of Pointz !

So all of my suggestions for Shortcuts to be used on Pointz was done by me, the user! And now that I have given information on new paths and routes and suggestions, they begin charging money for how I made Pointz better….

And other people did the same thing as I did too.

this app you had a good thing going. Sure, I would love to pay you for Pointz ! But a monthly or annual subscription payment? No, thank you.

Deleting Pointz off of my phone.

It is frustrating supporting the early development of freeware only to have it switch to an overly expensive paid model. I helped enter route info for the free version of this software only to watch it become an expensive software with almost no free functionality. You are competing with free software google maps. SUCH a disappointment. Nothing wrong with paying for a good software, but this app still needs lots of work to match up to pro apps like the ones from Google and Apple (and those are free.) Dissapointing!

I’ve been using Pointz for around 2 weeks to great affect, it’s helped me see nearby routes but now for some reason the second I input a destination it says “directions not found” even though it was working perfectly fine prior. Pointz is great but if it fixes just this one problem it’d be 5 stars

Interesting idea but the route colors are not accessible to me (red/green colorblind), and every time I try to put in a destination it says “No directions were found”. Pointz should have a colorblind mode using alternate colors (blue/green for example).

Also, the tutorial for the layers button pops up out of nowhere. There are three different tutorials: the onboarding, the one you can skip, then the layers button. Hopefully that can be cleaned ip so when I press “skip tutorial”, it can work for all three of those.

Pointz is amazing for cyclists that worry about getting pancaked by distracted drivers. No other apps come close to letting you not only adjust how safe you want your route to be, but also allow you to adjust said route manually.

My only gripe is sometimes Pointz will launch on its own. You know how when you’re navigating somewhere, iOS will give you a blue bubble over your clock in your status bar indicating you’re on route via gps? this app does that even if you have forced Pointz closed. It does this even if you aren’t on your bike. It’s a little creepy. I only want to use Pointz if I have deliberately opened it. I emailed the developer about it a week ago and still haven’t heard anything.

My quick fix, even though it isn't ideal, is to uninstall Pointz when I’m not using it.

Pointz seems to work for short routes only. I can’t find an exact mileage where it cuts off, but the longest route I’ve been able to get it to do is 38 miles. If you try for longer, it gets stuck in a loop where you input destination, then it asks you for starting point. Input starting point, asks you again for destination. Repeat cycle over and over. There’s a lot of potential in Pointz, but it’s not there yet.

I really like Pointz. The concept of the slider for comfort vs directness is truly a game changer that shows deep understanding of what bike riders want to have available. The biggest problem is the data source underlying it all, which is good in some places and bad in others. If you know your city well, it’s possible to fix the issues directly, but that takes additional effort. (At least there is a way, other mapping apps have seemingly abandoned their bike information)

I love the idea of Pointz so much and have used it a few times, however I needed to use some workaround for selecting my destination.

I’m not sure what underlying library or API the team uses for getting map data, but it seems like certain destinations just don’t exist that you’d normally find in most map applications like Google Maps. For example if I wanted to visit a friend at 12 Example St in Townsville, I may need to choose 50 Example St as the other option just doesn’t appear.

Great app! The directions mostly take me on routes I would take myself without relying on a map, with some hiccups here and there. I’d like the ability to edit my submissions since I mess up sometimes, and the submissions take a long time (client end) to send. If I kill Pointz right after submitting, it still shows up even if I don’t wait for the confirmation. Also, seeing road ratings even while zoomed out would be nice.

I love the functions of Pointz- being able to choose between a safer or faster route is so helpful for everyday cycling. I also found Pointz really easy to use, with intuitive features. Overall there is a great idea behind Pointz and execution to match! Small bugs from earlier versions were quickly addressed and Pointz has continued to become more and more a part of my cycling routine!

Great alternative to google maps with more detailed cycling maps. It is able to pick safe routes based on each individual street’s bike friendliness. The bike parking on the map is also a great feature to help people who bike commute.

In terms of features that can make it even better, I think it’d be nice to mark where there are unprotected bike lanes and shared lanes. Even though they’re not as great as protected lanes, I’d rather ride in them than a regular street.

I downloaded Pointz very early-on and loved the concept, but didn’t use it in practice—it was a bit slow, and I tested it on some routes that I knew very well and it put me on more dangerous roads.

I updated recently and tried some of those routes again, and they’re perfect. And I love the new safety slider. It’s also much faster now. Great job!! I highly recommend this to anyone wanting to plan out some bike routes in a city.

I commute via bike daily and have previously found it difficult to balance navigating and logging my activity as I ride. I love that this app gives me biking specific navigation and data visuals along with marking my activity. Currently that is through the leaderboard feature. Great adjustments to the rating feature as well!

Really well-designed tool and it’s really nice being able to see ratings on nearby roads right from the get go for better planning and less frustration. The rating system itself is really unique, allowing communities to essentially look out for each other. Looking forward to using this more!

As someone who is nervous to bike around cars I greatly appreciate the existence of Pointz. Bugs from the first iteration were quickly fixed, and I have no doubt Pointz will keep getting better and better as more community data gets imputed. Also, the leaderboard is a fun component of Pointz . Thank you this app for increasing biker safety!

I love what you are doing with Pointz. There aren’t very many reviews at the moment, though, so it would be nice to know where bike lanes and bike paths are. It looks like you already are using bike lane info in your routing, but if you showed it in your map too that would be nice. Maybe an OpenCycleMap base layer would be easy to add?

Amazing app, so grateful for this. Would really love for some more colorblind-friendly ratings. I can’t tell the difference between great and bad bike paths. Maybe a setting to use high contrast colors, or have numbers overlayed on the paths e.g. 1 = great, 5 = poor

I’ve tried out many different bike navigation apps and, after some recent app updates, this app is easily the best both in terms of features and ease of use.

Love Pointz . My only complaint is that I wish there was a way to turn off the voice. Maybe I just havent found it yet?

Snappy and easy to use. I love how you can quickly see the safety score of various sections of the route, and the slider that allows you to prioritize more safety vs a faster trip. (I’ve heard that Pointz has gotten a lot better in the past year.)

It relies on OpenStreetMap data, so if I ever see a street safety score that seems wrong, or a missing trail, I can just go edit OpenStreetMap and eventually this app will refresh with that new data.

Now we need to increase the user base so that Google Maps and Apple Maps will start feeling the heat, and feel pressure to improve their bike routes!