User guide

First start

1. Install the beta APK (Android 10 or newer, 64-bit). Allow installs from your browser or file manager when Android asks.
2. Allow precise location. Without it the app cannot see satellites. Notifications are needed for the status while the app runs in the background.
3. Protected navigation starts by itself. The switch is in the menu; it records raw satellite data and sensors while it runs.
4. Wait for orbits. The first time, KeepNav downloads satellite orbit files (a few hundred kilobytes). Until then the status may say “not checked”.

Tip: put the phone in a fixed holder. Dead reckoning uses the gyroscope; a phone sliding on the seat looks like the car turning.

Reading the status

The round button at the top of the map is the status. Tap it to read the full text; it opens by itself when something changes.

Without GPS and without a route, a car is shown as a shaded area (“you are about here”) instead of an arrow driving down streets it may not be on.

Search and navigation

• Search works offline for addresses, streets and places in Kyiv and all 21 regional centres, and for every town and village in Ukraine. Put a city first for another city: kharkiv sumska 10. Ukrainian, Russian, English and old street names all work. If nothing is found offline, KeepNav asks OpenStreetMap online.
• Long-press the map to route to any point, or to say “I'm here”.
• The route card compares travel times for car, moped, e-scooter, bike and walking — tap one to switch.
• While navigating, Back opens Search / Menu / End. If the app is closed mid-trip, it offers to continue the route next time.
• Voice prompts in Ukrainian use the phone's speech synthesiser (offline once the Ukrainian voice is installed). The 🔊 button on the map turns them off and on.

Travel modes

The button under the status picks the way of travel. “Automatic” recognises walking, driving and riding a bike with a sensor; e-scooter and moped must be chosen by hand.

Detailed paths, cycleways and yards are mapped for Kyiv with its region and the 21 regional centres; elsewhere routes follow streets.

OBD adapter & wheel sensor

Speed is what turns “somewhere around here” into a position that follows your car. Menu → Sensors.

• Car: any ELM327 Bluetooth OBD-II adapter; BLE ones (Vgate iCar Pro BLE, OBDLink CX) connect fastest. Plug it into the diagnostic port under the dashboard, search, connect. KeepNav reconnects by itself next time.
• Two wheels: a Bluetooth cycling speed sensor on the front hub. Choose the wheel size; spin the wheel to wake the sensor before searching.
• Calibration happens on its own while GPS is genuine and you move: OBD speed in about a minute, the gyroscope in 2–4 minutes of city driving. The Sensors screen shows the percentages; the OBD correction is remembered per car.

Driving without GPS

• Lost mid-trip: the estimate starts from the last genuine point with calibrated sensors — the strongest case, typically 10–40 m.
• Starting inside a spoofing zone: there is no genuine point, so it starts from the network position (±100 m) and tightens as you drive past turns. Expect 50–100 m, sometimes more for the first minute.
• Navigate a route. Without GPS the planned route is the strongest hint: the marker stays on it, and it is not rebuilt for every small drift — only after a clear departure of 250 m or more for half a minute.
• No OBD: only the network position is available (~150 m). Walking is better: steps and compass give 15–20 m typically.

“I'm here”

You always know better than a spoofed phone. Long-press the map where you are and choose I'm here, or say it: I'm at Khreshchatyk 15, I'm at the corner of Sumska and Pushkinska. The estimate restarts from that point. While navigating, the point is placed on your route if it is close to it. When GPS is genuine, KeepNav keeps its own position and says so.

Voice assistant

Menu → Voice assistant → Connect. The models (about 4 GB: speech recognition, the wake phrase, the command model) download once over Wi-Fi and then work fully offline. Needs a phone with 6 GB of RAM or more.

• Tap the microphone on the map and speak; it stops by itself when you pause.
• Or say “Hey navigator” (Привіт, навігатор) and the command in one breath. Turn it on with a long press on the microphone; it switches off after 10 minutes without the phrase and when the battery is low.

The assistant speaks and understands Ukrainian; English words inside a phrase are fine. Home and work can also be set in the assistant settings.

Over other apps

Prefer Waze or Google Maps for traffic? Turn on the floating button (Menu → Settings): it appears over other apps when GPS is in trouble, and one tap brings you to KeepNav.

Trip recordings

• During the beta, each trip is recorded on the phone: raw satellite measurements, sensors, OBD speed, network positions and the voice commands you gave (as text — audio is never kept). Trips without movement are deleted by themselves.
• Menu → History shows a trip on the map. Menu → Send to developer packs the trips you choose into one archive and opens Android's share sheet — nothing is sent without you.
• Recordings contain your routes and the places you start and end, including home. Send them only to us.

Troubleshooting

• Status stays grey “not checked”: connect to the internet once so KeepNav can fetch fresh orbits.
• The arrow drifts off the road without GPS: check that the OBD adapter is connected (Sensors) and the phone is in a holder; tell the app where you are with “I'm here”.
• No Ukrainian voice: install the Ukrainian voice in Google Speech Services (the app offers a shortcut).
• The assistant does not react to “Hey navigator”: look for the green dot on the microphone; Voice assistant → Wake phrase shows the state and has a self-test.
• Something else: send the trip from the menu and write to us what happened and when.