Let's talk about map functionality on mobile phones

I use Logos almost exclusively on a mobile phone. Unfortunately, its maps functionality is essentially useless on mobile phones.

(Note: The Atlas function is absolutely not made for mobile phones. A large portion of the screen is constantly covered by menus! And I don't want to leave the app for a web browser every time I want to see a map, in any case: I have a number of atlases in my library with good maps in them -- right there in Logos.)

I was genuinely surprised when I first discovered how bad the map functionality is in Logos on a phone. I thought I must have missed something, so I experimented, went searching forums, etc. But no, it seems I was right: Usable map functionality for mobile phones is just not there. (But somebody please correct me if I'm missing something!)

I have several atlases in my library with excellent maps in them. Surely Factbook place entries could simply search my atlas resources for relevant maps? That would be 1) excellent and useful, and 2) what I naturally expected when I started looking up places in Factbook.

BTW, Olive Tree have got this right in their app.

So if I want to look up maps from my atlases for a place I've come across in my Logos reading, I currently need to use a very rough-and-ready workaround: I've created a 'collection' (using the desktop app) that contains all my atlases. Then on mobile, when I want to see a map, I can open a search, set it to search the Atlas collection I made (that's several taps right there), and then tell it to search for the place I'm looking for. That will get me started, but even then, what I'm getting are book search results, not necessarily direct map results. And that's a heap of taps required every time I want to quickly look up my maps of a place I came across while reading (i.e. it's not quick, it's laborious). I expected Factbook would look after this for me in a couple of taps. (To be honest, that's because I also use Olive Tree, where the Resource Guide does just that.)

How do other mobile phone users deal with maps? Or, like me, have you mostly just made do without them in Logos Mobile, even though you own atlases?

I've made a suggestion in the feedback section. If anyone else would like to see usable map functionality brought to phones, you can vote for it here.

P.S. I know this sounds like a bit of a whinge. It's true, I have found the lack of map functionality surprising and disappointing. But I also think Logos Mobile is an excellent app, and I enjoy using it. Thank you to the whole team.

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Comments

Myke Harbuck

I get what you're saying and have thought the same, but I also realize that we're probably in the minority here. I can't imagine there are a bunch of Logos users wanting to explore atlases and maps on mobile devices (perhaps on the tablet, but not on the phone). For this reason, I would imagine that improved maps / atlas functionality on mobile is not very high up on the priority list for the developers.

DMB

I use Logos almost exclusively on a mobile phone. Unfortunately, its maps functionality is essentially useless on mobile phones.

I agree with your point. But I suspect it has more to do with Faithlife compartmental tendenz.

The server-delivered mapping (FL mapping #4) had the advantage of supporting multiple platforms (eg desktop, mobile, web), user-tailoring (so far, zippo), and future featurization (so far, zippo).

But mobile missed the call. Hot on the trail of UI screw-ups.

xnman

P.S. I know this sounds like a bit of a whinge. It's true, I have found the lack of map functionality surprising and disappointing. But I also think Logos Mobile is an excellent app, and I enjoy using it. Thank you to the whole team.

I don't use Logos Mobile for maps anymore. It just don't work. You use of the word "laborious" is correct. I call it a "make work" in that in Logos if I want to look up a map... "Logos makes me work too hard for it"!

I'm hoping Logos will listen... but.. Logos Mobile is not on their tasks for the near future... I'm a thinking.

Jonathan Sheehy

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1288399#Comment_1288399

… we're probably in the minority here. I can't imagine there are a bunch of Logos users wanting to explore atlases and maps on mobile devices (perhaps on the tablet, but not on the phone).

I'll explain my perspective a little more, with two key points:

The world has changed. People use mobile. For everything. In a big way. I am a representative of this group, as it relates to Bible study. I'm a fairly serious Bible study app user (Bibles, commentaries, lexicons, dictionaries, encyclopaedias, etc. etc.—I love to use them all, regularly). But I do it all on mobile (phone, not tablet!)—not sitting at a computer. In 2024, I think there are many more like me. And there are many more on their way.
My complaint about maps relates to basic Bible study. Never mind power map users. I'm talking about reading a place name in a verse and wondering, "Now remind me, where is that?", and getting a quick answer from Factbook in a few taps. Almost unbelievably, Logos, on a mobile phone, can't help me here. (By contrast, Olive Tree does it in a couple of taps.) Location is a basic part of figuring out the context of a passage. And place names show up all the time in the Bible. Logos has done such a great job of making these all so easily available in Factbook cards (great job, Logos!). But the one thing that is critical with regard to places—and yet is so obviously missing—is access to quick maps for any given place. Not fancy 3D maps covering the entire biblical world through all of biblical history—just basic JPGs in Factbook would be ideal. (By the way, putting such map images under 'Media' has it's own problem: I don't like being sent out of the app by the Media tool, because once again, that tool doesn't really cater to mobile phone users. And I don't like being sent out of the app.) And I have a ton of such maps in resources I've already purchased. Resources that exist to help with places, such as atlases. But Factbook on mobile doesn't even try and access these most relevant resources. Incredibly, it doesn't even list my atlases under the Factbook's Books from Your Library section when I look up a place name in the Factbook (it just shows 'no results')!

So no, I don't think Logos can leave the maps situation as it is for mobile phone users—limiting meaningful map usage to people on larger tablet screens (though as I said, I actually don't want to leave the app when quickly checking a location, which is Logos' current answer) or desktop.

Jonathan Sheehy

Bump.

The basic Bible study functionality of looking up a place location on a map (given I own atlases and map resources in Logos) — e.g. "remind me where Corinth is, please"— remains completely absent or practically unusable on Logos Mobile (I'm on a phone).

Please urgently do something about this, Logos!

DMB

Well, I was prepared to say, not so bad (desktop as bad).

So I long-pressed Jerusalem … zipped down to Factbook (no Atlas link).

And .. it doesn't know anything about Jerusalem. I guess needs a tag, or Jeru-what'y?

Jonathan Sheehy

I don't know what happened there for you — there is definitely a Factbook location yeah for "Jerusalem"! Maybe try a different resource? (Still weird though; that shouldn't be necessary.)

When you do get "Jerusalem" up in your mobile Factbook, you'll see what I mean about useless quick-reference map functionality!

DMM

The desktop app is just as bad with maps.

I was reading through Deuteronomy a month or so ago and I wanted to look up the different places in Logos… it was so clunky and difficult. Each time you enter a place, the map wants to zoom all the way out and then zoom in to extreme detail on the one location. Very difficult. All I wanted was just to see where it was, and even better to see where it was in relation to the other places mentioned. Can't do that.

If I centered the map so that all of Israel shows, then the milage indicator would show 20 miles per "inch". When I enter a location, it zooms right up to 3 miles per "inch", which is incredibly frustrating. Zooming back out is clunky, and often causes the place you entered to disappear.

I have 45 resources tagged "Atlas" in my library.

I ended up just getting out my hardcover ESV Bible Atlas and using Google.

There's so much potential here, Logos!

I would love for the ability to generate a custom map - you enter whatever locations you want shown, and then Logos will generate a map ONLY showing the locations you entered. That would be very useful!

EastTN

Yeah, it's not great on the desktop either. I've basically given up on using the maps.

I would love for the ability to generate a custom map - you enter whatever locations you want shown, and then Logos will generate a map ONLY showing the locations you entered. That would be very useful!

This would be a game-changer for me, if you could then export the map into a properly formatted and attractive PowerPoint slide. If I could do that, I would use the maps all the time in my teaching. But I'm doubtful that they could (would?) pull that off, since it's seemingly impossible to use the timeline tool to create, format and export a custom timeline that's usable in a PowerPoint presentation or as a class handout.

As an aside, this is a great example of what frustrates me about FaithLife's focus on AI. Maps and timelines are basic bread-and-butter, blocking-and-tackling functions - but FaithLife has let these features languish in an unusable state for years. I'm pretty much "meh" about this newest version of Logos, but an upgrade that fixed these basic features would be something I'd genuinely get excited about.

danwdoo

I've never tried on mobile, but they are so bad on desktop that my morbid curiosity made me open this thread like an accident one can't look away from! I shudder to even think about the self inflicted pain this must cause to use these. Dante describes Logos maps perfectly: "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here"

DMB

Dante describes Logos maps perfectly: "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here"

Oh so true. Faithlife's 2 'Sisyphus' challenges for Logosian eternity are ease-of-use, and imagery. Each attempt rolls back down the hill!

xnman

And… wanna know something of a paradox and maybe a chuckle for today? Computers (phones are computers) are supposed to make things like maps easier. LOL