Picture this. You’re on a ridge somewhere in the hills. The mist has rolled in, the trail’s gone from “well-trodden path” to “vague suggestion,” and you’ve stopped three times in the last ten minutes to dig out your phone, zoom in, and squint at which way is actually north. There has to be a faster way.
Good news — there is now.
What is the mini compass?
The mini compass is a new addition to the HiiKER map information bar. It’s a small, toggleable direction-of-travel indicator that lives right next to your coordinates, elevation, GPS accuracy and weather readings at the top of the map.
No extra screens. No extra taps. Just glance up and you know which way you’re pointed — in cardinal direction (S, SW, W, NW, N) and in degrees.
It’s small on purpose. The whole point is that it gives you bearing information without eating into the map.
Turning it on
Open the Map information bar settings and flip the Show mini compass toggle on. The compass appears immediately at the top of your map.
Done with it? You’ve got two options:
- Open the same setting and toggle it back off, or
- Long-tap the compass itself on the map and tap Hide
Whichever’s quicker for the moment you’re in.
The pro move — pair it with compass mode
Here’s where the mini compass really earns its keep.
Double-tap the location icon (bottom-left of the map) to drop into compass mode. Your map now rotates with you — so “up” on the screen is always the direction you’re physically facing.
Combine that with the mini compass and you’ve effectively got a heads-up display:
- The map is oriented to your body
- The mini compass confirms your bearing in degrees
- And your whole screen is still mostly map
This is the setup we’d reach for in low visibility, on featureless moorland, or any time you want navigation to feel instinctive instead of fiddly. Less squinting, more walking.
Setting a bearing to a destination
The mini compass isn’t only a “which way is north?” tool. You can lock it onto a specific point, and it will quietly tell you which way to walk to reach it.
You can set a bearing from:
- Any POI
- A custom waypoint
- A hike highlight
- Or just an arbitrary spot on the map — long-tap anywhere and choose Set compass bearing
Once a bearing is set, you’ll see a small chip in your settings showing the coordinates it’s locked to (you can clear it with a tap on the X). On the map, the mini compass keeps you pointed at your target — useful for “head for that summit two valleys over,” and equally useful for “find your way back to the car.”
Why we built it
Most navigation tools want you to stop and look. The mini compass is built for the opposite — the moments when you don’t want to stop. When the weather’s closing in. When your hands are cold and you don’t fancy interacting with a touchscreen any more than you have to. When you just need a quick check that you’re still heading the right way.
Small footprint, big help. Stay outside, keep moving.
Quick reference
- Enable: Map information bar settings → toggle Show mini compass on
- Disable: Same toggle, or long-tap the compass → Hide
- Compass mode: Double-tap the location icon
- Set a bearing: Long-tap the map (or open a POI / waypoint / highlight) → Set compass bearing
- Clear a bearing: Tap the X on the bearing chip in settings
