Backtrail

Backtrail is free, and everything you need when someone is in trouble stays free: the SOS screen, the CPR coach, every guide, your location, signals and Take Me Back. Everything is open for your first 14 days. After that, Backtrail Plus is a single purchase with no subscription. It adds saving offline topo maps, the planning and activity tools, Learn and iCloud Backup, and Family Sharing is included. If you've bought Plus before, tap Me (the person button on the map), then Backtrail Plus, then Restore Purchases.

An iPhone with iOS 27 or later. An Apple Watch with watchOS 27 is optional but recommended: the Watch app runs on its own, including Backtrack, Take Me Back and the CPR coach. The pack check uses Apple Intelligence on iPhones that support it, and works without it too.

Yes. Everything works offline: Backtrack, first aid, the CPR coach, signals, your grid reference, the storm warning, the forecast you saved, the topo maps you've saved, and tide times near tide stations in the US, New Zealand and Ireland. You only need a connection to save new map areas, get a new forecast, and call or message someone.

Start Backtrack before you set off (Backtrail offers to when it notices you've parked and started walking). It records your route in the background. When you want to go back, tap Take Me Back to follow your trail, or go straight to your car or another waypoint. Your Watch taps your wrist at turns and if you go off the trail.

To follow a planned route, share a GPX or KML file to Backtrail from your trip app. Get Ready then helps you save the map along it, time it against last light and pack.

Backtrail uses your device's region to pick the emergency number and the first aid that differs by country, such as snake, spider and jellyfish stings. It covers North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. To change it, tap Me on the SOS screen, then Settings, then Region.

Pick up to three of eleven: hiking, trail running, mountaineering, ski touring, sailing, boating, paddling, 4x4, hunting, prepping and family. Backtrail then puts the right help first: the tiles on the home screen, the guides, the first-aid kit and tools such as the anchor alarm, tide times, slope meter, water and fuel, and altitude check. Tap Me (the person button on the map), then Your Activities.

For solo trips. Backtrail asks if you're OK every 15, 30 or 45 minutes. If you don't answer within 2 minutes, it sounds Six Blasts, the international distress signal, and shows your location and a call button. It doesn't contact anyone for you, so tell someone your plan as well. On iPhone it's in Library, then Tools; on your Watch, it's on the home screen.

Detailed topo maps for Great Britain (Ordnance Survey), the United States (USGS), New Zealand (LINZ Topo50) and NSW (NSW Spatial Services), with an overview of the rest of Australia (Geoscience Australia), on iPhone. Elsewhere, Backtrail shows Apple's map, which needs signal. Save an area or a route corridor before you go, from Library, then Tools, then Offline Topo Maps. Maps you look at are also kept for use with no signal. Send a map to your Watch from your iPhone and it shows your trail over it.

Yes, if you turn it on: Me (the person button on the map), then Settings, then Save Walks to Health on iPhone, or Settings on your Watch. Each finished Backtrack walk is saved as a Hiking workout with its route, climb and heart rate. On Apple Watch the walk runs as a live workout, so it keeps recording with your wrist down and shows your heart rate on your Watch and iPhone. Backtrail reads only your heart rate, only during these walks, and doesn't send it anywhere.

Yes, on Apple Watch Series 9 or later and Ultra 2 or later. Tap your finger and thumb together twice to start CPR, start Backtrack, switch to Take Me Back while recording, answer "Are you OK?" or silence the anchor alarm. Double tap never stops or pauses anything, so a pinch during compressions can't end CPR.

If your Apple Watch's own fall alert goes off and you say you fell, Backtrail asks if you're OK straight away. If you can't respond, it sounds Six Blasts so people nearby can find you, and it marks the spot on the walk you're recording. Your Watch's own Fall Detection still calls emergency services as usual; Backtrail never replaces or delays it. You can turn this off on your Watch in Backtrail's Settings, then After a Hard Fall.

A trip note goes by Messages to the people you choose. It says where you're going, who's with you, your car, when you'll be back, and the time to call the emergency number if they haven't heard from you. It links to a trip card where they can add a reminder for that time to their calendar, on an iPhone or an Android phone. Backtrail doesn't track you or tell anyone if you're late. On iPhone, a Check In from Messages can alert them by itself.

One person taps Start a Group and shows the QR code. Everyone else taps Join and scans it, or gets it by AirDrop. Your iPhones then connect straight to each other, with no signal or Wi-Fi network needed, and show the distance and direction to each person, exact when you're close. Make Them Hear You sounds a whistle on their phone. Read the four-digit group check aloud to be sure you're all in the same group. Positions are encrypted phone to phone, and only phones with your group's code can read them.

On an Apple Watch with a depth gauge, open Water and dip your Watch to read the water temperature and what it means for cold water shock. On a sailing, boating or paddling trip, if you go in while Backtrail is recording, it marks the spot and checks you're OK. It works to 6 m. It isn't a dive computer.

Near a tide station in the US, New Zealand or Ireland, Backtrail works out tide times on your iPhone from data that comes with the app: NOAA's, Toitū Te Whenua Land Information New Zealand's (CC BY 4.0) and Ireland's Marine Institute's (CC BY 4.0). They work with no signal. Elsewhere on open coasts, Backtrail can show approximate times from Open-Meteo's ocean model. None of these are official tide tables, so check the local tables before you go, especially for bars and narrow channels.

Yes. Open Me (the person button on the map), then Help in Another Language, before you travel. Backtrail translates ten emergency phrases, such as "Please call an ambulance", plus your allergies, medicines, conditions and blood type, and saves them so they work with no signal. Show to Someone puts each phrase on screen in large text, and Say It Out Loud reads it. Names and phone numbers are never translated. Machine translation can make mistakes. Your Watch gets a copy too.

Yes, with set phrases. Say "Take me back with Backtrail" to retrace your walk, or "Start CPR with Backtrail", "Where am I in Backtrail" or "Man overboard in Backtrail". You can also put these on the Action button or in Shortcuts. Your guides, waypoints, routes and plans are in Spotlight on your iPhone: search for one and tap it to open it. Siri needs a signal, so the buttons in the app are the way to rely on.

Yes, with iCloud Backup: tap Me (the person button on the map), then iCloud Backup. Your plans, routes, Medical ID, contacts and settings are stored in your own iCloud account, end-to-end encrypted, and come back when you set up a new iPhone. There's no separate account to make. It's off until you turn it on.

Follow Backtrail's Battery Saver checklist: Low Power Mode, a dimmer screen, a warm pocket and more. Backtrail warns you if your battery may not last the way back. Your Watch can record the route on its own, so your phone can stay off in the pack until you need it.

Open Library, then Guides, then Learn, for practice questions drawn from the guides. Questions you miss come back sooner, and ones you know come back just before you'd forget them, so CPR, bites and signals stick. Each guide also has Test Yourself. On your Watch, How to has a one-minute practice run of I'm lost.

Its CPR and much of its first aid are based on published guidance from the resuscitation council for the region you choose: ANZCOR in Australia and New Zealand, Resuscitation Council UK and the European Resuscitation Council in Europe, and the American Heart Association and American Red Cross in North America. Some topics are based on others, such as ASCIA, the Wilderness Medical Society, the WHO, the RNLI, Surf Life Saving Australia, the CDC, the NHS, healthdirect and Health New Zealand. Each first-aid and safety guide shows what it's based on in your region. Backtrail is a memory aid, not medical advice or a substitute for first aid training.