The details

How RIDE works, in detail.

Setup, permissions, your data, and the notes behind each feature.

About the features on this pageDescriptions and screens come from the September 2026 preview build (RIDE 0.7.0). The closed-beta build may differ, and the invitation will say what it includes. Nothing here promises a date, a device or a result.

First run · settings · your data

Set up in minutes. Make it yours.

A short guided setup, then you are on the map. Everything else lives under the You tab, in a few short pages.

Guided setup and calibration

Setup is short and skippable. Before your first recorded ride, RIDE asks you to calibrate the mount: park upright off the stand, bars straight, and hold steady for three seconds. You can also ride with GPS only; lean angle is not recorded then.

What RIDE may ask for

  • Location, for the map, guidance and your ride.
  • Notifications, for the notice that stays visible while a ride records.
  • A contact, only if you choose an emergency contact with Android’s picker.
  • Notification access for music controls, only if you set up music.

Settings under You

Road preference and route options (avoid highways, tolls or ferries), voice guidance with its own volume, miles or kilometres, theme and map look, screen orientation, music and edge-knock, your watch link, an emergency contact, and Help & about. An access page shows what RIDE may reach, with a shortcut to Android’s app settings.

Shortcuts you press yourself

Share location can text your location, open live sharing in Google Maps, or call your emergency contact, and you press send or call yourself. RIDE does not detect crashes or call for help on its own, and it is not an emergency service.

Your data

No RIDE account and no ride-history cloud sync: rides and saved places stay on your phone. Online map, routing, search and weather requests go to the providers described in the Privacy Policy, and exports go only where you send them.

Performance timing Closed course only

Optional. RIDE can time a standing launch or a rolling speed range from your phone’s GPS. Every result is a labelled phone GPS estimate, never certified timing. Under the Terms, performance features are for a lawfully operated closed course with permission and suitable safety controls, and not for timing or documenting speeding, racing, stunts or unlawful riding on public roads.

Settings pages and wording shown in the preview screens can change before the closed beta.

01 / Plan the ride

Pick how twisty you want it.

Type a place or drop a pin, then choose the kind of road you’re in the mood for. Fast heads for the quickest roads. Balanced sits in the middle. Twisty trades a little time for more curves, and Extra twisty goes all in: the scenic way, not the quick way. RIDE scores each route for twist, so you know what you’re getting before you set off.

Road preference
Fast, Balanced, Twisty or Extra twisty, with a Twist score out of 10 and the share of the route spent in curves.
Stops and pins
Add a coffee stop or a fuel break, drag to reorder, skip one on the day. The preview supports up to eight stops on a route.
Bring your own
Import a GPX route or track, keep saved routes, and find fuel and places nearby to route straight to them.
Underway
Turn-by-turn on screen and by voice, Essential or Detailed. Routing and rerouting are online; a bounded map cache does not guarantee that a new route can be calculated offline.

The Twist score is RIDE’s own measure of how much of the road is spent in bends, weighted by how tight they are. It describes a route; it does not make a road safe, and a suggested route never replaces your judgment of the road.

See the planning screens

02 / Ride

Your cockpit. Your point of view.

One glance card with speed, trip, ride time and lean angle. A turn banner that also names your next stop. Flip to landscape on a wide mount, and pick Light, Dark or Automatic for the light you’re riding in.

Glance card
Speed, lean angle with your left and right maximums, trip distance and ride time, in portrait or landscape.
Turn banner
Next turn and next stop, on screen and spoken. While you ride, the tab bar tucks away; a pull tab brings it back.
Lean, signed
Minus is left and plus is right, and your left and right maximums stay underneath the reading. Lean and other sensor readings are estimates; they depend on how the phone is mounted and calibrated.
Your music
Play, pause and skip the music app you already use. Edge-knock track skipping is a beta setting that is off until you switch it on; use it only when taking a hand off the bars is safe, and stopped is best.
Glare and dusk
Light, Dark or Automatic theme, a map that follows it, and a Sunlight mode with stronger contrast for glare.

Set up and adjust RIDE while parked, and mount the phone securely so it never blocks your controls, instruments or view. Read the rider safety notice.

See the ride screens

03 / Remember the ride

Some days deserve a second look.

Tap record before you set off. Pause at the café, resume before you roll off, hold to end when you’re home. Every ride is saved on your phone with its route, distance, time and how far you leaned, and you can replay it on the map to find the good bits. Want the track somewhere else? Export a GPX and choose where it goes.

Recording
Start, pause, resume. Ending takes a deliberate hold, then you save, discard or keep riding. RIDE only suggests discarding a very short ride, and never does it for you.
Your rides
A Rides list with max lean, distance and max speed for each saved ride. Open one to replay it on the map with Speed and Lean tabs, and to read its summary.
Take it with you
Export a GPX track or a ride summary file. Route points, raw dynamics, performance runs and watch heart-rate samples are each opt-in, and exports go only where you send them.
On your phone
Ride history stays in an encrypted database on your phone, and Android cloud backup is disabled for it. Deleting a ride asks you to confirm.

Replay peak pins were still in testing in the September preview. An exported file can reveal where and when you rode, so share exports with care; the Privacy Policy explains what stays on your devices and what is sent to services.

See the replay screens

Places on the map · United States only

Fuel, food, coffee. Right on the map.

Browse the map and the stops riders care about show up as you zoom in: fuel, charging, food, cafés, viewpoints, a bed for the night, somewhere to park. Tap one to ride there, add it as a stop on the way, or save it under your own name. Favorites stay on the map at any zoom.

As you zoom
The wide view stays clean; more places appear the closer you look.
One tap
Route here, Add as stop or Save favorite. A favorite keeps only the point and the name you give it, on your phone.
Nearby
Fuel, food, parking or cafés near you, closest first, each with Route here.

Places cover the United States for now. Map pins show names and categories from OpenStreetMap through the map tiles, and nearby search uses Stadia Maps place search, so coverage varies from town to town and can be incomplete. There are no reviews, photos or opening hours. Map screens carry the Stadia Maps, OpenMapTiles and OpenStreetMap attribution, as in the app.

See the places screens

Weather · In the beta scope

Know what is ahead.

A Weather tab sits beside Ride. It shows current conditions, the weather at points ahead on a planned route, a small map, and an hourly outlook with a rain-probability strip and a Low, Elevated or High weather-risk line. An optional Avoid rain setting can look for a drier road when the forecast says rain is likely ahead.

Conditions and outlook
Current conditions, an hourly outlook with range chips, and a full-screen weather map where you can pin a forecast for any spot. The pin is temporary.
Along your route
Weather at points along a planned route. With Avoid rain on, the route card can suggest a drier road, show the extra time and offer Keep original. It does not always find a drier road.
Where it comes from
Weather data by Open-Meteo.com, relayed through RIDE’s weather service with coordinates rounded to two decimal places. Section 4 of the Privacy Policy has the details.

Weather is part of the closed-beta scope, but how it behaves on real devices is still being qualified. Forecasts can be wrong, late or unavailable, so treat them as a helpful estimate, not a guarantee. The weather screens on this site show the live forecast at the time of the September capture; the Avoid rain screens use simulated rain from a test fixture.

See the weather screens

Wear OS companion · Optional Preview

A little RIDE on your wrist.

The next turn, how far it is and when you’ll arrive, on your wrist. A buzz before each turn, at the distance you choose, so you rarely need to look down. A dim face when your wrist is down. The watch only shows what the phone knows, and when the phone drops out, it says so instead of guessing.

At a glance
Next turn, distance, road and ETA, in Day or Night, or set to follow the phone.
Turn buzz
A vibration before each turn, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3 or 0.5 mi ahead, set on the phone.
Straight answers
Rerouting, offline or disconnected, the watch tells you, and keeps the current route while it retries.
Heart rate, your call
Optional, and off until you turn on “Save watch heart rate with rides” on your phone. Then the watch shows it while a ride records and the readings stay on your phone. Informational, not medical. See section 6 of the Privacy Policy and the draft health-data notice.
Wrist controls
Pause, resume and hold to end from the watch while the phone keeps the ride. In testing in the September preview.

Watch features need a paired Wear OS watch and matching phone and watch builds. They are previews: pairing, heart rate and wrist controls are still being verified on real watches, and complete Wear OS qualification is pending. Every watch screen on this site comes from an emulator preview with demo data.

Before you set off

More answers.

How is RIDE different from a regular navigation app?

A regular navigation app gets you there fastest. RIDE lets you choose how twisty the road should be and scores each route for curves, shows lean angle and ride stats while you ride, records the ride so you can replay it, and keeps your recorded rides on your phone, with no RIDE account.

Do I need an account, a purchase or an internet connection?

No RIDE account or purchase is needed to plan or record rides in the closed beta. Maps, place search and routing, including reroutes, need a connection; recording a ride does not. Google Play testers install with their Google account, as with any Play app.

What does RIDE cost?

Standard builds are described as including 250 free route plans per calendar month, and the Terms describe a one-time full-version unlock through Google Play. Invited closed-beta testers get unlimited route planning and do not need to buy anything; that exception does not carry over to public builds. No price, purchase or store link is announced yet.

Does RIDE show the weather?

Yes: a Weather tab beside Ride with current conditions, an hourly outlook, a rain-probability strip and a weather-risk line, plus optional Avoid rain route planning. Weather is part of the closed-beta scope, but its behavior on real devices is still being qualified, and forecasts can be wrong or unavailable. See the weather section.

Does RIDE show fuel, food and cafés?

Yes, in the September preview: places appear on the map as you zoom in, and nearby search finds fuel, food, parking or cafés. Places cover the United States for now, come from open map data and Stadia Maps search, and have no reviews, photos or opening hours. Coverage varies from town to town.

Where do my rides go?

Recorded rides stay on your phone in an encrypted database, with Android cloud backup disabled for them, unless you export one. Online routing, search and map requests go to Stadia Maps, and weather requests go through RIDE’s weather service to Open-Meteo. The Privacy Policy lists what is sent and what stays on your devices.

Does RIDE show speed limits?

Not yet. Showing posted speed limits, starting with the United States and using open map data, is in development, so there is nothing to try. Limits can be missing or wrong, and road signs always come first.

How should I use RIDE on the bike?

Plan, set up and adjust RIDE while safely stopped, then ride. Readings are estimates, and a suggested route never replaces your judgment. Read the rider safety notice.