Offline maps for field sales
An offline map stores the data for a chosen area on the phone and draws from that instead of the network. It is not an image: roads, buildings and labels are still rendered live, so you can zoom and pan normally. The limits are that the area has to be chosen in advance and that storage is finite.
Stored data, not a picture
A screenshot is fixed at one zoom and holds nothing you can interact with. An offline map stores the underlying geometry, so the phone renders it the same way it renders an online map and everything still works.
How the storage behaves
Saved map data in KnockMode is capped at roughly 220 MB, and the least recently used areas are evicted first. In practice that is a lot of neighbourhoods, and an area you have not opened in months may need saving again.
Why most field apps do not do this
Most draw their map from a commercial mapping service that bills per request, and that arrangement has no local fallback by design. KnockMode uses a single map file we host, built from public map data, so saving a slice of it to the phone is possible at all.
Common questions
- Are offline maps just screenshots?
- No. The geometry is stored, so zooming and panning work normally and the map is rendered rather than displayed.
- How much storage do offline maps use?
- KnockMode caps saved map data at roughly 220 MB and evicts the least recently used areas first.
- Can I save the whole country?
- No, and coverage is a Texas extract today in any case. Save the neighbourhoods you are working.
More on working offline
Dead zones, saved maps and field reliability — the wedge, and the thing reps complain about most.