Navigation

The riding screen

At the top, the next turn in large type, with the distance and the road name. At the bottom, speed, speed limit, km to go with arrival time, the surface ahead and the ☰ menu.

• Turns: straight, slight, normal or sharp left and right, U-turn, keep left or right, roundabout with exit number, stop, arrival.
• Roadbook at the bottom: "3 cards", "Next only" or "Hidden". The full-screen roadbook keeps the next 12 notes.
• Map: Head Up or North Up. Zoom follows speed: closer below 20 km/h, wider above 100 km/h. In Head Up your position sits low, so you see more road ahead.
• If you move the map, it stops following you. Tap "RECENTER", or it comes back by itself after 10 seconds above 10 km/h, or when a turn is less than 200 m away.
• Day and night: in automatic mode Polly works out sunrise and sunset where you are, with no connection.
• Elevation profile: on phones too, under the map, with surface colours, where you are and the climbing left. Show or hide it from ☰ › More; without elevation data it does not appear.

The ☰ menu

The first level fits on one screen, without scrolling: Voice, Map (Head Up or North Up), Roadbook ›, Record, the red "SOS by SMS" button, More › and, at the bottom, "End navigation" with a confirmation. Each tile shows its current status.

• Roadbook: roadbook under the map ("3 cards", "Next only", "Hidden"), full-screen roadbook and rally roadbook.
• More: theme, map layers, elevation profile and fuel range with "Refuelled".

Voice guidance

Three choices: "All", "Alerts" (restrictions, speed cameras and speed only), "Muted". The voice button in the ☰ menu cycles through them.

• The first announcement comes about 30 seconds before the turn (between 200 m and 1 km), then "Now…" about 6 seconds before.
• Two turns less than 150 m apart are announced together.
• Restrictions, speed cameras and speeding can interrupt a less important sentence.
• It uses the phone's offline voices, in Italian or English. If Italian is missing it uses English; if there is none, it turns the voice off and tells you. It does not download voices from the internet.

Rerouting and resuming

If you leave the route you see "Off route", then "Recalculating route…". The phone looks for a new way to the remaining stops, with the same surface and difficulty, with no connection.

• You are off route when you are more than 30 m from the line (plus GPS error) for at least 3 positions and 5 seconds. Riding the wrong way for 10 seconds counts too.
• Rerouting first tries to continue in the direction you are going. If it finds no road, it tries again after 10 seconds.
• If the app closes or the phone switches off, on restart you can resume navigation from where you were, not from the start. Polly saves its state every 200 m or 30 seconds.

Restricted sections: shown, not blocked

A section closed to motor vehicles is dashed magenta. Polly warns you before you enter it, at 150, 300 or 500 m (your choice; 300 by default). While riding the warning comes at least 20 seconds before. Inside the section you read that you are in a restricted section and how much is left.

View the road

Press and hold a road on the map: a panel opens with name, type (dirt track, path, forest road, private…), surface, difficulty, steepest gradient and, if restricted, the reason. The reason can be: agricultural-forestry road, forest road, farm road, private, permit only, closed to everyone, hiking path, protected area. It works offline. With a connection you can open Street View, Mapillary or OpenStreetMap.

Ban or permit, with the act

• A ban and a section marked "Permit required" have different wording: you know whether it is closed or open with an authorisation.
• When the source gives them, you also read who decided (the authority), the type, number and date of the act, such as an ordinance or a decree, and the validity period. If the source does not give them, they do not appear.
• When routing, permit-only sections count as closed, to be safe: Polly cannot know whether you have the permit.

Protected areas and Natura 2000

The topo map and the restriction details show the protected areas from the official Italian EUAP list (ISPRA) and the Natura 2000 sites from the European Environment Agency, with name, code and type: SCI, SAC or SPA. Data under the CC BY 4.0 licence. A protected area does not always mean a ban: the rules depend on the park and the signs.

While riding the panel only opens below 5 km/h.

Where the restrictions come from

From OpenStreetMap and, in some regions, from official lists: agricultural-forestry roads in Lombardy, forest roads in Trento and Veneto, forest roads in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, hiking networks in Emilia-Romagna and Liguria. These sources never close public paved roads.

Seasonal closures

Some passes and roads are closed only in certain months, for example in winter. Polly does not treat them as closed all year: they stay in the route, with a slightly longer time (about 11%), and "View the road" shows the warning "Seasonally closed to motor vehicles" with the period. It is not magenta, so you do not mistake it for a permanent restriction.

Polly checks the period against the date of your ride: today for a route or a loop, the right day for each leg of a trip. If the road is closed on that date, the summary tells you before you leave; while riding an orange banner appears ahead of time and the voice says it once. Outside the period there is no warning.

Polly reads periods such as "November to May" or "1 November to 30 April"; "winter" and "snow" count as November to May. If the period is unclear, you still get a generic warning asking you to check the signs.

Last fuel

Settings › My bike › "Fuel range": tank, consumption and reserve (in litres or km). It stays off until you set it.

• The summary shows your range on a full tank, how many fuel stations are on the route and where to fill up: "Last fuel for 24 km: fill up at … (km 29)". If a stretch is longer than your range, it says so.
• While riding, 15 km before that station a "Last fuel for … km" box appears and the voice announces it. If the estimated fuel will not reach the next station, the warning is "Fuel for about … km".
• After filling up, tap "Refuelled" in ☰ › More to start again from a full tank.
• Fuel stations come from the offline maps (MIMIT and OpenStreetMap), within 200 m of the road. No prices.

Back before dark

• Polly works out sunset at your destination on the phone. If you would arrive after sunset, or less than 30 minutes before it, the summary says so: "Arrival around 18:55, after sunset (18:28)".
• It suggests the latest time to leave to arrive in daylight, or "Shorten the loop" or "Faster on Road", which recalculate the ride.
• While riding, if the estimated arrival slips past sunset, a box and the voice tell you.
• It is an astronomical estimate: clouds, valleys and woods get dark earlier.

Weather along the route

Settings › Default route › "Weather along the route": on by default, one tap turns it off. It is the only riding feature that uses the network.

• After routing, Polly asks for the forecast at 2–8 points of the route, start and finish included, each at the time you will be there: rain, temperature, wind and thunderstorms.
• On the elevation profile in the summary you see where rain or thunderstorms are expected, and one line sums up the stretches, for example "Light rain from km 40 to 64, around 10:44 · 12 °C", with the age of the forecast and "Weather data: MET Norway".
• On dirt it estimates mud risk from forecast rain and, when the phone knows it, rain from the last hours. It is an estimate, not an observation.
• With no signal you see the last forecast downloaded and its age; if there is none, the box does not appear. The route is still calculated, always offline.
• Polly sends only the area, with coordinates rounded to about 1 km. When it is off, nothing is sent.
• Data from MET Norway (NLOD and CC BY 4.0 licences), credited in the summary. What is sent is in the privacy policy.

Ferries

A ferry that carries vehicles can be part of the route and shows as "Ferry" in "View the road". Polly uses it when OpenStreetMap says it carries motorcycles or vehicles, or when both landings connect to roads: a sign that it is not a foot-passenger boat.

There are no timetables, prices or live services, and there is no option to avoid ferries.

Speed cameras and limits

• Speed cameras: only fixed ones in OpenStreetMap, on your route and in your direction. The warning appears at 1,500 m; the voice speaks about 20 seconds before, at least 400 m.
• Limits: the limit sign appears when OpenStreetMap knows it. Speed turns red above the limit plus 2 km/h.

SOS by SMS

Settings › Safety › "SOS contacts": up to 3 numbers typed in by hand and your own message. They stay on the phone.

The red "SOS by SMS" button is on the first level of the ☰ menu while navigating, on the recording sheet and in the home screen ☰ menu during a free ride. It is large, so you can hit it with gloves on.

• After the tap a 5-second countdown starts, with "CANCEL". Then the phone's SMS composer opens with recipients and text filled in: you check it and press Send yourself. Polly never sends anything on its own.
• The text includes the coordinates, accuracy and time of your position, an OpenStreetMap link, your direction of travel and up to 6 points of your recent path (about one every km or every 3 minutes). If you are recording, also the ride name and the km ridden.
• When the phone allows it, Polly offers the recent track as a GPX attachment. If it cannot, only the text goes.
• You need a SIM and SMS coverage, not internet. No data goes through Polly or a server.
• "Call 112" only opens the phone dialler with the number: Polly does not call emergency services.

Crash detection (trial)

Settings › Safety › "Crash detection (TRIAL)": off by default.

This is a trial feature: it can miss a crash or raise a false alarm.

• It only works while you navigate or record.
• The alarm needs three things together: a hard impact, a drop from over 15 to under 5 km/h within a few seconds, then 30 seconds of near stillness. If you ride off again, the alarm does not go off.
• The alarm fills the screen, with vibration and sound, and a large "I'M OK" button. You have 60 seconds.
• If nobody stops it, the ready-made SOS by SMS opens: here too, you send it yourself.

On the bike, with gloves

• Above 15 km/h the map ignores touches; it responds again below 5 km/h. Buttons always work.
• The screen stays on. On Android a persistent notification shows the guidance; on iPhone guidance carries on with the phone locked.
• If GPS is lost you read "GPS lost" and the voice says so, also when it comes back.
• Main buttons are at least 56 points tall.

The numbers

30 s

before a turn, the first voice announcement

30 m

plus GPS error: beyond that you are off route

150/300/500 m

warning distance for restricted sections

1,500 m

warning distance for a fixed speed camera

15 km/h

above this speed a tap does not move the map

200 m

how often Polly saves navigation so it can resume

5 s

to cancel the SOS before the message opens

3

SOS contacts at most

What it does not do

• It does not block restricted sections or decide for you: road signs on site always come first.
• No mobile speed cameras or Tutor, and the list of fixed ones is incomplete.
• No traffic, live closures, ferry timetables or fuel prices. The weather is a forecast, not an observation.
• It does not call emergency services or send texts on its own: SOS prepares the message, you send it.
• OpenStreetMap data can be wrong or out of date.