While we are waiting for PureMaps to provide offline functionality, here some instructions on how to get offline maps for uNav working using downloadosmtiles. I do post this here because I did encounter a few stones on the road to success.

1. download downloadosmtiles from the left hand menu
2. extract to a folder on your harddisc, i.e. Downloads/osmtiles
3. run the script with perl downloadosmtiles.pl --link='http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=49.5782&lon=11.0076&zoom=10&layers=B000FTF' --zoom=5:16 --destdir=somewhere/maps

• of course replace coordninates with your target coordinates, the area seems to depend on the zoom value after the coords
• replace the path for destdir with another one, default is the current working directory
• change zoom levels, levels above 16 do take quite some time to download, you can download 5 to 16 first, and only level 17 or above later if you really need it

4. copy the map-files (foldernames = zoom level i.e. 5) onto your phone i.e. in a folder Documents/uNav_maps
   [zip the map tiles and copy the zip file, that is much faster than copying thousands of files]
5. in Terminal app run the following commands:
   cd Downloads/uNav_maps
rsync -avp . ~/.local/share/navigator.costales/maps
   [rsync is faster than cp and gives you progress information]
6. open up uNav, goto settings, change Modus to offline maps

EDIT:
To specify a bounding box for the tiles do be downloaded the command in step 3 needs to look like this:
perl downloadosmtiles.pl --latitude=47.35371:49.93708 --longitude=7.38281:10.54687 --zoom=5:7 --destdir=somewhere/maps
edit finished

Have fun! Don't get lost!

for lazy guys like me:
If you do this regularly, you may wish to create yourself a small shell script in your phones home folder called i.e. cpbash.sh. Then only open Terminal and run bash cpmaps.sh. Put the following two lines into the script:
cd Downloads/uNav_maps
rsync -avp . ~/.local/share/navigator.costales/maps

Troubleshooting: (on ubuntu 18.04)
... Can't locate Geo/OSM/Tiles.pm in @INC ...

• open the file downloadosmtiles.pl in a editor
• before line 6 add the following line: use lib '/Downloads/OSMtiles/Geo-OSM-Tiles-0.04/lib';, replace the path with your download location

... Can't locate Geo/OSM/Tiles.pm in @INC ...

• install YAML.pm by running: sudo apt-get install libyaml-perl

• you may need to create the folder maps to be like this: ~/.local/share/navigator.costales/maps, then map data wants to be in there in a structure like this (see https://unav.me/offline/) :
  ~/.local/share/navigator.costales/maps/10/
  ~/.local/share/navigator.costales/maps/10/523/
  ~/.local/share/navigator.costales/maps/10/523/331.png

He has been mentioned, but many, many, many ... thanks to @bhdouglass master of OpenStore!!! What would we be without our OpenStore? Great work done there - and certainly a lot of time spend.

Many thanks to everyone working on clickable - I know for sure @bhdouglass and @jonius - who provide a magical and crucial tool for us to create apps.

Thanks @bhdouglass for asking me to maintain weather app. With your advice and a lot of starting help by @jonius , design guidance from some weeeee helper @CiberSheep I am happy to be able to contribute.

Also many thanks to all translators like @Anne017 for hours of translating, so others with less knowledge of the English language can enjoy Ubuntu Touch.

And thanks to everyone else here making up a nice community!

Edit: I forgot to mention two important contributors: @Krille and @nanu-c . With a lot of time and love they provide apps for matrix and signal. Significant add ons next to Teleports. So man thanks to you too!

We do have loads of simple webapps in the OpenStore that are simple desktoplinks. It is easy to loose track when looking for "real" app.

Webber is a great tool for everyone to create a quick link for her/his favourite web page.

How about including webber as preinstalled app?
How about launching an "unpublish simple webapps campaign" to clear out OpenStore a bit?

I red this forum post and Marius's comment listed there (almost at the end). It says that there are plans are to move away from ubuntu location service towards geoclue and qtlocation and hybris platform.

What's the status with that. Is there any progress?

@makeixo Payments for Piepmatz is a service provided by https://www.digistore24.com/. This is something developers can set up for themselves within their apps. It might be something developers can pick up when developing for UT too. But this has got nothing to do with OpenStore.

Edit: Hm, maybe if the services are free unless some payment is done, then maybe OpenStore could use this feature and provide it for all apps? I don't know. Someone with more legal knowledge would have to look into this.
Spreading the word about this service might be the most practical thing to do...

@MarkG_108 Just in case you missed it, as I wrote under no. 4, zip the tiles before copying them onto your phone. That does work MUCH faster than transferring all files individually.

@MarkG_108 You can go on OSM and right click a location. In the contex menu select "show address". Then in the menu on the left side also the coordinates are displayed.

@99 I know about that link, but the wikipedia page for JTileDownloader states that it is blocked by the servers. And at least when I tried it I could not get it working. Thats why I posted instructions for another way to download files.

But if JTileDownloader works (again?) that would be nice!

To complete the ideas from the Telegram-thread a few days ago I add my draft as well. Although I was already reminded that there used to be a browser "in the old times" using a similar logo.
Teleports - port - steering wheel was the idea behind it...

Edit 1:
In Germany there is a phrase "ein sicherer Hafen" (a safe port). A port suggests safety (for ships).
If that makes sense in other languages a marketing phrase for TELEports (independent of the icon) could be:
<marketing> "TELEports - a safe port for your chats" </marketing>

Edit 2: For legal purposes, the plane is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Telegram_Messenger#/media/File:Telegram_logo.svg and comes as public domain. No copyright fraud intended.

@Keneda

I know. Brian unpublished it, because he thought it will not work anymore. But after people reported it as still working, he published it again.

@Keneda

Sprint is still available in OpenStore. And it does still work. Not all features might be working though.

We do have loads of simple webapps in the OpenStore that are simple desktoplinks. It is easy to loose track when looking for "real" app.

Webber is a great tool for everyone to create a quick link for her/his favourite web page.

How about including webber as preinstalled app?
How about launching an "unpublish simple webapps campaign" to clear out OpenStore a bit?

@AppLee To be honest, I don't know how one can use UT without back buttons.

Teleports, FluffyChat, Axolotl: leaving a chat I do Idontknowhowmanytimesaday => back button.
Dekko after reading an email going back to the list => back button
Closing Pages e.g. settings, new events, new contacts in most apps => back/down button
OpenStore leaving an app's page => close (back) button
Gallery leaving view of image to return to list page => back button
Music app return to lists from artist/song/album view => back button
Logviewer, returning from log to list => back button
returning to list from every system settings subpage and subsubpage => back button
...
That is the usecase I am thinking of.

Name me apps (exept of Palitan) that feature a bottom bar that covers those actions. Name one single app (with more than one page) that works without a back button somewhere.

I do agree, that this CAN be solved appwise. But the back button is build into the toolkit. No coding required except implementing a header. There you go. If this is left to app developers, we will likely end up with 100 different implementations.

So if you don't see the need for a improved back solution, you are lucky. But I guess, you are amongst a few people that think so.

I wish I had a better idea for this. Maybe we can facilitate a dedicated area at the bottom for that. Say bottom right corner swipes trigger that action. Whatever app developers have coded into the back action, will happen there too. Sounds easier that it is I guess. Ok, getting desperate. sight I am lost for ideas. But I do still suffer from back-ness.

@kugiigi It certainly needs to be implemented into the standard toolkit. Otherwise it would not be systemwide.

Regarding the swipe switch between two apps. Hm, I did not think about that - because I do not use it at all.

It certainly adds some complexity. But I do see the need for a "new" back functionality. The back button is the action used most often - and is the hardest to reach.

Most people are right handed. So when using the device one handed, you have to go into the furthest corner to aim for a small button. Left handed (and using both hands) still the largest distance to reach.

Hey guys. I do have an idea to solve this - not without some big change, but I believe a possible solution.

Left edge currently is used for the launcher and the drawer. What if we extend this to bring up the app stack too?

Usecase 1 - home = no app open:

• Launcher is open
• swipe up to 1/2 screen width -> drawer opens up
• swipe more than 1/2 screen width -> app stack opens

Usecase 2 - another app open:

• swipe 1/4 -> launcher opened
• swipe up to 1/2 screen width -> drawer opens up
• swipe more than 1/2 screen width -> stack opens

The distances will certainly need some fine tuning. But I think it should be possible to get this working.

With this change implemented, the right edge is free for a systemwide swipe to back.
Swipe maybe 1/3 (1/2?) of screen width to trigger the back action.
Maybe show a little icon/bar to give visual feedback for the user that he/she is triggering that action.
On release, trigger back. When swiping back to the edge, do nothing (=cancel back action). I think this is important to avoid unwanted back actions.

Mouse could trigger that back icon/bar too. On click (or further swipe) back is triggered.

I am aware of the fact, that this would be a serious change in UI behaviour. BUT the length of this thread and the many many discussions about hardware buttons*1 do show, that this requires a solution. So it might be worth it.

1 I think mainly because of the missing back button. "Go to home" and "open recent apps" we do have sort of covered.

@MarkG_108 Just in case you missed it, as I wrote under no. 4, zip the tiles before copying them onto your phone. That does work MUCH faster than transferring all files individually.

@MarkG_108 You can go on OSM and right click a location. In the contex menu select "show address". Then in the menu on the left side also the coordinates are displayed.

@99 I know about that link, but the wikipedia page for JTileDownloader states that it is blocked by the servers. And at least when I tried it I could not get it working. Thats why I posted instructions for another way to download files.

But if JTileDownloader works (again?) that would be nice!

@makeixo Payments for Piepmatz is a service provided by https://www.digistore24.com/. This is something developers can set up for themselves within their apps. It might be something developers can pick up when developing for UT too. But this has got nothing to do with OpenStore.

Edit: Hm, maybe if the services are free unless some payment is done, then maybe OpenStore could use this feature and provide it for all apps? I don't know. Someone with more legal knowledge would have to look into this.
Spreading the word about this service might be the most practical thing to do...