Light Phone 2 Directions Tool Review

today’s a pretty big day because we have
the light phone 2 directions tool a lot
of people have been waiting for this and
honestly
it delivers so let’s take a look into it
first of all you have to have version
250 you cannot install the light phone
tool or it will not work very well if
you don’t have version 250 and firmware
i believe 83. once you have those two
you go to your dashboard and you do the
same as with the podcast or music or
alarm calculator tools you just install
them it will prompt you to accept a
privacy policy and we’ll talk about that
in just a second and also to give your
address in order to prime the location
we’ll also talk a little bit about that
when it comes to the phone so once you
have the direction tool you’ll be able
to use it very seamlessly the directions
tool has a lot of settings first of all
it has two modes it has gps mode and
offline mode and the offline mode also
allows you to save battery so if you
want it to follow you and you want to
see a map view gps

mode is better if you
want to use offline mode in order to
save battery then that’s actually just
better you can also activate something
that’s called location test status so if
you want to make sure that you get an
accurate location
first before you start into your
directions then that’s actually the best
way in order to prime the gps that’s one
of the quirks of the system and i’ll be
explaining in just a second a couple of
extra thing is voice commands if you
want it for live navigation or the
imperial or metric system i have it on
imperial since i’m in the united states
but if you’re outside of the united
states then of course the metric system
works for you
now it has three modes walking driving
and also
the mode for public transportation this
was not planned to come live i believe
it was going to come later but i’m so
glad that it’s on version one now this
is going to continue getting refined and
it’s going to give you directions if
you’re in a city for you know public
transportation which i think it’s a big
big plus now searching for things so
let’s say that we’re going to look for
starbucks and i know that there is a
couple starbucks in my town
right and it’s going to give me which
ones are available now this is only
going to give me the ones that are in my
radios but if i want to expand my search
i just click expand search radius and
it’s going to give me extra things like
going to valdosta georgia which is
farther away perry georgia etc etc so if
you’re in a location and you’re trying
to go to a different location let’s say
that you’re driving from you know let’s
say my town to atlanta and then you want
to go to a certain place in atlanta then
you’re going to have to click a couple
of times that expanded radius in order
to get better results i think this is
good because essentially it allows you
to only limit the data to a certain
location and it’s not just looking
everywhere that it can google maps does
something very similar of course like
you know when you redirect it and you
say search here instead of here then you
know i think that that’s a good system
and of course if you move into a
different radios at a different area it
will search for that area so i think it
was pretty smart
and i was able to find most of the
locations now some of the times it
doesn’t show the location and this is
not the light phone team’s fault it’s
essentially the database from here maps
so there are two systems in here they
didn’t use google maps because of
privacy and we’ll get that into just a
second but here maps is very good it’s
decent it will showcase all of your
necessary locations so if you’re looking
for a specific address and you’re
driving there then you just input it in
and then you’re good to go
but if you need
something that is maybe brand new it
probably will not show up right away and
you may have to just wait a little bit
longer than let’s say google maps and
that’s because google is farming your
data whereas hear maps is not and the
light phone team also is not farming
that data which is very good so let’s
talk a little bit about privacy here
when it comes to the phone in this
specific tool
so this is the first tool that can
quote-unquote track you right but you
don’t have to opt-in for that you can
just use offline mode which i think it’s
a great default it uses offline mode
just a you know certain general location
in which where where you’re at and
that’s about it so it will use that
location that data in order to
just realize what are you trying to find
and of course it’s not going to track
you right away so that’s great you can
turn off the gps module which is also
very good which you know i’m personal i
personally like that they don’t track
anything they don’t collect any data
unless you have issues and you want help
so let’s say you want help and they you
know you have issues with your gps let’s
say the
the tool is buggy they have an option
that says
logs and you can share those logs in
order to solve your issue faster let’s
say that you’re trying to go to a
certain place and it makes you turn into
a different direction then you contact
the light support team you know and work
it out with them but you can always turn
it off and that’s something that i
really appreciate about this phone it’s
always been very privacy respecting it’s
not sharing your data with anybody it’s
always encrypted and you know there’s of
course like more terms and conditions on
the tool if you want to check them out
now there is a couple of things to note
of course
the main thing is that this will drain
your battery so yesterday i said i was
in alabama you know and i was looking
for certain things and i was coming back
home that’s about a two and a half hour
trip about three hours you know from
from montgomery to where i live and
essentially you know the phone got
really warm about an hour and a half in
so it dropped maybe about 25 of the
battery which is a lot yeah
it’s using the gps and tracking me i
just wanted to make sure that everything
was working you know correctly and
it worked but it got warm so i wouldn’t
use it for long trips honestly i was
just testing it i actually don’t think
it’s
that great for long long trips like i
said you’re driving for three plus hours
six hours you know i don’t think this is
the best option for that i think a
standalone gps is just better at that
point but it works it does work so about
an hour and a half you know i just kind
of like exited out i know where i was
and then i just plugged it back in and
kind of regained that battery because it
charges pretty quickly so you’re going
to see and notice a little bit of a drop
in
battery and a little bit of performance
it will just slow down because when the
phone gets hot it just the e-ink just
slows down in order for it not to burn
right completely
and it works
beautifully besides that right so if
you’re walking or public transportation
i think those are the best cases and if
you’re driving it’s kind of short you
know maybe 30 minutes an hour then i
think the phone will do well now i did
notice on my testing more testing today
i was driving today again and whenever
you have the phone and you don’t use the
map view it takes way longer to actually
warm up so if you’re using just the
directions view which is an arrow where
you’re going to turn next
then it absolutely takes way less time
so it’s just easier to use it that way
instead of use it in a different way
like the map box where you see all of
the you know it’s following you and you
see all of the features from the map
just use the regular view which is just
directions and just the arrow i think
that’s just a better
mode in order for to get like those long
trips
besides that there are a couple of extra
you know kind of like quirks about the
the gps tool again it doesn’t find
everything all the time so you may need
to expand the radius and
sometimes the gps location takes a
little while i think this is the last
thing that i’ll mention for now and i’ll
continue doing more testing and if you
have any questions of course you can put
it in the comments below but whenever
you turn off the phone and turn it back
on
then the gps may take a little while it
took about five minutes for it to lock
in and position for me but whenever you
do that location test i think that’s the
best way it kind of uses data and
triangulation in order to locate where
you’re at and then it doesn’t doesn’t
miss you like you know when once it’s
locked in it’s locked in for for a long
time until you maybe shut it off or stop
using the phone for a couple hours so i
think this is a great addition for the
light phone too very well to serve props
to the team thank you very much for
bringing this now i think the future is
bug fixes so you’re going to see more
bug fixes with bluetooth and you know a
couple of the extra things that we have
noticed um podcast app you know jumping
or maybe stopping sometimes um
so i’m really excited about this phone
getting better and better it’s been two
years almost since i’ve had this phone
and i just love that they continue to
support the phone to continue to build
tools and hopefully the sdk drops this
year or maybe earlier you know first
half of next year and then we can see
just an expansion of more tools more
useful things for the light phone too
and of course that’s going to affect the
battery but it’s kind of like a
trade-off if you really need something
then you know you are going to be able
to use it i think this phone is just
getting better and better and now with
directions is still something that is
useful not distracting and that just
allows you to go in with your day so if
you have any questions about this
specific thing on directions tool or
anything else please let me know i’ll be
doing a live stream hopefully in the
next couple days to showcase it or you
know kind of like go over other phones
things like that so stay tuned for that
and if you have any questions or
comments make sure to put it in the
comment uh below i’ll be interacting
with you guys thanks for watching i’ll
see you in the next one
you

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