Release Notes¶

The current release is 4.11.11 on iOS and Android, and 1.7.4 for the desktop app.

Bristol Maps ships continuously through TestFlight and the Play Store internal track, so most releases are small. The list below groups the significant changes by feature area rather than by build number, because that is how you are likely to look for them.

How far back this goes

Per-version release tags exist from 4.3.52 (13 July 2026) onward. Changes before that are grouped under Earlier in the 4.x cycle without individual version numbers, because those builds were not tagged.

Pots & gear¶

Pick mode – haul a string with a count per pot: big minus and plus buttons, a checkmark per haul, and the range, bearing and turn to the next pot. Every pick is written to the log with pot number, depth, soak and count (4.11.9). See Pick Mode.
Heads-up plot on tablets and desktop – the string drawn over the live chart with a target ring, bearing line and a green or red turn arrow, plus a compact number keypad on iPad (4.11.10). See The heads-up plot.
Map / List on phones – flip the pick page between the pot list and the chart plot, and tap a pot’s name to open it (4.11.11).
Edit on Chart – drag a pot to fix its position, or unlock the rest of the string and move it together (4.11.9). See Moving a pot.
Center on Map from a pot, a string or a track line (4.11.9).
Gear types, icons and depth at drop – strings carry a gear type (crab, shrimp, cod, lobster, longline) and an icon, and the sounder depth is stamped on every pot dropped with the crab button (4.11.5). See Strings & Pots.
String tracks sync properly – set lines now reach your other devices, two boats can record on one string, and pot details gained View String Details (4.11.6).
Pot, string and track pages – full detail pages with buoy number, set time, soak and position replaced the old edit prompts (4.10.4).
Crowded strings collapse – overlapping pots draw as one labelled line, with a Collapse Sensitivity setting (4.9.2). See On the chart.
Cloud pot & string backup – pots, strings and tracks follow your account to every device, and same-named strings merge. See Sync & Sharing.
Share a string with your group – members get a read-only copy that updates live. See Sharing a string.
Share pot locations with drag boats – time-limited, with an end-of-season option. See Drag boats.
Siri and shortcuts – “Drop Crab Pot” and gear-trackline shortcuts on iOS, and a Drop Pot home-screen shortcut on Android. See Hands-free.
Desktop 1.7.4 – the Gear Management window, Pot Details and Edit Pot Position windows, right-click pot actions, the pick window with the same heads-up plot, and a Pots & Gear settings page with Sync Now. See Bristol Maps for Desktop.

Maps & imagery¶

Request a New Area – draw an area on the map and request imagery for it directly from the app, instead of emailing support. Areas are measured in square nautical miles, with a 1,500 sq nm cap per request. See Request a New Area.
NOAA ENC vector charts – a dedicated charts tab with per-region downloads and automatic updates. The chart catalog now streams to disk and parses incrementally, so opening it no longer stalls on a slow connection. See NOAA ENC Charts.
Currents overlay – NOAA current predictions drawn on the chart.
Depth & bathymetry v2 – region-configured depth pipeline with tide-offset correction. See Depth & Bathymetry.

Instruments¶

N2K Bridge – a BLE/WiFi NMEA 2000 bridge subsystem, with a guided setup wizard. See N2K Bridge. (Automatic WiFi join is currently disabled on iOS; connect to the bridge network manually.)
Engine gauges and history – live engine readouts and historical charts.

Fleet¶

Voice channels / push-to-talk – fleet radio over the internet, with hold-to-talk and hands-free modes. See Voice / Push-to-Talk.
Voice recording – capture, transcribe and play back voice channel sessions. See Voice History & Transcripts.
Hardware PTT buttons – volume keys, Bluetooth PTT mics and rugged-device buttons can key the mic.
Per-platform audio routing – choose speaker, earpiece or Bluetooth.
Photos and video in chat – attach from the camera or your library.

Logs, tickets and money¶

Sales visibility – see fuel and grocery purchases from your processor, with spend analytics. See Purchases.
Fish ticket analytics – daily pounds, district breakdown and year-over-year charts.
Waypoint, route and log cloud sync – items follow your account across devices, with duplicate handling on the server side.

Measure between points – a dedicated measuring mode on the map.
Boundary improvements – tiered boundary checking, boundary lock, the ability to disable individual lines, enable/disable all for a group, and much larger tap targets on boundary lines.
Upper Cook Inlet drift gillnet boundaries added, and Cook Inlet data corrected.
Tide overlay readouts – larger current height, plus a one-hour delta and the next change.

App-wide¶

Settings overhaul – Settings is now a hub of grouped pages with search and inline descriptions, replacing the single long list. See Settings.
Plain-language permission dialogs – clearer explanations of why the app asks for location and other permissions.
Onboarding walkthrough for new installs.
Charting engine replaced – Syncfusion was removed in favour of LiveCharts2 (7 April 2026). Tide and analytics charts are drawn with the new engine.
iOS memory fixes – footprint monitoring, memory-warning cleanup and bounded tile caches, addressing background terminations on older iPads.
GPS-stale banner made less aggressive (raw-fix feed, 30-second threshold, debounced) so it stops flickering on a good fix.

Earlier in the 4.x cycle¶

Untagged builds between 3.14 and 4.3.52 introduced the AI Fishing Assistant, the onboarding walkthrough, engine gauges, the voice subsystem, and the move from Syncfusion to LiveCharts2.

Keeping up to date

Bristol Maps is actively developed. Update through the App Store or Play Store to get the latest features and fixes – see Install & Devices.

For questions about a specific build, contact support@bristolmaps.com.