Dumb question on behalf of someone else

[ChevronB19]

I should know this. It’s also car related!

My dad has a Skoda Citigo (which surprised me, I think I’ve fallen in love with it). The ‘multimedia’ involves connecting it to a smartphone. He’s got a basic smartphone and was wondering if it was used solely for GPS purposes, does it suck up data (he is in a basic contract), or just uses the signal rather than data?

Thanks!

[stevoknevo]

If he was to use say Google Maps it'll use his data connection, however you can download local maps at home over WiFi on the above and use it in offline mode which will use the GPS signal alongside the downloaded maps, but would lose out on things like Live route planning/congestion avoidance etc. So it really depends on what app he's using as to how it would use his data - been a fair while since I checked it out but Google Maps, Waze (owned by Google) and Sygic (offline but you need to pay for additional functionality to get the b out of it iirc?) were always near the top of any 'best offline GPS' lists.

[AJB88]

is it Android Auto / Apple Car Play hes trying to use? if so first thing to do is to check the phone actually supports it. Secondly yes it will use the data.

[phil y]

The app should allow you to download maps for offline navigation, might use a small amount of data for traffic updates.

[anonymous-user]

Even a basic contract should have enough data. I pay £7 a month and that includes 4gb which I don't get close to using and I use android auto a fair bit.