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Release Notes (Geocaching® app: Adventure pins) - April 12, 2021


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Release Notes (Geocaching® app: Adventure pins) - April 12, 2021

 

With this release, Premium members can see Adventures in the Geocaching® app!  Adventures are represented by their own pin type, so they are easily recognizable on the map. Each pin represents an Adventure Lab’s starting location.

 

Adventure pins in the Geocaching® app are available only to Premium members. Basic members can still complete Adventures for free directly in the Adventure Lab® app.

 

For Premium members who have both the Geocaching® and Adventure Lab® apps installed on their mobile device, tapping an Adventure pin in the Geocaching® app will take you directly to the Adventure Lab® app via a deep-link and you can begin exploring.

 

For Premium members who have not yet installed the Adventure Lab® app, your first time interacting with an Adventure pin in the Geocaching® app will prompt you to install the Adventure Lab® app before being deep-linked directly.
 

Adventures on the Geocaching Map

 

Screen Shot 2021-09-13 at 2.30.04 PM.png

 

The Geocaching® app’s filter panel is also updated to include Adventures. You can now search and filter for Adventures just as you would with cache types, or hide them entirely. It’s up to you. As an additional improvement, you now have the option to deselect all / select all cache types and cache sizes in the filters.

 

Screen Shot 2021-09-13 at 2.31.40 PM.png

 

Displaying only Adventures on the Geocaching Map

 

Screen Shot 2021-09-13 at 2.36.38 PM.png

 

We have also made some changes to the tray that is displayed when you tap an Adventure pin. The look and feel are quite similar to the existing Geocaching tray, but with different pieces of information.

 

Adventure Tray

  • Total distance
  • Number of ratings and average rating, if the Adventure has ratings
  • Number of locations for the Adventure
     

Screen Shot 2021-09-13 at 2.36.00 PM.png

 

We are eager to hear your feedback about these new features in the Geocaching® app. For an update about the Adventure Lab® platform, please see this forum thread.

 

Brendan (brendanjw) is watching this thread to answer questions whenever possible.
 
Any posts in this thread should relate to features in this release. Comments unrelated to the release may be removed. Please direct unrelated comments to other appropriate threads. Thanks!

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1 hour ago, Geocaching HQ said:

Adventure Tray

  • Total distance

Total distance as in distance from where I am? Or total distance between the locations? It's the "total" part that I'm wondering about. If the distance is just between me and the posted Adventure lab coordinates then it wouldn't be called total it would just be called distance. 

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2 minutes ago, Max and 99 said:

Total distance as in distance from where I am? Or total distance between the locations? It's the "total" part that I'm wondering about. If the distance is just between me and the posted Adventure lab coordinates then it wouldn't be called total it would just be called distance. 

 

It looks like it's the distance from where I currently am.

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Thank you for adding Adventure Lab pins to the map in the app. I hope that this will bring awareness to the Adventure Labs and maybe encourage more participation. This also makes it easier for those of us who do enjoy Adventure Labs to engage in both the labs and traditional caching without pre-planning or forgetting about one while engaged with the other.

I hope this feature comes to the website as well.

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Indicating the starting location of an Adventure Lab is only useful where the individual waypoints of the lab are within that vicinity. These new developments still do not help you find individual waypoints in your vicinity which are located some distance from the starting point, nor help locate waypoints in your vicinity that belong to different Adventure labs. I have been to waypoints for one Adventure lab only to find out later that there were waypoints for other Adventure labs located in almost the same spot which I then had to revisit. Not an efficient use of time or resources. 

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Thanks for this great addition to map. Unfortunately, adventure that are in progress does not show on my Android phone. If I have completed some of the locations, the adventure doesn’t show along with other cache types. If I filter only Adventures to the map, then those ”in progress” Adventures show too.  On iOS it works perfectly

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25 minutes ago, weellu said:

Thanks for this great addition to map. Unfortunately, adventure that are in progress does not show on my Android phone. If I have completed some of the locations, the adventure doesn’t show along with other cache types. If I filter only Adventures to the map, then those ”in progress” Adventures show too.  On iOS it works perfectly

I suspected you were right but wanted to check for myself on my Android. On my map the partially completed adventures are showing with all other cache types when I have no filters set. 

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Thanks Max99. That is what I also suspected that the problem is not that straightforward. There was a report on a local group that for someone only some of the Adventures shown even all of them being not started. 
 

But here is an example attached how it is for me. 

230402AE-BA14-4DF8-AFAE-5E574FB87C16.jpeg

B7DEDCE4-7C04-4CAF-8641-103B7B4D99A8.jpeg

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11 hours ago, Mineral2 said:

I hope this feature comes to the website as well.

 

On both maps. The browse map and the search map. (Because I still prefer the browse map over the search map)

For the GPX file: The same as with the waypoints for a multi cache

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1 hour ago, MecanoMusique said:

Sadly, it doesn't work on my Android/Samsung. I am premium, I have the latest Geocaching app version + the Adventure Lab app downloaded. Still nothing. It's a great feature that I can't wait to see on the map! Thanks. 

inbound6134442662959454023.jpg

inbound2890300274300554791.jpg

Have you tried sign out and sign back in?

I didn't see anything at first and now I did after clossing the app and logging back in...

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28 minutes ago, MecanoMusique said:

Sadly, it doesn't work on my Android/Samsung. I am premium, I have the latest Geocaching app version + the Adventure Lab app downloaded. Still nothing. It's a great feature that I can't wait to see on the map! Thanks. 

That's the correct version, log out and back in again.

 

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Adventures take you on a contactless, socially-distant scavenger hunt to unlock fun stories, solve puzzles, and explore new places. From a road trip along the stunning Sea-to-Sky Highway in British Columbia to exploring the Nile River in Egypt to a short walking tour of the murals in your own town, there’s an Adventure for everyone. Plus, new Adventures are added all the time by Premium members like you. 

 

* Not if they're inside a business/restaurant. 

 

you can now seamlessly move between the two for a new, integrated caching experience. 

*I see how I can move from the geocaching app to the adventure lab app but not the AL app to the Geocaching app. 

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32 minutes ago, happileigh said:

not working for me- I've updated the App, logged in and out, tried on the website, ticked the Adlab filter?

Hi @happileigh I would like to try to help you out.  Are you using an Android or iOS device?  Can you check what version of the App you are running?  You can find this on the latest versions on both iOS and Android opening the More menu then tapping Version Info.  

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1 hour ago, amber1997 said:

Does this mean that as individuals, if we are premier members, we can create Adventure labs whenever we want?

Hi @amber1997 Great question, thanks for surfacing it.  To answer your question, no this is not what this feature means.  The same guidelines regarding creation and placement of Adventure Labs® still exist today, they have not changed. This feature is about providing a convenient experience for our Premium Members so that they can see Geocaches and Adventure Labs on one map.

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1 hour ago, Tomcat06 said:

Can't see any of the adventure pins. No new version on Google Play available. I am premium. How did others manage to test the new feature?
Tomcat

 

Try to relog inside the app

Edited by sernikk
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5 hours ago, Tomcat06 said:

Can't see any of the adventure pins. No new version on Google Play available. I am premium. How did others manage to test the new feature?
Tomcat

Just in case this helps... If you completed the Adventure Labs they'll show up in the app as a yellow smiley not an Adventure Lab pin. 

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22 minutes ago, Max and 99 said:

Just in case this helps... If you completed the Adventure Labs they'll show up in the app as a yellow smiley not an Adventure Lab pin. 

That does help.  And the smilie shows up at the posted first location of the lab, so in some cases that is hidden by other nearby caches, including my own.  It is confusing, though nice to have a different icon on the geocaching map for the AL's.  In areas where I have completed the AL's it's another smilie among many, not distinguished as an AL (or 5 smilies, for that matter).  I thought I wasn't seeing the Ad Lab pins, but I am, in my local area they are hidden by my own hides/finds so it was confusing.  Moving away from my home area, I can see them.

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1 minute ago, CAVinoGal said:

That does help.  And the smilie shows up at the posted first location of the lab, so in some cases that is hidden by other nearby caches, including my own.  It is confusing, though nice to have a different icon on the geocaching map for the AL's.  In areas where I have completed the AL's it's another smilie among many, not distinguished as an AL (or 5 smilies, for that matter).  I thought I wasn't seeing the Ad Lab pins, but I am, in my local area they are hidden by my own hides/finds so it was confusing.  Moving away from my home area, I can see them.

I saw that twice today: AL smiley overlapping another geocache icon. 

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1 hour ago, Max and 99 said:

I saw that twice today: AL smiley overlapping another geocache icon. 

 

On my two, and on many of the others I've seen and done, the bogus location of the bonus cache is at the same coordinates as the starting point of the AL. It looks like on ones I don't own and haven't done, the ? of the bonus covers up the AL pin.

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I have read, checked, applied all of the above but still have a problem.

 

I am a Premium Member, I installed the most recent version of the GC app, 8.46.2, on both my tablet, a Samsung running Android 7.0, and my mobile phone, a Xiaomi running Android 10. On both I have the AL app 1.3.1 build 2062 installed. On both I have switched all filters on and off, logged out of the apps and back on again. I even switched the devices off and restarted them, but still nothing shows up, no icons on the map, no Other category in the filters.

 

Does anyone have any sensible suggestion as to what else I could do to get this new feature working?

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7 hours ago, Merino said:

no Other category in the filters.

Can you explain? Do you have Adventure Labs filtered to be shown or not? Or do you not see the adventure lab filter?

And you are looking for adventure lab pins that you have not completed, correct?

Edited by Max and 99
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3 hours ago, Max and 99 said:

Can you explain? Do you have Adventure Labs filtered to be shown or not? Or do you not see the adventure lab filter?

And you are looking for adventure lab pins that you have not completed, correct?

 

I have no Other and therefore no options under this entry, so no possibility to pick AL 

And I have looked for AL's that I can see in the AL app and that I have never started.

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2 hours ago, GenHenk said:

I understand why you see only the starring point, because effectively it's like a multi. What I don't understand is why each waypoint counts like a separate find. 

Time for a vote? 

That's unrelated to this thread. But historically, lab caches have been associated with mega events and were therefore a cohesive bundle, but each lab was still an individual cache/find. It's still kinda that way, with each bundled adventure appearing once on the map and only showing as complete when all locations have been completed. It's kind of a hybrid between a multi- a virtual, and a Wherigo. Either way, it's best not to compare them to physical geocaches because they are different.

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11 hours ago, Merino said:

I have read, checked, applied all of the above but still have a problem.

 

I am a Premium Member, I installed the most recent version of the GC app, 8.46.2, on both my tablet, a Samsung running Android 7.0, and my mobile phone, a Xiaomi running Android 10. On both I have the AL app 1.3.1 build 2062 installed. On both I have switched all filters on and off, logged out of the apps and back on again. I even switched the devices off and restarted them, but still nothing shows up, no icons on the map, no Other category in the filters.

 

Does anyone have any sensible suggestion as to what else I could do to get this new feature working?

Any chance you can include a screenshot of the filter options?

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Deleting the associated data didn't work, neither clearing cache data, nor 'all' data, the options that Android 10 offers. It was only uninstalling the app and re-installing it that did the trick. That's one poorly programmed app. 

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Now Groundspeak has to be consequent: only 1 symbol per lab cache is visible, so it should count as only 1 found, despite having up to 10 stages.

 

That is also a way to keep the map as clean as possible, and not overrate every stage of a lab cache.
I do not mind if this means lab caches at Mega Events are not counted, unless you have completed the whole bunch.

Cache quality should count, not mere quantity.

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When you create a AL, you do not mandatorily have to set an order for the usually 5 locations that you can add, you can just leave them to be visited in random order.

If a sequence is set, the first point will be on the GC app map, but how is the location picked for an AL that has no set sequence ?

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4 minutes ago, Merino said:

When you create a AL, you do not mandatorily have to set an order for the usually 5 locations that you can add, you can just leave them to be visited in random order.

If a sequence is set, the first point will be on the GC app map, but how is the location picked for an AL that has no set sequence ?

The "Starting Location" does not have to be the same coordinates as one of the locations in the AL. So even if the adventure lab can be done in any sequence, the starting location remains the same. The coordinates for the Starting Point are independent from the five locations. 

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It would probably be more useful to have the locations shown on the map than the starting pin.  As @Max and 99 just pointed out, starting pin locations don't necessarily show an actual location.  Also the adventure locations can be anywhere independent of the pin, so just because you don't see a pin in your location doesn't mean there isn't an adventure location there.  In the extreme case where people have adventure locations at great distances from the starting pin, one may never know there's a location nearby.

 

Good start... keep going though!

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On 4/16/2021 at 7:10 AM, Merino said:

If a sequence is set, the first point will be on the GC app map, but how is the location picked for an AL that has no set sequence ?

 

If you go into the lab builder, and click on Edit, towards the end of the page is this box, and a map:
image.png.7e543807efa388424a9b0084db959e89.png

 

As you can see, you can place it anyhere.  I happened to pick one of the pins on my adventure, which can be done in any order; the pin is about in the center for my locations which comprise about a 10 mile drving or biking loop of wineries in my area.

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