AIS app for mobile devices, any experiences?

They are OK for general interest, but not suitable for navigational safety - in the first place, it depends on you having a working data connection - by no means true all round our coast - and it also depends on a server to feed you data and to receive and publish your position - with all the potential latency issues. Few, if any, commercial ships are ever going to be aware of you.
 
They are interesting toys but I wouldn't depend on them, nor a decent internet connection offshore, nor the lag time in position updates.
 
Well, here in the Med the mobile coverage is actually pretty good, along most coasts.
And for offshore passages, imho there's no substitute for mk1 eyeball, together with a proper radar setting, anyway.
After all, I managed to stay afloat with no AIS at all so far (touch wood)... :)
But of course I see what you mean, and in hindsight I should have specified that I didn't think of it as a proper navigational safety tool.
My question was rather if it's worth at least playing with it a bit, or is it a total time waste 'cause it's just junkware?
On paper, I would agree with all your concerns, but it would be interesting to hear from someone who actually gave it a try...
 
Haven't tried the one in question, but I doubt it is "junkware" - this type of application has been around for a while and it is interesting provided you are not treating it as a navigational safety aid. There are free web sites that display the reported position of boats in near real time, so don't pay a lot of money for an appliction.
 
Yep thanks, I'm aware of marinetraffic and the likes.
They are strictly "passive", though. I mean, you can only see the position of other boats who are broadcasting their AIS signal.
This app apparently allows you also to broadcast your own signal.
Something which obviously I wouldn't trust as a life saver, but could be convenient for instance when you wish to meet somewhere with other boating mates, who can see your position...
 
MapisM said:
Yep thanks, I'm aware of marinetraffic and the likes.
They are strictly "passive", though. I mean, you can only see the position of other boats who are broadcasting their AIS signal.
This app apparently allows you also to broadcast your own signal.
Something which obviously I wouldn't trust as a life saver, but could be convenient for instance when you wish to meet somewhere with other boating mates, who can see your position...
Click to expand...

Hmmm, it can't allow you to broadcast your own AIS signal in any true sense of the words - in the first place, no mobile phone or tablet includes the functionality to transmit on the required frequencies and in the second place, the various radio licensing authorities would never permit such transmissions.

What it probably does permit is for you to insert yourself into its database so that you show up on the mobile phones and tablets of others using the same application. I believe there is a satellite based AIS for ships in open ocean and I guess that you may show up on their screens too, but you will not be broadcasting a recogniseable local AIS signal that can show up on smaller coastal craft, at least.
 
maby said:
no mobile phone or tablet includes the functionality to transmit on the required frequencies and in the second place, the various radio licensing authorities would never permit such transmissions.
Click to expand...
Agreed, I also can't see how a mobile could work as a proper AIS transponder.
Otoh, if you look at the webpage which I linked in my OP, they claim that the app has an...
option to transmit your boats position, speed and heading to Global AIS Systems and other Boat Beacon users. Transmit also works continuously in the background too when enabled.
:confused: :confused: :confused:
 
Well, there is S-AIS which is the satellite based AIS receiver network that captures the locations of every AIS equipped vessel in the world and maintains a tracking database on internet connected servers. I guess the authors of that application may have negotiated the right to insert your position into the same database in which case you would show up on any S-AIS equipped vessel navigation screen - but I doubt that includes many of the smaller inshore commercial vessels. The writers of the application are obviously hosting their own server which records data captured from their users and can push your data out to other users.
 
I used iAIS Android App when doing the delivery of my boat a year ago. It allowed me to broadcast the speed and position of my mobile phone using the mobile network. It publishes the data on Marinetraffic.com so basically it acts as a light weight AIS transponder in that context, but obviously does not make you visible to proper AIS receivers around you.

Worked well for a bit of fun.
 
MapisM said:
Agreed, I also can't see how a mobile could work as a proper AIS transponder.
Otoh, if you look at the webpage which I linked in my OP, they claim that the app has an...
option to transmit your boats position, speed and heading to Global AIS Systems and other Boat Beacon users. Transmit also works continuously in the background too when enabled.
:confused: :confused: :confused:
Click to expand...

Do not trust anything these people say - it's complete boIIocks!

These things are toys - even the positions of the other boats on the screen are not updated quickly enough to be of any use - a ferry coming towards you in the fog will have flattened you by the time it's within 1/2 a mile on the screen, the problem is that even that isn't repeatable and varies minute by minute. The claims of transmission of your position are purely on the internet and cannot ever appear on a vessel equipped with a real AIS system.

As I said above they are toys and at best are misleading and at worst dangerous on a boat.
 
Agree they are TOYS. These apps and web sites DO NOT transmit AIS information over VHF which is the only means that matters or works. Ships do not use toy websites for navigation nor lookout. They use eyes, radar and AIS (ie VHF transponders) not noddy Internet fun info sites.
 
LOL, 'salright folks, no worries. if I'll ever be flattened by a tanker, you can say that you told me! :D

Let me clarify further: I've been cruising with no AIS for decades, and I can't be bothered to install a proper system. I mean, I did cruise with AIS equipped boats, with plotter/radar integration and all the bells and whistles. And it's indeed nice to have the automatic CPA, etc.
But, and it's a BIG but, I'll never cross the Channel at night in thick fog with my boat. Actually, I'll never cross the Channel at all - as well as any other heavy commercial traffic areas. I'm out there for pleasure, after all! :)
So, for me, neither the cost nor the installation of a proper AIS are worth bothering with.

Otoh, I don't mind using a toy for what it is - provided that, at least as a toy, it does its job.
Nowadays, everyone and their dog has an Android device or an iPhone, and the cost of this app is trivial.
So, for myself and some other boating mates who do have an MMSI (which as I understand is required to transmit your own position) but not the AIS, it's much easier and unexpensive to use this thingie, rather than fit a full flagged AIS.
And if it just works to show mine and other friends positions, when we are all out at sea and possibly wish to meet for a drink, that's good enough.
Of course, if you do know that it's totally unreliable and/or awfully delayed (I don't mind minutes, since I wouldn't use it for collision avoidance anyway), then I won't even waste my time giving it a try.
That was the idea behind my initial question.

Though coming to think of it, I might as well try it anyway, and report back.
After all, it shouldn't take too much time to install it and play with it a bit...
 
As far as I remember, you don't need an MMSI, the system generates one for you so you can track your friends using this or the boats name.

It's an interesting thought, however. I've toyed with the idea of an electronic logbook, that would enable you to share your entries, I you so wish, and your location. So basically it could act as a location based facebook-type social logbook. You could get alerts of mates near by, share pics and observations of conditions on anchorages, etc., etc. I know there are logbook apps available, but they seem to be limited to logging events to you mobile device.

Probably not for everybody, but I'd like to be able to do this.
 
MapisM said:
So, for myself and some other boating mates who do have an MMSI (which as I understand is required to transmit your own position) but not the AIS...
Click to expand...
Errata corrige: I had a look at the developer website, and it appears that the MMSI is only necessary to have your own position reported on marinetraffic and other websites.
For sharing positions among other users of the same app, the MMSI is not necessary.
Which is nice, 'cause - even if still as a toy - it can be used also with small boats or tenders...
 
That would appear to be the same app although for some reason the icon on my phone says iAIS. Just noticed it seems to say the same on the screenshot on the page you linked to. So yes, that's it.
 
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