A GPS app for metal detecting, made by a detectorist

Active GPS tracking uses approximately 10–15% battery per hour, comparable to Google Maps in navigation mode. A power bank covers a full-day session. On Xiaomi, Samsung, OnePlus, and other devices that aggressively limit background apps, SweepTrack Pro detects the manufacturer and shows the exact battery setting required to keep tracking running with the screen off.

Yes. The first-launch tutorial covers tracking, map controls, history, statistics, and other features across five slides. The Free tier covers GPS tracking, 10 sessions a month, and basic find logging, which is plenty to learn the app on. The Guides section of this site contains 30+ articles covering both the app and the hobby.

Yes. Download map tiles in advance. Street, Satellite, Terrain, and USGS Historical Topo are all available for offline use. GPS tracking runs on the phone's hardware and requires no internet connection. The features that do require a connection are the Detecting Forecast, NOAA tide tables, and Radar live positioning.

Your sessions, finds, and find locations are stored on your device. There are no ads, no third-party advertising trackers, and we never sell your data. Optional crash and usage diagnostics are anonymized, coordinate-scrubbed, and stay off until you turn them on. Radar live positioning is the one feature that shares your location, and only with the group you join by code, which auto-expires. The optional Google Drive backup writes to your own Google Drive account, which SweepTrack Pro cannot read; add a passphrase and it's encrypted on your phone before it uploads. Export to GPX, KML, CSV, or SweepTrack JSON is available at any time.

Free covers the basics: GPS tracking on all 3 base map types (Street, Satellite, Terrain), 10 recorded sessions a month, basic find logging (type, name, notes, and one photo), 5 waypoints, 1 Permission Vault entry, 3 themes (Steel, Copper, Tactical), and core field tools (compass, ruler, measure). Pro removes the limits and unlocks the recurring, high-value parts of detecting: unlimited sessions, the full find record (value, depth, weight, signal/VDI, soil type, audio, video, and multiple photos), unlimited waypoints, Finds Intelligence, your own map overlays, the USGS Historical Topo layer, offline maps, Track Overlay, Coverage Heatmap, session comparison, Perimeter Guard, the 7-day Detecting Forecast, NOAA tide tables, advanced statistics, Cloud Backup, Night Vision, 6 more themes, and full GPX/KML/CSV/JSON export. Pricing: $19.99/year or $2.99/month, with a free trial for eligible accounts set by Google Play.

Not yet. SweepTrack Pro is currently Android-only. iPhone support is being evaluated but isn't on the roadmap with a release date. Join the launch list to be notified if and when an iOS version becomes available.

Yes. That's Radar, built into SweepTrack Pro as one of the four buttons on your home map. One person starts a group and shares an 8-character code or QR. Everyone who joins shows up on the same map, with positions updating every 30 seconds or so. You see each member's distance and last-seen time, shared waypoints, a base pin for where the car is, quick pings (Look here, Regroup, Need a hand), an SOS that alerts the group with your location, a guide arrow and Retrace to get back to your start, and a countdown for leaving before dark. Joining is free for everyone. Hosting your own group needs Pro. Only people who joined with your code can see positions, nothing is public, and groups expire after about 12 hours.

SweepTrack Radar is the free standalone version of Radar, the same live group map that's built into SweepTrack Pro. It's there so friends who don't own Pro can still join your group's map with a code or QR, no account needed. The safety side is free for good: the live map, SOS, the shared base point, Retrace, shared waypoints, pings, and guide arrows. Radar Premium adds hosting, faster updates, unlimited private saved spots, GPX track export, and the full color and marker set. If you already subscribe to SweepTrack Pro, Radar Premium comes free. Just open Pro once on the same phone.

Each landowner permission stores name, contact, approval status, expiry date, and the site boundary drawn on the map. The Vault flags each permission as approved, ask-first, or denied, and highlights any that are expiring soon or already expired. A PDF permission letter can be generated for any landowner, and expiry dates can be added to the phone's calendar with one tap. Combined with Perimeter Guard, the phone vibrates near the boundary edge and plays an audio alarm when it is crossed.

The app overlays genuine historical topographic tiles onto modern satellite imagery. Old homesteads, schools, churches, roads, and settlements that may no longer appear on current maps become visible on the historical layer. Those locations often produce finds because they were inhabited; many are now undeveloped ground. Coverage is strongest across the United States, with historical map series for Romania too.

The Detecting Forecast pulls weather data and generates a 0-100 Detecting Score with a rating: Excellent, Good, Fair, Poor, or Bad. The score factors in soil moisture (wet soil conducts target signals deeper), wind speed, temperature, and precipitation. Available for any location, up to seven days ahead. Tips explain why conditions favor or hinder detection.

Three ways. The Coverage Heatmap renders a color-coded density overlay of the current session: green indicates light coverage, red indicates concentrated coverage, blank indicates none. Track Overlay loads past sessions onto the live map so previously covered ground is visible. Session Comparison stacks 2 to 4 visits to the same area to highlight uncovered ground.

Waypoints are personal pins you save on the map. Free includes 5; Pro makes them unlimited. Long-press anywhere to drop one, or save your current spot. Give it a name, notes, and one of 11 color-coded categories: historical building, old well, bridge, battlefield, homestead, church, foundation, trail, permission reference, investigate later, or other. Categories are color-coded on the map. The Waypoints screen lets you search, filter by category, and manage them in bulk. Open any pin to see its distance and bearing from where you stand, then navigate or share it in a tap. Waypoints export to GPX, KML, or CSV, and they're in your Google Drive backup. They're yours alone, separate from the shared waypoints in a Radar group.

SweepTrack Pro is a GPS tracker and field toolkit, not a detector controller. It works alongside any metal detector.

Tap the map to drop points and measure distance along a path with per-segment labels. Tap point 1 again to close the path into a polygon. Perimeter and area are calculated in hectares or acres using spherical geometry. Vertices are draggable, measurements can be saved to the Library with a reverse-geocoded name, and any polygon converts to a Perimeter Guard boundary in one tap.

Tap the Find button to drop a GPS-pinned marker. Free logging covers the type (one of 6: Treasure, Gold, Coin, Relic, Jewelry, Trash), a name, notes, and one photo. Pro adds the full record: value, depth on a 0–40 cm slider, weight, signal/VDI, soil type, audio notes, video, and multiple photos. Every field is editable later. The Media Gallery groups photos, videos, and audio by date, and Find Search filters across sessions by name, type, or notes.