Levels, GPS & offline

Show visitors their live location

All guides

The GPS blue dot shows a visitor their own live location on your map — a pulsing dot that moves as they do. It works outdoors and in large spaces where the device can get a good fix. Two things make it accurate: a master switch for the whole map, and four GPS corners set on each level so Mapvera knows exactly where that level sits in the real world.

Turn the blue dot on

  1. Open your map in the editor

    Go to map.au, sign in, and open the map you want to edit.

  2. Go to the GPS tab

    In the editor's tab strip, choose GPS.

  3. Enable the GPS blue dot

    In the GPS blue dot card at the top, tick Enable GPS blue dot (live visitor location). This is the master switch — while it's off, visitors are never asked for location and no dot ever shows, whatever the per-level toggles say.

    The dot appears with high accuracy on levels that have it enabled AND their four corners set. Zooming never changes the dot's size, and a locate button appears while the dot is live.

Optional warnings

Two optional prompts help visitors who can't be located. Each shows at most once per tab session.

SettingWhat it does
Warn when device location is offIf the browser or device blocks location, shows a one-time message advising the visitor to enable location for websites in their device settings.
Warn when outside the map areaIf a visitor's live location is outside every dot-enabled level, shows a one-time message that their location can't be shown.

Calibrate each level's corners

The dot only knows where to sit once Mapvera knows the real-world coordinates of each level's four corners. You can type the coordinates in, but the easiest way is the built-in positioning tool.

  1. Enable the dot for the level

    Expand a level on the GPS tab and tick Enable GPS blue dot for this level. The badge switches to ● Dot Enabled.

  2. Position the level on a real map

    Click 📍 Position on map. A full-screen map opens with your level image laid over it. Use Search to jump to the address, then Resize, Rotate, Distort and Opacity to line the image up over the real building. Reset starts over.

  3. Capture the corners

    When the overlay lines up, click ✓ Capture corners. The four corner coordinates fill in and a ✓ GPS set badge appears.

    Capturing corners automatically saves and publishes the map — so the change is live straight away, no separate Save needed.

  4. Repeat for every level

    Do this for each level that should show the dot. Setting all four corners on every level also unlocks the most accurate wayfinding distances (see the wayfinding guide).

Made a mistake on a level? Clear this level removes its corners so you can position it again from scratch.

Demo mode (for showcasing only)

Want to demo the dot without being on-site? Tick Enable GPS Demo mode. It forces the dot on for every level (no per-level toggles or corners required), uses the real device location when it's inside the mapped area, and otherwise shows a stationary simulated dot at the centre of the level. Demo mode is exclusive — ticking it unticks the other GPS settings, and no warnings show.

Turn Demo mode off before you publish for real visitors — it's a showcase aid, not a production setting.