Tavak Documentation

User guide for Tavak, the Android field surveying app — offline-first GPS data collection, geotagged photos and videos, and GIS-ready exports.

Screenshots are still being captured; the text describes app version 0.6.71 (September 2026).

Basics

Getting Started — Install the Android app, grant permissions, create your first survey, and get to know the four tabs.
Surveys & Sessions — Surveys (sessions) are the container for everything you collect: GPS track, media, and features.
Map & Navigation — The Map tab is your daily workspace: basemaps, the tools drawer, and live GPS status.
GPS Tracking — Tracking modes, the accuracy gate for data capture, background recording, and GPS point averaging.

Photos & Videos — Geotagged photo and video capture with watermarks, EXIF control, and full camera settings.
Points, Lines & Polygons — Draw survey features on the map with live measurements, then refine geometry vertex by vertex.
Survey Forms — Design structured data-entry forms once, then fill them on every photo, video, or feature.

Export & QGIS — One tap produces a GIS-ready package: GeoPackage, a pre-styled QGIS project, and optional extra formats.

Destinations & Navigation — Ordered waypoints to navigate to — with distance, bearing, and arrival alarms.
Landmarks — Reference points, lines and areas that persist across surveys — plot boundaries, base stations, access paths.
Geofences — Virtual boundaries that alert you on entry or exit — stay inside a work area, or get warned near hazards.

Basemaps & Offline Maps — Online basemaps with tile caching, imported MBTiles maps, and your own georeferenced rasters.
Import & Reference Layers — Bring existing GIS data into the app: overlay reference layers, or re-import a previous survey.
Data Management — The Data tab, trash and restore, storage, and cache housekeeping.

Settings Reference — Every setting explained: GPS, coordinates, drawing colors, map, storage, photo & video, camera, watermark.
Free Version & Subscription — What the free version includes, the two limits a subscription removes, offline grace, and managing your plan.
FAQ & Troubleshooting — Common questions: GPS signal, battery, storage, and recovering data.