GPS & Marine Navigation App for Fishermen

Fishermen head far out to sea with little more than experience and a basic phone. When we started working on GPS Fishing Sathi, the challenges were clear:

• There is no mobile network once boats are a few miles offshore.
• Existing apps were complex, English-heavy and hard to read on a moving boat.
• Fishermen need to know their exact position, depth, tides and maritime boundaries.
• In an emergency, families and harbours need the boat’s last known location.
• Many users read Gujarati or prefer listening rather than reading.

The core challenge for us was:

How do we give fishermen reliable navigation and safety tools that work offline, in their own language, and are simple enough to use at sea?

We built GPS Fishing Sathi as an offline-first, picture-first marine companion that does a few critical things extremely well.

1. Precise GPS & Satellite Status

Position comes first:

• Live position in marine degrees and decimal minutes
• A satellite dashboard showing satellites in view and in use, including India’s NavIC constellation
• Accuracy, speed and course at a glance
• Moon phase, moonrise and the Gujarati calendar on the home screen

2. Offline Sea Charts & Boundaries

Navigation keeps working with no signal:

• A bundled offline depth chart of the Gujarat coast
• Street, satellite and chart layers when online
• Exclusive Economic Zone and 12 nautical mile boundary overlays
• Waypoints and downloadable offline regions

3. Marine Compass, Tides & Calendar

Planning a trip around the sea’s rhythm:

• A true marine compass with customisable widgets for speed, distance, bearing and ETA
• Tide forecasts with an animated boat that floats or grounds with the tide
• Wind and wave information for the chosen port
• A traditional lunar calendar calculated on the device

4. One-Touch SOS & Safety

Safety features designed for the worst moments:

• Hold-to-send SOS that shares live location with emergency contacts
• Last known location log for family and harbour control
• Emergency information and contacts kept on the device
• Clear, high-contrast design for use in sun and spray

5. Picture-First, Voice-First Experience

We designed for every fisherman, whatever their literacy:

• Gujarati, Marathi, Hindi and English, with voice narration on every screen
• A custom set of marine icons in place of text-heavy menus
• A simple onboarding flow with phone sign-in
• A yearly subscription with a free trial

6. Admin Console

Operations teams manage the whole service from the web:

• Fishermen, plans, subscriptions and invoices
• SOS alert monitoring with delivery status
• Tide stations, maritime boundaries and offline map regions
• Languages, voice clips, feature flags and audit logs

Key Features Delivered

• Marine GPS Position & Satellite Dashboard
• NavIC Support
• Offline Gujarat Depth Chart
• EEZ & 12 NM Boundary Overlays
• Customisable Marine Compass
• Tide Forecasts & Wind Information
• Lunar Calendar
• One-Touch SOS with Location Log
• Gujarati, Marathi, Hindi & English with Voice
• Admin Console for Operations

Every feature was designed to help fishermen navigate, fish and return home safely.

GPS Fishing Sathi has been built as a platform that brings reliable navigation and safety to coastal fishermen.

Impact

• Works Beyond the Network: Offline charts and on-device GPS keep navigation available far from shore
• Safer Trips: One-touch SOS and location logs help families and harbours respond quickly
• Easy for Every Fisherman: Pictures, voice and local languages remove literacy barriers
• Better Trip Planning: Tides, moon phases and wind data in one place
• Ready to Operate: The admin console manages users, subscriptions, alerts and map content