Field crews in natural resource and wildland fire work routinely navigate off printed, north-up unit maps. When we move the same workflow into Field Maps, we lose the ability to see which way we are facing unless we switch the location mode to “oriented the direction you are facing,” which rotates the entire map. Full map rotation is disorienting when staff are cross-referencing a north-up paper map or a printed PDF, and it slows orientation in low-visibility conditions (smoke, dense canopy, night operations).
Request: add a heading/azimuth indicator — a directional wedge or arrow on the location symbol — that shows facing direction while the map stays north-up, as an option independent of the auto-rotate mode.
Why it matters operationally:
• Faster orientation against printed and PDF reference maps that crews still carry
• Safer movement in low-visibility field conditions where knowing your heading is critical
• Parity with the basic navigation expectation field staff bring from consumer and other field apps
This is a small symbology/compass-heading addition with an outsized impact on day-to-day field usability. Happy to provide specific public-land use cases if useful for prioritization.
