FAQ

Shadeside is an iOS app that plans walking routes through the shade. It works out where the sun is for your exact place and time, projects the shadows of the buildings and trees around you, and prefers a route that keeps you out of the sun rather than simply the shortest one.

Shadeside runs on iPhone and iPad with a recent version of iOS or iPadOS. A network connection is needed the first time you download a city; after that the app works offline.

A short setup asks which country and city you are in, and only then offers to use your precise location. You can skip location entirely and pick a city by hand — the app works either way.

It is computed on your device with the NOAA solar position algorithm, from your coordinates and the time you have selected. Nothing is sent anywhere, and it works with no network at all.

From OpenStreetMap. Where a building has a measured height we use it; where it only has a floor count we assume about 3.2 m per floor; where neither is tagged we assume a modest default. The blocks drawn on the map use the same heights the shadows are cast from, so what you see is what is being computed.

Yes. Individual trees, avenues of street trees, and woodland or park canopy all cast shade. On a hot afternoon a row of plane trees shades a pavement more reliably than a low-rise block, so leaving them out would make the answer wrong. You can turn tree shade off in Settings to compare.

It is a good model, not a measurement. Shadows are projected from map data that may be incomplete or out of date, and the model ignores awnings, scaffolding, parked lorries, bare winter branches and cloud cover. One known simplification: a tall building does not yet block the shadow cast behind it, which slightly overestimates shade in dense blocks. Treat the numbers as guidance.

Computing real shadows needs the shape and height of every building around you. That data is prepared in advance and arrives as a single file, which is why a city is ready in seconds and then works with no network — useful precisely where you tend to walk without signal.

Yes. Settings lists everything you have downloaded with its size, you can add another city at any time, and you can delete cities individually when you no longer need them.

The first release covers roughly a thousand metropolitan areas worldwide. If yours is missing, tell us through the Feedback form — we add cities by request and by usage.

Typically tens of megabytes — a medium city is around 20 MB, a large one under a hundred. Settings shows the exact size of each downloaded city and lets you remove any of them.

No. Sun position, shadows and routing all run on your device against data already downloaded. There is no account and no analytics. See the Privacy Policy for the full detail.

Two usual reasons: the sun is below the horizon at the time you have selected — at night everything is in shade and there is nothing to draw — or the city has not been downloaded yet. Check the time on the day and night bar, and check Settings for the city.

That is the shade preference at work. Lower the detour slider to value speed more, and remember the app does not know about closed passages, building sites or anything else that is not in the map data.

Submit the Feedback form or email us below. Include the city, the time of day, and a screenshot if the shade looks wrong.