Navionics Alarms

[swordds]

I am sailing (slowly) in a dense fog and using Navionics on my cell phone as a virtual radar. It is very unlikely there is any other boat traffic in this area (never any commercial or fishing vessels and little recreational boating even on the nicest weekdays). But I wish that Navionics had an alarm setting to let me know when the moving gps dot representing my boat approached within a fixed distance of a fixed obstruction like a beacon or a bridge. Is there a setting that I just haven’t figured out?

[FreeSpearit]

Hi swoordds.
First, I'm a little confused by your description of using Navionics as "radar" since radar sends out a signal and it bounces back to let you know if there is something in your path. Navionics is a nautical map app but does not have a radar capability. Did you mean that you were using the Navionics Boating app on your phone as a chartplotter/ GPS to pinpoint your location on a nautical chart? That seems more likely...
As for the alarm question, currently there is no alarm that would sound when you are approaching a fixed object. However, to clarify, the Navionics app DOES track your location real-time (using GPS) as long as you are using a phone or tablet that has an internal GPS. So even if you are outside of wifi or cell signal range, the app will still track your location on the chart.
You can see that you are approaching a fixed object on the chart by viewing your pinpoint on the map as it moves. You'll see the arrow (representing you) get closer to the object on the chart (say a sandbar or a bridge).
Be sure that you are zoomed in because if you're zoomed out (as on any map or chart) your distance from the object may be hard to estimate.
The Navionics app does have a distance tool that you can use to estimate how far 2 points are apart. Just click the compass icon in the bottom right when you're on the chart view (see attached screenshot). 2 pins will appear that you can drag to the locations you want to measure the distance for. The distance will be in the box above the line connecting the pins (see image).
Does this answer your question? Let me know if I need to clarify anything.

[swordds]

Yes, thank you for the reply. I love Navionics and use it on my cell phone as my primary charting system. I am just saying that there are many times, especially at night or in fog, when I am sailing and I would prefer not to be staring at my cell phone screen or a chart plotter (which I don’t have) but I would still like to have an alarm to alert me if I am approaching a fixed obstruction. There are unlighted day beacons and other obstructions identified on charts and it just seems to me that this alarm feature would be a relatively simple and nice to have additional Navionics feature. But I suppose perhaps not.

[FreeSpearit]

Interesting thought. Perhaps this is an option on some of the hardware chartplotter units (as opposed to the app). I'm curious if anyone else on here knows that answer.
To clarify, chartplotters are the hardware that display the charts on the Navionics chips that go into the chartplotter... so the charts (Navionics) and the chartplotter may be made by different companies. Therefore, perhaps this is a feature that a chartplotter offers.
Anyone know of this feature on a chartplotter? (alarm when you're approaching a land mass or marked obstruction)