As a new user of the app (and Topo Map US), it doesn’t do anything or ask for location permissions until you press the “my location” button. It was frustrating the first time I spun up Gaia GPS. A better UX design would be to have it ask for location permissions upon first run. Once you’re past that issue the first time the problem goes away.

While I’ve never been a UX designer I’ve spent the last many years working at companies that make software, interacting with them especially in the face of customer feedback.