Can Honda Build an Off-Road App as Good as Our 2026 Passport TrailSport?

You don’t need to look past the aggressive 31-inch General Grabber tires, hi-vis orange recovery hooks, or underbody skidplates to know Honda was serious about building the 2026 Passport TrailSport into a credible, off-road-capable vehicle.

Hoping to add to that credibility, Honda released a companion iPhone-only app called Honda Trail Experience, or HTX for short, in June for Passport TrailSport drivers, like us, as well as those who own other Honda TrailSport products.

What Is HTX?

Free to download from the Apple App Store, HTX is a live telemetry and route-logging app for TrailSport models. Unlike Jeep’s Off-Road Pages app, which comes loaded into the infotainment system from the factory, HTX is a stand-alone iPhone app that you access through CarPlay.

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What Does HTX Do?

After downloading the app and creating a profile, you launch it through CarPlay. I initially had issues getting the app to connect to our yearlong review Passport, but after completing a multistep process outlined in the app’s FAQ section to clear the system cache, HTX finally launched.

HTX provides the user with three infographic screens. The first screen, labeled as Vehicle Status, gives live telemetry information on six key aspects: engine temperature, brake pressure, speed, elevation, tire angle, and accelerator pedal input given to you as a percentage.

Swiping left to the second page brings up a larger depiction of the pitch and roll graphics, which are also an optional view in the gauge cluster. Maybe it’s because these gauges remind me of the analog inclinometers found in vintage 4x4s, but this is the view I left the app displaying most of the time.

One more swipe left brings up a static infographic screen that lists the Passport’s exterior dimensions, which probably doesn’t need to be its own screen. With a height of 73.1 inches, the Passport isn’t tall enough to cause concern in parking structures, and I rarely need to know a vehicle’s exact length and width on the fly. However, the graphic does show the TrailSport’s 8.3-inch ground clearance and its approach and departure angles, which is genuinely helpful, because I always seem to forget my tape measure and protractor when I go off-roading.

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What Else Does HTX Do?

Outside of the live telemetry, HTX’s pièce de résistance is its trip log feature. Activated from a button at the bottom of the screen, the logging feature uses GPS to map the Passport’s location so you can replay your route after the fact. Once a log is started, two buttons appear next to the log length indicator. These allow you to attach geo-tagged photos and videos. The media files live on the route map as well as in a gallery section of the app, which lets you review them chronologically on your phone.

Although you do need to have the app open on your phone and be within range of the Passport’s Bluetooth, you can even take photos and start and stop video recording using the buttons on the vehicle’s screen. I was able to prop my phone on a rock and start recording from inside the cabin as I drove past. Unfortunately, the app only supports horizontal photos and video recording, which feels like an oversight in the vertical-video world we all live in. One thing I do find cool is that the recorded video displays vehicle telemetry in a graphic along the bottom of the frame.

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The Good

I wanted to put HTX through its paces, so I headed into the arid mountains north of Los Angeles to our local off-highway vehicle (OHV) area to explore some easy to moderate trails. Features editor Scott Evans and I visited this same area previously with the Passport and our long-term 2025 Toyota Land Cruiser, so I was confident in the Passport’s capabilities.

After entering the OHV area, I launched HTX and started a new log. The road leading into the hills quickly turns to dirt as you crest the top of the first hill, offering a dramatic view of the surrounding mountains and the valley below. I stopped briefly to exit the Passport, phone in hand, and snap my first photo. As advertised, the photo attached to the log, indicated by a small red camera icon on the final route map.

Continuing down the trail, I stopped multiple times to get out and shoot photos and video, as well as taking some footage from behind the wheel looking through the windshield. When I wasn’t taking photos or videos, I kept the inclinometer screen displayed, only swiping back to the first screen to check my current elevation. I think a permanent elevation indicator along the top of the screen would be a nice touch.

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The Bad

After about an hour and a half, I reached the summit of the mountain and stopped for a few minutes to stretch my legs. That is how I discovered that regardless of the app continuing to run on your phone, HTX stops the log the moment the vehicle is switched off. At the end of the day, remembering to start a new log isn’t the biggest deal, but it does mean my three-hour adventure was split into two separate logs. Having the ability to pause or resume a log would be a great feature to add in a future release.

The app also struggled when I tried to review the first half of my journey. Shorter test logs that I had recorded on the highway replayed without issue. But when I tried to look at the log from the trail with videos and photos attached, the app crashed immediately. Every single time. No matter what I did. I did find that if you are quick enough, you can access the gallery view to look at your photos and watch the videos, but the second you try to view the map of the route, the app quickly crashes.

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The Verdict

My big takeaway after putting HTX through its paces with our long-term Passport is that while I appreciate the effort, HTX just doesn’t feel fully thought out.

First off, my biggest criticism: Where’s the map? Absent from the screen options is an active map view to track your current position on the trail. That meant I was constantly leaving the HTX app to look at Google Maps or onX Offroad (which has a trip log function of its own) to find my next turn. A map view showing the telemetry information would be ideal, but even if I had to swipe between pages, an on-screen trail map is a non-negotiable addition.

Second and almost as important is the question of what people are expected to do with these logs. Once recorded, there is no option to share them. How am I supposed to make everyone in the Honda Passport Facebook group jealous if I can’t flex on them with all the cool mid-week adventures I go on? Having the ability to share or upload logs would give a community aspect to HTX, which would be great and, I assume, sort of the point.

Then there’s the inability to pause and restart a log. If I am going to record my adventure, I want to record the whole adventure. Splitting the trip up into two sections just because I had to stop and, uh, hurriedly go look at a bush (don’t look at me) is unfortunate.

My wish list of features continues, but the rest are in the “wouldn’t it be nice” category. I love the idea of attaching photos and videos to the log, but most people use action cameras like GoPros, not their iPhones, to record video footage. Especially if the camera is mounted outside the vehicle. Wouldn’t it be cool to be able to record footage from a Bluetooth-connected action camera? Or better yet, allow recording from the 360-degree TrailWatch camera system included on our TrailSport Elite? That would be amazing! Maybe that is asking too much, but there is also no way of adding photos and videos after the fact. Adding photos that you took during an extended stop or ones taken by passengers seems like an easy way of adding some richness to the user and log review experience.

I am really not trying to pile on, but the photo and video capture doesn’t even give you the ability to use the iPhone’s different camera modes or even take a selfie. I am a conceited, vain man. I want nothing more than to attach a photo of myself stunting in front of my dust-covered Passport. Give me that option, Honda!

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Conclusion

At the end of the day, Honda’s HTX app seems slightly undercooked. I spent almost four hours sticking my fork into the center of it, and it did not come out clean.

HTX definitely has potential. Apps like onX Offroad are popular for a reason. I hope Honda spends some time “Honda-fying” HTX. If it can improve the app’s stability and add a few worthwhile features, it might actually be able to offer customers an app that brings the growing number of off-road Honda enthusiasts together.

More On Our Long-Term 2026 Honda passport Trailsport Elite:

• Is Honda Finally Serious About the TrailSport Name?
• Is Our Yearlong 2026 Honda Passport Trailsport Elite Good off-Road?
• Is The 2026 Honda Passport TrailSport Elite a Good Road-Trip Vehicle?