Stops vs Via points. What’s the difference?

There are two differences between vias and stops:

1) During navigation, as part of the turn by turn instructions, you get a notification when you get close to a stop (e.g. in 300 meters you will reach “Stop Name”). You don’t get notifications for via points. However, you will see the marker pins for both stops and vias on the map during navigation.

2) Via points can potentially be removed when the route is recalculated because you deviated from it. This depends on your ‘detour behavior’ settings under Settings > Navigation & Tracking > Detour behaviour. Check out the descriptions there for more on that.

Typically you use stops for places where you actually would like to stop (a restaurant, a specific gas station, that waterfall you don’t want to miss, this little town you want to visit, etc.). Via points are typically used to force the route to take the roads you want.

Tip: when using via points to shape the route, do not place them at junctions. Rather place them between two junction, so that Scenic does not have to guess on which road of the junction the via point belongs (it might guess wrong and create little loops in your route).

Also have a look at the power planner tutorial video. At 5:30 the difference is mentioned. It’s a good video to watch regardless.