Alsacienne

Sincere apologies if I am asking a rubbish question .... and I can accept I might receive a rubbish reply in return.

I enjoy 'navigating' through the window during my flight. Makes all that 'O' level geography from the Dark Ages make a bit more sense than it did at the time in the classroom.

It's great when you're on an aircraft with a moving map or similar, but for a short hop with no IFE, would it be possible to use my Android phone or my Surface to 'watch' Flightradar 24 to follow my flight's progress?

Does this type of program work in Aircraft Mode, or if I switched Aircraft Mode off, would this disturb the cockpit controls/communications? (I'm being deliberately vague because I'm not sure of the vocabulary to use ... please forgive me!)

I haven't dared try it because I'm too afraid that to do so would cause problems at the 'pointy end'.

Any information or help much appreciated ....

As an aside, I am always disappointed when I ask a cabin crew member 'If it isn't a bad time for the pilots, could you ask where we've just crossed the French coast?" (thinking I'll have to Google map it later on my return). The reply (if there is one) is always ... "we've just crossed the French coast." (Or similar for the coast of the UK, or Ireland ... never a place just the country.) Could it be for security reasons?

Booglebox

If you have a mapping program with a cache, or that supports downloading maps to use offline (such as Maps on my Windows phone), you can use it in Flight Mode during the cruise; if it asks if you want to turn the GPS on, say "yes".
Without the cellular portion of assisted GPS it may take several minutes for it to get a good signal though... try holding it to the window.

Espada III

I do it regularly, but some devices work better than others. My Sony Xperia phone is better at capturing gps than my Samsung phone. But otherwise do as the above post says.

Jhieminga

No, this is most likely because the Flight Management System on the flight deck, or the maps used by the flight crew, do not show any towns. At most some major towns are listed. Unless the crew knows the area they may not be able to tell you, simply because they don't know themselves.
(Have a look at this chart to get an idea: https://skyvector.com/?ll=48.5875090...art=302&zoom=6
It shows a bit of Brittany and the Channel Islands if I got the link correct. You can switch between High level, Low level and VFR charts with the buttons at top right but VFR charts are not used in commercial airliners, these are more for private piloting.)