I've used OrganicMaps in the past, but for searching POIs and ahead route planning its just unusable.
Meanwhile i've found GraphHopper, an open source search, route and (experimental) navigation app from Germany. Great thing: its blazing fast! Check it out on F-Droid.
I tried this for my hiking trip and it is really good for that. But when i tried to use it as a navigation tool with my motorcycle it lagged pretty much all the time and couldn't keep up with my position and speed. I tried to change permissions for the app, but so far nothing worked.
That's a shame. I just want to say that this issue is definitely not universal as I use it for navigation while driving and it works very well for me, and I've heard the same from others too. I'm not sure why it isn't working as well for you.
It's... okay?
In fact no, it's by-far the best Google Maps alternative I've used so far, this clears OsmAnd+ easily. However, it still has quite a way to go. I can see why it's awesome for hiking, but this has some interesting side effects.
For example, I noticed right away that it cannot search for specific places in non-downloaded maps. This might seem like a "duh", but the maps around here seem extremely fine-grained, so I need to first search for the town, then download the map, then search for the street and address, then I can navigate. Oh no wait I cannot, I need to also download maps for all places in-between.
This makes complete sense for hiking, where I'm confined to a - comparatively - small area and want to pre-download this, at all times, always. And also don't really "search" for a specific address to route to beforehand, rather for a general area and then just get the map.
And of course, the quality of navigation is... adventurous. But I expected that, that's just something GMaps has a huge starting advantage at, and this clears what OsmAnd+ does and honestly feels better than Apple Maps, too. Though that's maybe not high praise, as in this area of the world Apple Maps is like getting lost only you use a smartphoen to do it.
Still, it's the second best I've seen. And for an open source app, that's an insane feat.
Hugely impressed, TY OP. Never heard of this before.
Reminder: As long as you don't get rid of "Google Play Services" running as "root" 24/7, removing/not using Google Maps doesn't mean so much to Google.
I disagree. It's a step in the right direction, even if there is still a long distance to go.
Its there any "android auto" alternative? so i can use it in my car's screen without google
The app mentioned on the post, Organic Maps, has Android Auto. OsmAnd is another app that I know has it as well.
Just installed and signed into my OSM account! Been meaning to update more of my area.
I am looking to try moving away from Waze too. Are there any good open projects that have support for reporting cops and the other stuff like Waze? When I was looking last year, I came across Navmii since it does have some level of reporting stuff. However the app itself is very glitchy and I don't think it is really actively being worked on. Or is popular enough to even know if literally anyone around me is reporting things. When I have tried to report a cop being parked waiting for speeders, it doesn't show anything even on my map.
They use OSM data which I think is also not being actively scraped, as I personally added my entire street's addresses and doesn't show on Navmii (but does show up on the main OSM site and on Organic Maps).
If you like to further improve your neighbourhood, check out https://streetcomplete.app/ Works well and is fun!
They already have. Have you noticed the number of ads shown on google maps?
And I've been increasing given directions like "turn right after paid promotion X, with tagline Y"
They already have. Have you noticed the number of ads shown on google maps?
No? I've never seen any ads on Google Maps, though this might be a local thing. I suspect this is different in the US where "consumer rights" gets you a fine for speaking such communist propaganda?
To illistrate this, I just typed "restaurants" in Google Maps in downtown Prague and the first result was an ad for KFC (it looked like a real result but it said "sponsored" on top). But I do have a US phone.
The play store itself is doing the same thing. Sponsorrd crappy apps above the one I actually entered
Enshittification truly is a shame, because my old school GPS actually does this already (Turn left past the McDonald's) and while I have no idea whether it's paid promotion or not on my device, I like that feature. If that feature is equally applied to any known business as a landmark (heck, even other services like police stations, fire stations, etc.) it would be appreciated by users.
Instead, and here we are beating this drum again, capitalism gets its grubby fingers in this pie too and uses it for further advertising, turning a good feature into a bad one.
That's a good point actually, if it's not paid-for, then assuming it's accurate it's actually a better way of describing to a driver what to do.
I remember a fair few years ago, when Google Maps was already a thing but smart phones were not, we were bewildered at how helpful this thing for printed Google Maps instructions was where it prints a little photograph of each turn you need to do, how it will look to you when you get there. This was the best feature ever, as it made it so easy for your second person checking the route to know when to actually take a turn or not.
Oh hell, I have not had that one yet. I am already leaning away from it with just the random pins showing up on my nav that were not searched for.
How many non tech people would use this, especially if not in play store. 95% of people don't know fdroid exists
> 95% of people don’t know fdroid exists
Exactly, so let's keep talking about F-Droid and recommend it to the 95% of people, shall we?
What impetus would most people have to mentally even start considering replacing Google Maps?
Much like with making people switch to Firefox as a browser, the first step to a tech user is understanding that to most non-tech users, the concept of thinking about a browser choice makes no sense, as their goal is to open a web page, and the specifics between now and the web page being opened are irrelevant. It's equivalent to making non-DIY people care about the specifics of the brand of the hammer at home, it's not like they couldn't, but the very idea of doing that would usually leave them looking at you bewildered, as it feels arcane to invest brain time into a tool this simplistic and invisible.
the biggest problem I have with switching is that Google Maps is a business directory. open street maps is empty where i live. it works okay for navigation, but not so much for finding a coffee.
And then in the web app, you need to do this complicated hold-LMB-then-select-from-list to select something, making just browsing really difficult.
Or is there a better way of doing that? I lack a good way to just browse Openstreetmap.
there are ways to make it easier; it's been gamified:
https://github.com/streetcomplete/StreetComplete
Available on FDROID.
When my partner stops to play pokemon go, I complete some Open Street Map info quests...
Street Complete is a great app for quests regarding existing features, but also consider the feature might not exist at all yet in OSM.
Map Complete is great for adding new features. It also asks a bunch of optional simple questions about the feature which gets converted into the relevant OSM tags. It's browser based but you can just add a shortcut to your home screen to have it quickly accessible.
As many have already told you, you can contribute to OSM, I have put in it almost all the establishments in my area (Not at Big area but...). Although soon I have to update them
im on board with the idea in general, but im not going to do this. it would be an endless effort to the benefit of almost nobody. places go up and down so fast here that google maps is often out of date too. it's filled with stale information and im flagging missing places constantly. every digital community in this country is a garbage pile.
the ride share apps here do use open street maps though, and im making corrections to building addresses when i find something isn't right. it's great.
Umm...it benefits loads of people.
On OSM you don't have to just flag something. You can edit it directly, so it leads to more accurate information.
But you can also just flag it if editing is not your cup of tea. Here's a convenient, non-techy tool to add notes for others to use when editing: https://www.onosm.org/
You can contribute them!
There's a pretty barebones editor in Organic Maps, but you can also check out Street Complete and Every door (more advanced and less user friendly, though insanely efficient)
I use Vespucci, it's advanced but still pretty easy if you just want to do basic editing. https://vespucci.io/
P.s. how do you link to an app on fdroid?
Be the change your want to see in the world https://droidify.eu.org/app/?id=de.westnordost.streetcomplete&repo_address=https://f-droid.org/archive
Very strange. It doesn't work. I shared directly from the f-droid client droid-ify
https://f-droid.org/en/packages/de.westnordost.streetcomplete/index.html
Oh weird. That's shared from droid-ify which is an f-droid client.
Here's the proper link https://f-droid.org/en/packages/de.westnordost.streetcomplete/index.html
I felt the same however Organic Maps did have many businesses. And with Street Complete I can correct any errors when I visit.
It may simply be my area, but I so recommend organic maps over Osmand for business and POI lookups
Same issue here. I really like their maps in general, but my local area in OSM is about a decade out of date
Yeah, it's interesting to look through the edit history over the years. With StreetComplete I recently fixed ~8 stores that were many years out of date, during an hour walk.
It's fun to find a real hole-in-the-wall that even google maps doesn't have.
That kind of contribution seems like a lower level of effort than making changes to source code.
Yeah trying to find anything on any of the competing apps is basically impossible. I mean ffs OSMand literally couldn't do address lookup!
I just recently learned this.
For OsmAnd, go to search, then the categories tab, and then hit "Online Search".
Voila, address lookup.
I have found Organic Map's search to be far better than OSMand. OSMand has far more features though.
What does the size of the country have to do with it? Which good big and bad small countries are you talking about?
Most people don't use openstreetmaps on these small countries like with low/medium population it feels like apple maps on there
Can you give an example? Because I've just looked at Luxembourg, Nepal, and Aruba, and they're all littered with named buildings and landmarks. Pyongyang even has a fair bit filled in.
All of you are invited on !openstreetmap@lemmy.ml
Also checkout the many editing tools, such as https://mapcomplete.org, htpps://streetcomplete.app,...
There’s a small learning curve I wish some bothered to understand first. Does this app help? The part of this I don’t like is vacationers leaving useless names like ‘Mango lady’, ‘many street vendors’ for a block, or ‘local restaurant’ since they can’t read the sign as opposed marking up the cuisine type, maybe adding an English description, & leaving the name blank. Nobody expects uploads to be perfect but Bangkok is littered with this noise that makes it hard to follow or find things.
It takes effort and knowledge to make good contributions, this app is just a tool to do that.
I can only say I myself try to make valuable contributions, some other people might care less.
I think EveryDoor requires some relatively deep understanding of OSM before actually being a useful tool. So edits like this should be rare with that tool. Many of the edits like this are from when MapsMe was very popular and suddenly introduced editing, without enough nuance in the process. Bad edits do happen everywhere, you need a good balance between people who data curation and newbies making beginner mistakes. In some places, there's a lack of experienced people maintaining the data.
Every Door
thank you for sharing, definitely the easiest for Android from my research :-)
Note: there is a comparison of editor apps here: https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Comparison_of_editors
You seem pretty active with OSM, so I'll propose this here since I don't have time to make it.
OSM is very, very popular with hikers and cyclists, and I'd argue rhey drive a lot of it's use, especially via third-party systems. However, it's one failing is "gravel" roads. While they support many different gravel road types, they admit on their Wiki that use of the proper terms is low.
Given the heavy use of Garmin devices, especially among gravel cyclists, mountain bikers, and bikepackers, where terrain definition is important, it would be outstanding to have an app in the Garmin store for Edge devices that could report the exact terrain type (compacted, dirt, etc) with a button mash as you ride it.
Not sure if you're the one to ask, but are there any good alternatives to Strava built on OSM? I don't need all the fitness analysis and social features, I just want to track my walk route and get basic info like miles traveled, elevation change, average speed, etc
Check out StreetComplete (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.westnordost.streetcomplete)
It does more than just road surface type, and incorporates location-based OSM editing in a very user-friendly way!
F-Droid link: StreetComplete (OpenStreetMap surveyor app) https://f-droid.org/packages/de.westnordost.streetcomplete/
Yea, I've used that, but it's a phone app. Riders need a one-touch solution on Garmin (or other bike computers, but Garmin dominates the market right now).
It also doesn't seem to let you edit anything more then a mile away from your physical location. I get that they want accuracy but it's preventing me from editing incorrect information to a place I have just been.
You can! Browse to the location, and then click menu button > "Download data here" and the questions will appear.
I will add as a narrowboater.
I found towpaths also have this issue with definition of surface.
I am legally blind. (Some vision but bad)
I have a few times tried to add more ditail to areas of towpath that will help the others like me know what to expect before mooring.
Seems anything that improves this will help in your issues as well.
On the hiking note, it also shows a lot of trails. I used it to navigate to a trail head and was pleasantly surprised to see a rough outline of the trails I would be using plus some others I didn't know were there.
It even has water markers for longer trails where youd be hiking for weeks or months at a time. Sometimes those spots are dry, but you can clearly see water channels in the ground where it would be flowing.
Google's maps are decent and can also be downloaded to be offline...? But yeah, it seems like it's a nice alternative, especially if you want to be free from Google's grips.
Maybe it's iOS specific but I had to go to a region and download the map to be able to search it, which is not great
Same, I have recently installed LineageOS on my phone and was looking for various replacements for Goggle apps. What I really like about OrganicMaps is that it downloads the maps locally, so you can view it even if you aren't connected to the internet.
IIRC At one point Google Maps would let you download a map for browsing, but you couldn't do offline navigation. Don't know if that's still the case.
Organic Maps does the routing on the device.
Thanks, I wasn't aware of that. I should have really had this information a year ago when I was constantly screenshotting Google Maps, LOL.
The feature looks made ugly on purpose though (compared to organic maps where you can just download the whole country or select more precisely what you want)
You might have to enable showing apps with other anti-features in f-droid settings.
Organic Maps was put back onto the Play Store the next day day: https://organicmaps.app/news/2024-08-18/good-news-organic-maps-appeared-again-in-the-google-play-store/
I didn't know about Organic-Maps. I used Osmand, which has a subscription fee for downloading maps.
Thx!
I use both OrganicMaps and OsmAnd. I find that OsmAnd is better for poweruser functions (like editing the map or recording a track), but OrganicMaps is a very simple navigation app that just works well.
I didn't have to pay for it, installed from F-Droid, and I can download any map I've tried so far. When I'm traveling I like to pre-download the standard map for the whole state if it's one I don't already have installed. It's nice to not have to worry about data / reception.
Overall OsmAnd is a pretty good GPS-map-navigation app, but has several annoyances and bugs. Still better than using Google's app to me. I need to check out Organic maps too
Also nice to download all the Wikipedia data for the area, so you can read about places you visit...again, all without data.
Osmand saved my ass multiple times hiking in very remote locations. Absolutely worth the subscription!
Anything that keeps maps in local storage so you can use GPS while offline is somewhere between very helpful and lifesaving. Sounds like Osmand is in there.
Organic Maps lets you download also. I got it specifically for backpacking because it enabled that. It certainly has been worth the $0. I should probably donate something each trip.
Definetly one of the subscriptions I don't regret as much as others but still a steep cost for my frequency of usage. I need it approx 6 weeks per year and only as backup when traveling/hiking.
A free alternative (simply Osm) is much appreciated.
Subscription fee? Is that a new thing? I've only been using OsmAnd from F-Droid, but I've been downloading maps for offline use without any subscription: https://f-droid.org/en/packages/net.osmand.plus/
Can't we script a complete copy of Google maps data (shops, highways etc) to this? Is the API restricted? Can we run distributed jobs for it? I can spin up some compute if someone is interested in trying this
First, google's lawyers will not like that.
Second, in many places google maps data is not as good as Openstreetmap.
Organic maps SPECIFICALLY doesn't want that. It would be grounds for them being sued and having to comb through their database and remove any "questionable" material.
It would be the end of the project, they don't have money for that.
Not Organic Maps, that's just the client. The data is OpenStreetMap, more info about imports here: https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Import
@Melatonin No problem 🙂 Organic Maps is a great client for OSM. And doesn't it feel good knowing that by correcting something through Organic Maps you are taking part in a community of 10M users who together created a 2TB xml file map of the whole planet, free for anyone to download? It's one of the miracles of the free libre world.
I just downloaded, the only restaurant listed is a McDonald's like 10 miles away... I got a lot of adding to do 😅
I wish they had some fake points and a competition
Oh... and the Arby's that used to be in the town over is labeled "Honey baked ham"
@MigratingtoLemmy @101 @openstreetmap
No, this is against Google TOS and OpenStreetMap policy on data sources and the Data Working Group will step in and block any accounts doing this to protect the project as a whole.