After the news that Google maps will rename the gulf of Mexico to the gulf of America I finally decided to change maps app(not confirmed).
What recommendations do you have? What to look out for?
Google maps
Organic street maps just don’t have good enough public transit integration where I live
OsmAnd rocks imo but Organic Maps is also great.
I don’t really understand the logic, but there are plenty of reasons to not be using Google Maps, so I will give my two cents.
I have had the best luck with MagicEarth. I still use Google Maps sometimes when I need to use the most reliable navigation or if MagicEarth can’t find something. When I was driving professionally I found out that sometimes MagicEarth (OSM) got residential addresses right when Google Maps did not but also vice versa. I have used HERE Maps (HereWeGo) in the past and also tried OSMAnd.
Organic maps
OSM
What app do you use?
OsmAnd usually.
I use OSMAnd. it just works so that’s fine for me
Google has many faults, but the one responsible for this one is someone else :)
The FOSS google maps alternatives I hear recommended most often are OsmAnd+ and, especially, Organic Maps.
Personally I don’t use maps very often (I know my way around my area pretty well, so I usually just lookup the location of wherever I want to go before leaving home), but I’d say Organic Maps is simpler and more user friendly than OsmAnd+.
Both can work offline if you download the maps for your area.
The maps are pretty good (at least in my area), but compared to Google Maps you’ll have to rely more on street addresses as there aren’t as may points of interest.
Google has many faults, but the one responsible for this one is someone else :)
No, the executive order only applies to the federal government. Google chooses to follow it.
The maps are pretty good (at least in my area)
For the unfamiliar that’s another cool thing about using OSM data. If some of your favorite places are missing from the map you can just add it!
There’s several ways to do it If you have a laptop the easiest way is to use the editor on openstreetmap.org. They have a quick and easy interactive tutorial to show you the ropes and then you are free to add what you feel is important!
Google in 2008:
By saying “common”, we mean to include names which are in widespread daily use, rather than giving immediate recognition to any arbitrary governmental re-naming. In other words, if a ruler announced that henceforth the Pacific Ocean would be named after her mother, we would not add that placemark unless and until the name came into common usage.
- For directions, I use OrganicMaps.
- For location bookmarks/pins, I’m currently building an app, so I use that.
- For checking business information, sometimes i’ll still use google maps
Organic maps takes next to forever to plan a route for me, if it manages at all
I used 1.5 year ago organic maps on Samsung galaxy S5, what do you mean? It’s usable even on ancient devices, and is definitely the best FOSS maps out there
Huh really? I haven’t had that issue. But we might be totally different use-cases; If I’m routing, I’m usually in major cities mapping a route via public transit. I quite like OrganicMaps for this, because it’s still quite stable in underground subways when internet is sus.
edit: To be clear, I haven’t noticed issues when I map for driving either, but I’m admittedly not driving a crazy amount.
Organic maps doesn’t appear to know public transport exists where I live. We have been trying out different apps for bicycle trips
Hmmm I’m not as familiar with how routing works with OSM, but I wonder if those transits routes show up in other OSM apps, or if Organic Maps is flitering/sorting that in a way where it isn’t used? Like is the data missing, or is the app doing something poorly?
Organic Maps. It is quite fast and I really like its UI.
OsmAnd~ is really good and feature rich but a bit complex. I use it because it has very good navigation with the public transport where I live. I tryed Magic Earth, it’s simpler but at some point it stopped suggesting me navigation with the public transport here. And if you don’t need public transport suggestions try Organic Maps, it’s very simple. On Linux- Marbel by KDE or Gnome Maps. If I need to check something on the map I just use OpenStreetMap in a browser.
Besides organic, I use watch duty (fire tracking), MyRadar (weather) and waze (driving)
Waze is owned by Google…
Organic Maps. Living in a somewhat walkable area, it gives me good walking directions. I might be a bit out of touch though since I just commit routes to memory if I’m driving.
For the occasional satellite map, Google Maps unfortunately. If anyone knows of a privacy-respecting map with satellite views, I’d be interested.
Occasionally OsmAnd~, though I mostly avoid it because I found building it from source to be more annoying than it should have been, and didn’t care for a marketing campaign they ran a while back.
Would you please give a quick tl;dr of the marketing campaign you speak of?
OSMand
This, although you should probably mention that the full version is gratis on F-droid.
I tried to like Magic Earth, but I haven’t gotten used to it yet.
Organic Maps is great. Although addresses can sometimes be a bit iffy to search for, unless you type them exactly as they are written. Probably also depends on where in the world you are searching.
