[HN Gopher] OrganicMaps is Android and iOS offline maps for trav...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       OrganicMaps is Android and iOS offline maps for travel without
       trackers or ads
        
       Author : wertik13
       Score  : 320 points
       Date   : 2021-06-21 06:42 UTC (16 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (organicmaps.app)
 (TXT) w3m dump (organicmaps.app)
        
       | duiker101 wrote:
       | I really really want to move away from Google Maps but I just
       | can't due to the reviews... The few other apps that can
       | substitute the reviews are always focused on one specific
       | thing(mostly restaurants). Is there any app that uses OSM data
       | with reviews?
        
         | blackboxlogic wrote:
         | Would you be interested in starting an open source business
         | review project?
        
           | zaik wrote:
           | This already exists: https://openplacereviews.org/
           | 
           | There is even a plugin for OSMAnd but I have not tried it
           | yet.
        
             | blackboxlogic wrote:
             | Thanks for pointing that out. I was not expecting: "Data is
             | stored in a blockchain form"
        
         | Jiejeing wrote:
         | Maps.me, from which this is derived, uses third-party data
         | (e.g. booking.com, etc), to integrate both booking and reviews
         | into the map. I ultimately went away because maps.me is a real
         | sinkhole of personal data, but experience is otherwise pretty
         | good (and the tiles look better than osmand for sure).
        
         | npteljes wrote:
         | You could check out reviews on gmaps and use Organic Maps or
         | OSMAnd for everything else. A bit of a pain, maybe, but change
         | is rarely trivial.
        
         | hansel_der wrote:
         | maybe worth it to make up your own mind
        
           | squiggleblaz wrote:
           | I don't find reviews helpful in making a decision for a
           | restaurant - as long as the food isn't so bad it'll make me
           | sick it's fine. I do like to see the menus and opening hours,
           | though.
           | 
           | But a lot of people really do appreciate that kind of help,
           | so much so I don't think any competitor will get anywhere
           | without that kind of data.
        
           | gegtik wrote:
           | are you under the impression he eats at a restaurant and then
           | checks reviews to see if it was good?
        
         | RicoElectrico wrote:
         | I think we collectively concluded some time ago that reviews
         | are worthless, even on GMaps?
        
           | starsep wrote:
           | I stopped using GMaps and I still don't think they are
           | worthless. Some companies buy fake reviews, some use shady
           | techniques such as free drink/appetizer for a review. In my
           | experience so far those are exceptions, not standard. I think
           | corelation between quality and GMaps average review score is
           | quite high - at least for restaurants.
        
           | h0nd wrote:
           | Honestly, using it for daily hotel searches for 500 days: The
           | reviews are not worthless.
           | 
           | It requires a lot of sorting out and the results have to be
           | taken with a grain of salt.
        
       | Freak_NL wrote:
       | > Organic Maps is an Android & iOS offline maps app for
       | travelers, tourists, hikers, and cyclists based on top of crowd-
       | sourced OpenStreetMap data [...]
       | 
       | Good to see the source data mentioned right at the top, where it
       | should be.
       | 
       | > [...] and curated with love by MAPS.ME founders.
       | 
       | What does that mean? Not the nonsensical 'with love' part (that
       | sounds unpleasantly sticky), but the curation; what is being
       | curated? Is the source map data being hand-picked or modified, or
       | is this just an opaque term for 'we built an app that gives you
       | OSM in a handy offline format with custom rendering'?
        
         | _fat_santa wrote:
         | I was previously a big fan of Maps.me but they recently
         | introduced a "Wallet" feature which is just really wired for a
         | Navigation app to offer. Just looking at the UI of this app it
         | looks like an "OSS" version where all the extra features are
         | tossed out.
         | 
         | Huge thanks to the authors of this.
        
         | Symbiote wrote:
         | Should motorways be shown first at zoom level 3 or 4? Some
         | countries will look cluttered with them at zoom 3, but they're
         | useful for very long route planning.
         | 
         | Should railways be feint and almost invisible (like Google
         | Maps) or dark (like the OpenStreetMap default theme)? In many
         | countries, they're very useful even for pedestrian navigation,
         | "turn right after the railway bridge" etc, but I assume in the
         | USA they're considered clutter.
         | 
         | What points of interest should be shown first, major tourist
         | attractions or landmarks, or large shops?
         | 
         | Should gardens be green (almost everyone), or do we just ignore
         | them and leave them grey (Google Maps)?
         | 
         | There are a lot of decisions that go into designing a map, even
         | using Open Street Map data.
        
         | developer93 wrote:
         | The standard osm app is already offline, although the ux could
         | be improved
        
           | bobiny wrote:
           | There is no standard osm app on iOS. Top hit is OsmAnd and
           | it's not free.
        
             | rob74 wrote:
             | There is a free version, but with the free version you can
             | only download a limited number of "regions" (a "region"
             | could be a small country or a subdivision of a larger
             | country).
        
             | xattt wrote:
             | I thought a highly functional version was Magic Earth.
        
             | RealStickman_ wrote:
             | OsmAnd has two versions on the Play Store. One free and one
             | paid (OsmAnd+). On F-Droid OsmAnd+ is available for free.
        
               | rjmunro wrote:
               | Either way it's not a "standard OSM app", just a popular
               | one.
        
               | developer93 wrote:
               | You're absolutely right, I was thinking of osmAnd, maybe
               | I should have said biggest instead of standard, whatever
               | thanks for your correction
        
               | hansel_der wrote:
               | i cosider it the reference implementation
        
               | Freak_NL wrote:
               | It isn't though. The Carto rendering style shown on
               | openstreetmap.org is as close as we get to having a
               | reference implementation. Osmand, while a good product,
               | is much further removed from the OSM community.
        
               | Mediterraneo10 wrote:
               | Without getting into how official a product OSMAnd can be
               | considered, I think it's worth pointing out that Carto
               | has limitations that OSMAnd improves on. Due to OSMAnd's
               | configurable vector drawing, it is possible to make the
               | map show road surfaces or whether roads are lit. These
               | are features missing from official OSM.org, which of
               | course serves as little more than a tech demo.
        
               | bobiny wrote:
               | Well, on iOS the app is free, but you can download a
               | limited number of maps. Then it's either subscription or
               | payment for individual regions. Maps.me or Google or
               | Yandex maps have free downloads. Organic maps also claim
               | not to track activity.
        
               | rob74 wrote:
               | Yup... but it also helps to know that OSM is not a cheap
               | surrogate for the above-mentioned commercial services,
               | for hiking or cycling it's actually _much better_ - at
               | least as far as the map is concerned, the navigation
               | features of the apps I tried until now are unfortunately
               | a bit lacking.
        
         | jamessb wrote:
         | Organic Maps is a fork of MAPS.ME, after MAPS.ME jumped the
         | shark and pivoted to something involving cryptocurency.
         | 
         | I think that "curated" refers to maintenance/development of the
         | open-source project.
         | 
         | By "curated ... by MAPS.ME fouders" they mean that the Organic
         | Maps maintainers include founders of the original MAPS.ME
         | project (e.e.g, biodrankik is Alexander Borsuk, a former co-
         | foudner, CEO, CTO of MAPS.ME [1,2]), which suggests that they
         | have the experience to continue updating the app.
         | 
         | [1]: https://github.com/biodranik [2]: https://alex.bio/
        
         | jakobdabo wrote:
         | > What does that mean?
         | 
         | Most likely it is a direct translation from Russian by a non-
         | native English speaker. I guess "curated" should have been
         | "developed" or some other similar word.
        
           | squiggleblaz wrote:
           | There's nothing wrong with the English word "curated". I
           | think pp is being a little punctilious. The writer just means
           | that they aren't giving you a random data dump, they've
           | engaged in some activity analogous to e.g. the curator of a
           | museum, to select which data is worth showing. Pp is asking
           | "does this mean that they have made a specific decision about
           | all the data that is shown?" when I think it means they've
           | probably tweaked parameters to show information they find
           | useful given various densities and contexts.
           | 
           | How good their curation is remains to be seen of course.
        
             | seb1204 wrote:
             | Yes that is what I thought. They have developed a style,
             | icons, colour scheme etc for the app. To show you the data
             | in a visually pleasing for that they think is good.
        
           | mananaysiempre wrote:
           | Unlikely, as there's no Russian verb that directly
           | corresponds to "curate"; the loanword kurirovat'
           | _kurir|ovat'_ is (of course) etymologically related but
           | refers to managing, mentoring, or otherwise overseeing people
           | or organizations, not things, and the sense of using one's
           | judgment to choose and present a subset of a collection is
           | instead usually expressed by a word (roughly) meaning
           | "select, choose" that does not convey an implication of being
           | in charge. Neither has much to do with the words for "code",
           | "program", or "develop".
           | 
           | (Source: native speaker.)
           | 
           | I'm somewhat surprised by the reaction here. Does "curating"
           | a map really sound so wrong? One can curate libraries,
           | museums, exhibitions, bibliographies, or other sorts of
           | collections, so is sifting OSM data in order to get something
           | presentable so different? I'd have said "lovingly curated"
           | rather than "curated with love", but that's another matter.
        
             | rhn_mk1 wrote:
             | I think it's rather about the amounts of data we're talking
             | about. It's not practical to manually select OSM data for
             | the world. An open source project of this size could maybe
             | do it for a bigger city. But this is obviously not limited
             | to a city.
             | 
             | So what does "curate" mean in that sentence?
        
               | sunshineforever wrote:
               | OSM includes practically any mappable data collected for
               | free, including even Wikipedia entries with a physical
               | location. I assume curating means deciding the relevance
               | of stuff like this and making into a map thats similar to
               | google maps. Curate has also lost a lot of its meaning
               | after ~5 years of ad spam. "This holiday, Lexus presents
               | a curated grifting experience" (leaving in the
               | autocorrect typo, sorry)
        
               | mananaysiempre wrote:
               | I don't rightly know what it means. Probably what you'd
               | guess it does: a big ol' pile of good-enough heuristic
               | filters and transformations tuned on a handful of key
               | locations, with a pinch of manual modification.
               | 
               | I was only surprised at the claim that the sentence
               | doesn't make sense in English, I never intended to imply
               | that the sense wasn't bullshit. (After the sellout stunt
               | the MAPS.ME creators pulled I generally don't view their
               | participation as an advantage.)
        
             | sunshineforever wrote:
             | They are balking simply because "curated" is a word that's
             | become trendy for years in the tech/startup world and they
             | are tired of hearing it.
        
         | whazor wrote:
         | Openstreetmaps provides a lot more data than you see in the OSM
         | map. You choose which data, such as terrain and road types, the
         | user sees and therefore you could call it curation.
        
         | maxerickson wrote:
         | It's a reasonable word for the many interpretive choices that
         | go into translating data into a map. What to include, when to
         | show it, etc.
        
           | rob74 wrote:
           | I realize it's no small feat to take the firehose of data you
           | get from OSM and turn it into something usable. Other apps
           | like OsmAnd have several presets and lots of knobs you can
           | tweak to (hopefully) display the map exactly as you want it,
           | but most users are too lazy for that, so there is definitely
           | a niche for an app using a single algorithm that fits most
           | use cases...
           | 
           | ...but "curated with love by MAPS.ME founders", with
           | "OpenStreetMap data" right before it, definitely sounds like
           | some kind of manual process is involved - because that's what
           | a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curator does, and that's
           | usually a real person, not an algorithm. So, if it's an
           | algorithm, the text is misleading.
        
             | maxerickson wrote:
             | But it isn't "an algorithm", it's hundreds or thousands of
             | decisions about how to interpret data.
             | 
             | For instance, https://cycle.travel uses different rules to
             | interpret data in different countries, because between
             | differences in mapping practices, differences in
             | infrastructure and differences in laws, you need to do that
             | to have a good experience.
        
               | matkoniecz wrote:
               | > But it isn't "an algorithm", it's hundreds or thousands
               | of decisions about how to interpret data.
               | 
               | Map style can be described as an algorithm, but it is a
               | human made one so curation definitely is present.
        
               | rob74 wrote:
               | Ok, then it's a complicated algorithm, "lovingly hand-
               | tuned" to give optimal results despite of inconsistencies
               | in the data. I'm beginning to understand what they mean -
               | but "curated" still sounds off to me...
        
               | dylan604 wrote:
               | You're free to not use the app because you don't like the
               | marketing.
        
       | rickspencer3 wrote:
       | I'm really glad that projects like this exist.
       | 
       | I note that they site privacy as their #1 advantage:
       | * Respects your privacy        * Saves your battery        * No
       | unexpected mobile data charges
       | 
       | In my opinion, people have given up caring about privacy and
       | expect to receive an inferior experience from products that
       | proclaim this. Therefore, again imo, products that focus on
       | privacy and such will remain niche.
       | 
       | I suspect that the world is ready for paid services that provide
       | a better Ux. I am thinking about how Netflix supposedly put a
       | dent in piracy. People were willing to pay for content with a
       | better Ux.
       | 
       | Aside from saving battery and no surprised mobile data charges,
       | the list many other benefits:                 * No ads        *
       | No annoying registration        * No mandatory tutorials        *
       | No noisy email spam        * No push notifications        * No
       | crapware
       | 
       | I wonder if a project could charge a small monthly fee if they
       | focused on these user benefits that everyone cares about, and
       | partially use that money to support OSM and partially use the
       | money to support themselves?
        
         | pja wrote:
         | OSMAnd+ plus does exactly that.
         | 
         | OrganicMaps looks like it might have a better UI though.
        
           | teekert wrote:
           | OSMAnd plus is only free on F-Droid, on an iOS device it's
           | pretty expensive or limited.
        
             | drewmol wrote:
             | Wondered what expensive meant, On iOS full featured is
             | currently 2/mo or 8/yr, no lifetime license.
        
             | CaptainZapp wrote:
             | The full version for Android was about 12 bucks. The major
             | difference, at least to my understanding, is the unlimited
             | download of maps.
             | 
             | For me that's the killer argument and absolutely worth the
             | price.
             | 
             | I think it really speaks for the developers to make it
             | available for free to F-Droid users and personally I think
             | it's a low price for a - for me - great app.
        
               | teekert wrote:
               | Yeah, I guess you are right, you get a lot for those 12
               | euros (or whatever it is, I can't really find it, but I
               | remember a screen with costs for extra maps, altitude
               | data, etc).
               | 
               | Edit: Ah found it, unlimited maps are 12.99 eur once,
               | OsmAnd Live (Wikipedia offline integration and Altitude
               | lines and shades) are 7.99 euros a year. This is all free
               | on F-Droid.
        
               | maxerickson wrote:
               | It's free on F-Droid because they haven't bothered to
               | implement technical countermeasures to unpaid downloads.
               | The app developers are still updating that content and
               | providing the bandwidth.
        
           | Sunspark wrote:
           | I don't like OSMAnd+ because on Android panning and scrolling
           | around is slow even if you have pre-downloaded a map. Other
           | apps have a more fluid interface.
        
           | Fronzie wrote:
           | The routing of OSMAnd+ is limited to a few hundred
           | kilometers. On holidays I do do longer trips. OrganicMaps
           | should still have the contraction-hierarchy routing which
           | scales better for longer distance routing.
        
             | Mediterraneo10 wrote:
             | OSMAnd doesn't always have routing limited to a few hundred
             | kilometers. If one is cycle-touring, then the Brouter
             | engine plugin for OSMAnd can be installed and that
             | generates pretty quickly very long-distance routes.
             | 
             | But with regard to planning long car journeys, there is
             | always the option of generating the route using one of the
             | several OSM-based routing engines on the web, then
             | downloading a GPX file, opening it in OSMAnd, and telling
             | OSMAnd that is the route you want to follow.
        
               | rciorba wrote:
               | I just add intermediary way-points for long routes. Works
               | well enough.
        
             | npteljes wrote:
             | Not sure why you're downvoted, it's a legit problem,
             | especially if practically any other engine doesn't have a
             | problem with it. In reality I think I'd just split my route
             | to get around the problem and call it a day, but it was
             | convenient to not think about this, when planning my 800 km
             | drive.
        
               | maxerickson wrote:
               | I just tested, OSMAnd generates a 900 km route on my
               | phone in one go, in about 10 seconds.
        
         | indigochill wrote:
         | > People were willing to pay for content with a better Ux.
         | 
         | If I may run with this in an irrelevant tangent for a moment, I
         | actually feel like Netflix's UX (on their PC client) is worse
         | (in some ways) than pirate streaming sites I've seen. The main
         | pain point for me is that Netflix tries to optimize for
         | engagement and in so doing, conceals a massive back catalogue
         | of things I'll never see they have unless I try to go looking
         | for them.
         | 
         | By contrast, some easily found pirate streaming sites simply
         | have a running list of whatever new content they've acquired
         | regardless of popularity/advertising budget/etc. When I just
         | want to watch _something_, seeing new stuff pretty much
         | constantly is actually a bonus even if it's not always as
         | polished as the top stuff that sticks to the top of Netflix's
         | recommendations for months at a time. Also, pirate sites
         | benefit from not observing the publisher-enforced balkanization
         | of content across Netflix/Amazon/HBO/etc.
         | 
         | Of course, piracy's still illegal, but my point is I think at
         | least for a certain segment of their potential market,
         | Netflix's UX still has room for improvement.
        
           | guessbest wrote:
           | Why don't piracy sites share more BLM content, BIPOC, and
           | promote causes such as universal basic income? Seems like it
           | would be something the users would really want.
        
           | collaborative wrote:
           | Spot on. Same goes for Steam/etc vs pirate game content
           | sites. Random/latest lists are great
        
         | habibur wrote:
         | That's what the "Donate to support" links are for I guess.
         | 
         | But this no-ad is hugely under-rated. The web overall is not
         | worse place simply because of overflow of ads. And Google or
         | big players can't do anything about it they that's their main
         | income source.
         | 
         | We need a LetsEncrypt styled disruption here. The field is
         | ripe. Waiting for some player.
        
           | kyawzazaw wrote:
           | I have started using Neeva
        
           | rickspencer3 wrote:
           | right, but I'm talking full on paid, like Neeva. Such
           | services can offer personalization because they can support
           | themselves without selling your data. If you trust them to
           | keep their word, they can use your usage history and data
           | only for your own benefit.
        
             | wombat-man wrote:
             | Yeah, I'm ready to pay for an excellent maps experience
        
       | WhyNotHugo wrote:
       | I'm actually pretty impressed with how responsive the UI is: it's
       | as responsive a Apple Maps (unlike Google Maps which is sluggish
       | on an iPhone 11 Pro).
       | 
       | The colour pallette is an odd choice I'll say, but that's an
       | opinionated thing.
       | 
       | It does have biking directions, which Apple Maps is missing in
       | most cities (even in cities where there's more bikes than
       | inhabitants like Amsterdam). So I'll definitely be keeping it
       | around!
        
         | shadowoflight wrote:
         | Ah, I was going to check for biking directions after I got my
         | city's map downloaded, glad to hear it has them! That's the one
         | thing I've been using Google Maps for because Apple for some
         | reason just pretends non-coastal cities don't exist for non-
         | car-centric Maps features...
         | 
         | I may request the authors add the ability to use more OSM
         | layers, such as a cycling overlay and maybe speed limit overlay
         | (I've been told by Google that a street was safe to cycle on-
         | road when that street had a 45mph speed limit too many times
         | for comfort).
        
       | raybb wrote:
       | I wonder what the story is of why this is a fork of maps.me? How
       | was maps.me taken away from the founders?
        
         | npteljes wrote:
         | Maps.me was bought by another entity [0] and not everyone liked
         | the changes.
         | 
         | The forks, like Maps and now OrganicMaps, still use the map
         | packages hosted by Mapswithme though.
         | 
         | [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25515004
        
       | npteljes wrote:
       | Sounds like a spiritual successor of MAPS.ME.
        
         | mkl wrote:
         | It's a fork of Maps.me, so it's an identical successor.
        
           | npteljes wrote:
           | Indeed. I checked it out on my phone, and it works the same
           | as MAPS.ME did, and also they state this on their github
           | repo: "Organic Maps is a better fork of MAPS.ME, an Android &
           | iOS offline maps app for travelers, tourists, hikers, and
           | cyclists based on top of crowd-sourced OpenStreetMap data and
           | curated with love by MAPS.ME founders. No ads, no tracking,
           | no data collection, no crapware."
           | 
           | Although, they're still downloading the maps from
           | mapswithme.com. It'd be nice to have an alternative
           | ecosystem.
        
       | butz wrote:
       | Earlier discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27543012
        
       | vadansky wrote:
       | Disappointed in the cycling directions. I tried it in Toronto and
       | it gave me a route the ignored a road that had a dedicated bike
       | lane and directed me to a busy narrow road where you have to
       | share with the cars.
        
         | zaik wrote:
         | Is it the routing algorithm or just OpenStreetMap not knowing
         | about this bike lane? Latter one you could easily fix and help
         | others too.
        
       | willis936 wrote:
       | I used this a bit after a story about it came up a few days ago.
       | Since then they have updated with CarPlay support, which is
       | greatly appreciated.
       | 
       | I recently de-Googled, so I've been using Apple Mps. Apple is
       | logging my location whether or not I use their first party map
       | app, so I still end up using their first party map app because it
       | provides traffic information and weighs that in the routing
       | algorithm. Practically speaking, that's a big deal to me.
       | 
       | As amazing as OrganicMaps is, the lack of gaining much extra
       | privacy on iOS and the lack of traffic information means I
       | probably won't be using OrganicMaps too often.
        
       | dvdkon wrote:
       | I've used the F-Droid fork of MAPS.ME and now have Organic Maps
       | installed. It's much faster than anything web-based and also much
       | faster than OsmAnd. I wish I could have OsmAnd with this
       | renderer, since now I use both, OsmAnd is just much more feature-
       | rich.
        
         | mackrevinack wrote:
         | i use both myself. organic maps is a lot nicer for navigation
         | and i find it more intuitive to pick the start and the end
         | points. searching for POI's in osmAnd much better though, and
         | it's easier to do some light osm editing as well
        
       | dellcybpwr wrote:
       | Can maps be loaded for an airgapped mobile device?
        
         | system2 wrote:
         | I would assume "offline" means exactly that, except of course,
         | you will have to enable GPS.
        
           | dellcybpwr wrote:
           | The apk is ~60 MB on f-droid, so would assume does not
           | include underlying map files. Asking if possible to load them
           | without network access.
        
         | npteljes wrote:
         | I think it just looks for the files on the specific location,
         | and if they're there, it'll happily use it. I think you can
         | download it on a connected device, or VM, and then copy them
         | over, or maybe create your own with tools such as this:
         | https://learnosm.org/en/osm-data/geofabrik-and-hot-export/
        
         | mackrevinack wrote:
         | i think with earlier versions of android you could get the
         | files in the 'android/data' folder. im using android 11 now so
         | there is no access anymore, unless someone adds an option to
         | store that data in the 'main storage' folder
        
       | bpye wrote:
       | I've used OsmAnd for several years as a secondary maps app. I've
       | found OpenStreetMaps to have better data for walking that either
       | Apple or Google maps. One issue with OsmAnd however is that map
       | drawing feels somewhat sluggish, this app is however fantastic.
       | I'll definitely give it a try for the next few weeks. I imagine
       | I'll still need to use Apple Maps for transit though - whilst it
       | seems to get the route right I can't view step by step
       | directions?
        
       | mjthompson wrote:
       | Looks great, a little bit of localisation would be good though.
       | What are gas stations?
        
         | anguslmm wrote:
         | Localization would be a great addition.
         | 
         | Asking for localization and then criticizing another region's
         | vernacular is... kind of hilariously ironic. Gas is short for
         | Gasoline, which, along with Petrol, came form old names of
         | propriety oil products. Neither is a misnomer.
        
           | [deleted]
        
           | [deleted]
        
       | danieldk wrote:
       | Maybe I am old-school, but I still prefer (perhaps outside
       | tourist use) a Garmin GPS handheld, especially for cycling,
       | hiking, and geocaching.
       | 
       | Benefits: (1) battery life for 15-25 hours with the screen on
       | (for popular models such as the gpsmap or eTrex); (2) If the
       | battery dies, I can just replace them (2 AA NiMH rechargeable
       | batteries); (3) they are robust, dropped mine various times
       | without any issues; (4) the models with a quad-helix antenna are
       | usually more accurate, especially if you are not near a lot of
       | WiFi AP or cell towers for triangulation; (5) since they have
       | buttons, you can easily operate them with gloves on in the
       | winter.
       | 
       | Of course, as with camera's, the best GPS is the one with you,
       | which is typically a smartphone.
        
       | yosito wrote:
       | I've been using OsmAnd primarily for a few months. Some areas
       | that it's fallen short, and forced me back to Google: unreliable
       | and slow public transport directions, terrible default routing
       | engine (solvable), lack of up to date local business information,
       | search that can't find basic street addresses, no updates on road
       | closures.
       | 
       | Organic Maps looks great, I'm going to give it a try and see if
       | it solves any of these issues.
        
         | Mediterraneo10 wrote:
         | If you can't find certain business information or addresses in
         | OSMAnd, that means it is missing from the OpenStreetMap
         | database, so it isn't going to be in Organic Maps either.
        
         | Apanatshka wrote:
         | There's an app called StreetComplete (recently discussed on HN)
         | that allows you to easily contribute missing information like
         | local business information to OSM. If you can find the time,
         | you can use that to solve some of the issues you have and help
         | others at the same time! :)
        
           | matkoniecz wrote:
           | StreetComplete thread:
           | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27549300
           | 
           | repository: https://github.com/streetcomplete/StreetComplete
        
       | moepstar wrote:
       | Installed it and tried some bike route to a nearby place...
       | 
       | It wanted to route me via the normal roads (admittedly low-
       | traffic ones, but still...)...
       | 
       | There seems to be no option for a "scenic route" or even a
       | different one from the single, proposed one?
        
         | tasuki wrote:
         | For finding cycle paths and quiet roads, I can highly recommend
         | https://cycle.travel/map - it doesn't find "scenic" routes yet,
         | but I think the author has been planning to add that :)
        
         | ehnto wrote:
         | You might try TrailForks instead for biking and scenery. But I
         | haven't seen a map software that does specifically curated
         | scenic routes automatically, that sounds like a pretty hard
         | problem to be honest. How would the map know what is scenic and
         | what isn't?
         | 
         | For those kind of routes I still rely on random blogs or known
         | good directories.
        
         | htamas wrote:
         | For me, switching to bike route mode froze my phone. Not going
         | to use this I guess.
        
       | llampx wrote:
       | I use mapy.cz for my offline maps, also based on OpenStreetMaps
       | data. What does this do better than mapy?
        
         | npteljes wrote:
         | Open source, available from F-Droid, has no trackers.
        
         | chewz wrote:
         | +1 for mapy.cz from non-Czech user (both Androind and iOS)...
         | 
         | Great app, great maps (topographic maps more detailed in the
         | forrest then Google), good route planning..
        
           | [deleted]
        
         | RivieraKid wrote:
         | Are you from the Czech Republic? If not, what's your experience
         | with the app?
        
           | tasuki wrote:
           | I'm from the Czech Republic, but I live elsewhere and use
           | Mapy.cz everywhere - in particular the "outdoor" version,
           | which shows the contour lines, colours hiking trails, and
           | contains a lot of interesting detail from OSM.
           | 
           | There are two things for which I still use Google Maps -
           | finding businesses and getting car directions.
        
           | greyman wrote:
           | I am from Slovakia and also use mapy.cz. I think the main
           | thing lacking is that in this app there aren't official
           | hiking trails marked... maybe that's something specific to
           | only Czech+Slovakia, but when going hiking, that is probably
           | the first feature I look for.
        
             | sorenjan wrote:
             | That's strange. I don't use their app myself, but their
             | Outdoor map style on their website is probably my favorite
             | OSM map style. They even render hiking trails with the
             | correct color from OSM data, which is unusual.
             | 
             | Take this area for example, it's full of what looks like
             | hiking and biking trails, is it not? If there are trails
             | missing, are they tagged correctly in OSM?
             | 
             | https://en.mapy.cz/turisticka?x=20.4205418&y=48.9352520&z=1
             | 4...
        
               | greyman wrote:
               | Sorry I meant they are not in OrganicMaps app the article
               | talks about.
        
       | mark_l_watson wrote:
       | I will try this when it is out of beta TestFlight mode. Not
       | having GPS connected sounds good, but I think that our cell
       | carriers are already selling our location data to anyone who pays
       | for it.
       | 
       | I have location turned off on all Google apps (and really, except
       | for the Google app that feeds me interesting stories/news to
       | read, I only use paid for services like GCP).
       | 
       | Both my wife and I have switched to Apple Maps. I wish that Apple
       | provided privacy cellphone service. Right now, Apple, ProtonMail,
       | and a few other options are my best bet for maintaining a little
       | bit of privacy. I don't so much care about the government having
       | my data, but I hate large corporations having it.
        
         | lorenzhs wrote:
         | It's on the App store right now:
         | https://apps.apple.com/app/organic-maps/id1567437057 - the beta
         | program is for testing new versions
        
           | mark_l_watson wrote:
           | thanks! I missed that.
        
       | njacobs5074 wrote:
       | I found the walking routes to be sub-optimal compared to Windy
       | Maps[1] but that might be related to my location - South Africa.
       | 
       | [1]https://apps.apple.com/us/app/windy-maps/id1201228182
        
       | omniglottal wrote:
       | Seems great in concept, but has same issue as others: only the
       | world map downloads, but no local map downloads on a device that
       | doesn't run Google Play Services and with a non-default download
       | manager.
        
         | blendergeek wrote:
         | Please file an issue on Github [0]. The developers can't keep
         | track of every comment on Hacker News in order to find problems
         | that need to be fixed. This fork was just launched and does
         | still have some maturing to do.
         | 
         | [0] https://github.com/organicmaps/organicmaps/issues
        
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