I’m looking for map apps suggestions on android. Currently I can’t risk replacing the os on my phone due to risk of bricking. So I’m stuck with using privacy respecting apps. What should I use that provides decent results and navigation on android?
Check out the other threads, notablly the one on Organic Maps and the one about which app users have installed on their phone.
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Organic Maps or OSMAnd for FOSS apps (both based on OpenStreetMap data)
Magic Earth and HERE WeGo if you need traffic info for the car (former I think is also based on OSM data, latter has their own map data which I think is also used in the built-in navigation systems of Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Audi)
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I’ve tried all the alternatives commonly mentioned and unfortunately haven’t found anything remotely close to Google Maps in terms of usability. Luckily the transportation agency in my city has a decent app
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Yeah, unfortunately, in terms of usability OSM map apps tend to be not as good yet. If you need to use Google Maps for something, this could be an option: GMaps WV | F-Droid - Free and Open Source Android App Repository (made by DOS dev)
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This is just a web version of Google Maps and it obviously doesn’t support live navigation. You might also just ise a Web App while you are at iy.
Primary use was not navigation, but finding places and sharing those coordinates to OSMAnd or Organic Maps.
As they have good routing engines, but OpenStreetMap can lack places depending on how many contributors are in the area.
Yep!
Back when I made it in 2017, state partitioning in browsers was not a thing.
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That’s true, I hadn’t noticed that. FWIW, in my experience, the big issue isn’t navigating to locations, but simply finding certain locations (such as some businesses etc that aren’t in OSM). Once a place is located you can navigate to it in Organic Maps or whatever.
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I didn’t realize Gmaps Webview was something you made. Thanks for that!
It’s been years since I used it, but when I did use it, it served me well (pretty much for the use-case you described – finding places, or reading reviews, and then pivoting to an OSM maps app for actual turn by turn and routing)
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What is your maps/navigation strategy now, may I ask?
One of the big problem of FOSS map apps is that they are so dumb. I tried using it today and for some reasons it didn’t find when I typed “Street Name” + City
I don’t know the reason, maybe I made a typo, maybe I used the wrong format, maybe …
Google Maps just works. Now I think a GPS app today is half navigation, half search. Maybe I am just dreaming, but I would love to see an Organics Map /DuckDuckGo (or Brave in a few years) partnership.
That isn’t an issue of the maps app itself in majority of cases but of the quality of OpenStreetMaps data for your area.
If you want it to improve you or others in your area need to contribute.
Using a simplified app like https://streetcomplete.app/ is a good way to start.
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No, the street was mapped but not found. And from an UX perspective, this doesn’t change anything.
Alternatives to GMaps include Organic Maps, Osmand and Magic Earth.
And if you find that these GMaps-based applications aren’t complete enough, then contribute, participate to make the maps more accurate, more detailed for everyone.
I contribute by updating OSM on the web, via Organic Maps or StreetComplete, so do the same if you want a sustainable alternative to GMaps.
I do find OM search to be a bit funky sometimes…
For navigation, magic earth is the best one. For finding places, most of the time OSM based apps are not good enough. The place where I live in is hopeless in OSM. Does not make sense to struggle too much. Same with Apple Maps.
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