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I've tried over and over again to switch to OSM but everytime I've reverted back to Google Maps and Citymapper. I've even contributed to OSM to fix bits I'm aro

by dastx 7y ago

I've tried over and over again to switch to OSM but everytime I've reverted back to Google Maps and Citymapper. I've even contributed to OSM to fix bits I'm around but it's hard. I don't drive so I rely heavily on public transport, and so for me that's the biggest selling point for any such tool. Unfortunately I've yet to find an OSM app that can do this in a useful manner as Citmapper and Google do. Unfortunately the data is just not there, and when looking through the issues of AndOSM, it feels there is a lot the developers just don't want to bother implementing (and in one scenario, someone had raised a PR but they refused to merge it). Granted, some issues are due to licensing, but many are quite important from a usability point of view. It's been a while since I last time tried AndOSM, or OSM on it's own for that matter, so unfortunately I can't remember the specific cases.

svacko 7y ago
have you tried OsmAnd https://osmand.net/ https://osmand.net/? I'm using it for years, travelling around the world when i need to have offline maps with me and it works good most of the time. I'm not saying it's the best and the fastest map, but it helped me tons of time to find an A-> B route - being a pedestrian, a cyclist or travelling by a public transport
- Rudism 7y ago
  The biggest drawback for me (coming from someone who exclusively uses OsmAnd for nav) is the lack of geocoding. I can't just type in an address and get a reliable destination pin to navigate to, instead I have to paste the address into a website that will convert it to lat/long first and then use that to drop the pin. That's the main issue that prevents me from recommending OsmAnd to people like my wife who are happy using Google or Apple and unwilling to compromise for the sake of principle.
  - tuukkah 7y ago
    OsmAnd does provide geocoding, but perhaps the address data has been lacking in the areas where you tried it?
  - dvdkon 7y ago
    Geocoding works perfectly fine for me, especially for simple addresses. Where did you use it?
  - ce4 7y ago
    If you click the search button in the map view you're shown a keyword input field and 3 different tabs below (recent hits (this is the default), category and address), the first two search in a "keyword" mode, only if you switch to the address bar, it'll conduct a distinct address search.
    - Rudism 7y ago
      I've tried this previously, and it seemed to be able to narrow it down to a particular street, but not a specific address. In the case of my address (in TN, USA) the first item in the list of results is just my street and the pin drops almost half a mile from my actual house. However, just looking at it again now I see there's an "Online Search" button if you scroll to the very bottom of all the search results which seems to properly geocode the exact address. I'll have to play with it more to judge how accurate it is, but that's a convenience I wasn't aware of before.
- dastx 7y ago
  I have, although I seem to have mistyped it as AndOSM.
squeaky-clean 7y ago
This seems to be targeted at developers moving their apps away from Google and towards OSM. I do agree though that for a consumer, there isn't a good general transit OSM based app that competes against the private ones.
lukeqsee 7y ago
Maps.me is what finally has allowed me to mostly switch with offline maps, good routing, and support for all modes of transit I use consistently. https://maps.me/ https://maps.me/
- sergimansilla 7y ago
  Unfortunately it looks like they may share your data with third parties, which includes their parent company, mail.ru. I personally don’t trust them.
  - lukeqsee 7y ago
    Oh wow, I wasn’t aware of this. I will definitely be re-evaluating them…
    - skinnyasianboi 7y ago
      I switched from maps.me to osmand recently after I found out about the 20 tracker dependencies on the Exodus Privacy app. osmand has zero trackers and so many cool features that I use. Love it :)
    - azdle 7y ago
      There's a version that removes "ads and binaries" on F-Droid: Maps (Offline OpenStreetMap maps) - https://f-droid.org/app/com.github.axet.maps https://f-droid.org/app/com.github.axet.maps
  - markosaric 7y ago
    There's an open source version of Maps.me with no tracking on Fdroid for those on Android. It's called "Maps" https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.github.axet.maps/ https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.github.axet.maps/
- tomcooks 7y ago
  OSMand+~ is a much faster smartphone client, that cares about your privacy and doesn't spam you with ads. You can find it on osmand.net, the F-Droid repository and the Play/ios store.

by dastx 7y ago

svacko 7y ago

have you tried OsmAnd https://osmand.net/ https://osmand.net/? I'm using it for years, travelling around the world when i need to have offline maps with me and it works good most of the time. I'm not saying it's the best and the fastest map, but it helped me tons of time to find an A-> B route - being a pedestrian, a cyclist or travelling by a public transport

Rudism 7y ago
The biggest drawback for me (coming from someone who exclusively uses OsmAnd for nav) is the lack of geocoding. I can't just type in an address and get a reliable destination pin to navigate to, instead I have to paste the address into a website that will convert it to lat/long first and then use that to drop the pin. That's the main issue that prevents me from recommending OsmAnd to people like my wife who are happy using Google or Apple and unwilling to compromise for the sake of principle.
- tuukkah 7y ago
  OsmAnd does provide geocoding, but perhaps the address data has been lacking in the areas where you tried it?
- dvdkon 7y ago
  Geocoding works perfectly fine for me, especially for simple addresses. Where did you use it?
- ce4 7y ago
  If you click the search button in the map view you're shown a keyword input field and 3 different tabs below (recent hits (this is the default), category and address), the first two search in a "keyword" mode, only if you switch to the address bar, it'll conduct a distinct address search.
  - Rudism 7y ago
    I've tried this previously, and it seemed to be able to narrow it down to a particular street, but not a specific address. In the case of my address (in TN, USA) the first item in the list of results is just my street and the pin drops almost half a mile from my actual house. However, just looking at it again now I see there's an "Online Search" button if you scroll to the very bottom of all the search results which seems to properly geocode the exact address. I'll have to play with it more to judge how accurate it is, but that's a convenience I wasn't aware of before.
dastx 7y ago
I have, although I seem to have mistyped it as AndOSM.

squeaky-clean 7y ago

This seems to be targeted at developers moving their apps away from Google and towards OSM. I do agree though that for a consumer, there isn't a good general transit OSM based app that competes against the private ones.

lukeqsee 7y ago

Maps.me is what finally has allowed me to mostly switch with offline maps, good routing, and support for all modes of transit I use consistently. https://maps.me/ https://maps.me/

sergimansilla 7y ago
Unfortunately it looks like they may share your data with third parties, which includes their parent company, mail.ru. I personally don’t trust them.
- lukeqsee 7y ago
  Oh wow, I wasn’t aware of this. I will definitely be re-evaluating them…
  - skinnyasianboi 7y ago
    I switched from maps.me to osmand recently after I found out about the 20 tracker dependencies on the Exodus Privacy app. osmand has zero trackers and so many cool features that I use. Love it :)
  - azdle 7y ago
    There's a version that removes "ads and binaries" on F-Droid: Maps (Offline OpenStreetMap maps) - https://f-droid.org/app/com.github.axet.maps https://f-droid.org/app/com.github.axet.maps
- markosaric 7y ago
  There's an open source version of Maps.me with no tracking on Fdroid for those on Android. It's called "Maps" https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.github.axet.maps/ https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.github.axet.maps/
tomcooks 7y ago
OSMand+~ is a much faster smartphone client, that cares about your privacy and doesn't spam you with ads. You can find it on osmand.net, the F-Droid repository and the Play/ios store.