10 ms·
Too bad, maps.me was by far the best maps application for non city use, and ideal for hiking. Commendable initiative to bring it back in its original version!
by fab1an 6y ago
Too bad, maps.me was by far the best maps application for non city use, and ideal for hiking. Commendable initiative to bring it back in its original version!
A few examples of why it was so great:
Simple, non social bookmarks. As in: place a bookmark so you don't get lost while hiking, or when you find a nice spot you want to come back to later. Yep, a utility feature that doesn't somehow map to some stoopid business OKR in advertising. I am sure this is possible with Google maps or Apple maps somehow, but only after you've created an account, logged in, and made sure you have the equivalent of a South Korean inner city internet connection.
Also, easily downloadable maps that just stay on your phone. I am hiking, I don't have internet and need the map on my phone.
I know Google Maps allows you to do that but it is tedious unlike maps.me, which is instant.
- woutr_be 6y agoEven for city use it was great. I've used it plenty of times when traveling to new places, because quite often I wouldn't know if I would be able to get data on my phone. So it was great being able to download maps up front.
- Ayesh 6y agoMost of the hiking maps are simply not even on Google maps. Only in OSM
- rob74 6y agoNot only hiking! Traveling to Ecuador last year was a real eye-opener. For some reason, the maps on our navigation device (TomTom) were badly out of date and incomplete (despite of course downloading the latest update before travelling), fortunately I also had OsmAnd on my phone, it saved us from getting lost multiple times...
- improbable22 6y agoIt depends a lot where you go. In places like Nepal OSM is often better than any map you can buy. In the Europe and especially the US, it's not as detailed as the national maps. They usually also have much better contours (drawn from aerial photos not from the space shuttle). But still much better than Google maps, which seems very much for cars (at least outside of cities).
- Mediterraneo10 6y agoMost of the aerial imagery used in Europe for improving OSM is shot from planes, not from space.
- improbable22 6y ago> Most of the aerial imagery used in Europe for improving OSM is shot from planes Yes I know, and not just Europe. But my comment there was specifically about contours, i.e. height data from SRTM. I'm not aware of any project to crowd-source stereo-pair contour drawing, but if you know of one, I'd be interested to have a link.
- aujar 6y agoI used for travelling or bussines only in maps.me
- tmoravec 6y agoFor hiking, check out https://en.mapy.cz/turisticka https://en.mapy.cz/turisticka. While it focuses on central Europe, it regularly imports OSM data worldwide and I found the coverage pretty good.
- MrMid 6y agoThey also have a mobile app with downloadable maps. Look for Mapy.cz. I used it throughout whole Europe, and found it superior to even local apps (map content) and OSMAnd (map rendering).
- BoumTAC 6y agocan you contribute to OSM like with maps.me ?
- andrewshadura 6y agoAFAIK to a degree.
- matkoniecz 6y agoSadly, no. Though there are some other ways to do this (OSM Go!, StreetComplete, Vespucci)
- pwg 6y agoOSMAnd allows some limited amount of contributing to OSM. But it is not a replacement for Vespucci (https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Vespucci https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Vespucci).
- Rokky26 6y agoThere is no better app like maps.me with there usability for me
- Fitch89 6y agoI also used it,and I liked it.
- 6y ago
- Doctor_Fegg 6y agoMapOut is a superb alternative for iOS. Intuitive interface and lovely cartography.
- fab1an 6y agoThank you for the recommendation, looks amazing, instantly bought.
- improbable22 6y agoMapOut is great. Does one thing but does it very well, without distractions. Has contours (and a 3D presentation) unlike some OSM-based apps. Works well offline. No subscription nonsense, just a few dollars up front.
- pxtail 6y agoOsmAnd fits description perfectly, you can place bookmarks, no account required, maps from OSM, offline maps which can be used even without internet connection.
- globular-toast 6y agoYeah. I have used maps.me in the past, but osmand is much better. It's one of the few apps I subscribe to (I get more frequent map updates).
- leo010 6y agoafter osmand i wanted to use maps.me and understand that this pr. is really know what client wants
- alephu5 6y ago> OsmAnd fits description perfectly, you can place bookmarks, no account required, maps from OSM, offline maps which can be used even without internet connection. I love OsmAnd and have paid for the premium version. It's great for hiking or in cities when you can't guarantee an internet connection.
- rob74 6y agoYeah, I would have pointed out OsmAnd too, but you were faster :) I'm not a subscriber yet as the features of the free version are enough for me, but someday my conscience will probably guilt me into supporting them anyway...
- leokennis 6y agoFor this use case, let me recommend http://gaiagps.com/ http://gaiagps.com/ You do need a subscription for offline maps...but you get very good map layers for outdoor use (some based on OSM data, some based on "official" sources like USGS or Ordnance Survey), you can create routes and tracks, set waypoints etc.
- mvexel 6y agoSecond Gaia for outdoor activities. Map layers you won't find anywhere else; some that I use frequently are cell coverage, snow depth, many different aerial layers options, public / private land. They incorporate many region / country specific topo and aerial layers too. Their website is also great for trip planning, and the data you create there syncs with the app. Well worth the $40 annual subscription for me.
- thr0w3345 6y agoCheck out pocket earth, the UI is a bit clumsy but it’s clearly a labour of love by the author and has served me well in such scenarios..
- bartvk 6y agoI second Pocket Earth.
- StringyBob 6y agoPocket earth with the contour maps has been my go to offline hiking map for the last 5 years - not many other openstreetmap systems have that countour data. I think it uses the https://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/srtm/ https://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/srtm/ dataset, which is great, but I did get caught out once by voids in shuttle data meaning there was a 1000m deep hole in the mountain map that wasn’t there!
- paozac 6y agoI've been using Pocket Earth for a long time and love the way to measure the distance between two points, but the interface is atrocious.
- ruph123 6y agoWow thank you. That is quite feature complete. It is just the ugliest map that I have ever seen. And there seems to be no way of changing the map theme. Will still try it as my default for now. Thanks!
- donsi 6y agoit's too early to say that the program failed
- fgutmann 6y agoI highly recommend the map material and renderthemes from openandromaps.(https://www.openandromaps.org/en https://www.openandromaps.org/en) They are great for cycling and hiking. Setup is a bit more involved compared to maps.me, because you need a separate maps viewer app. Overall nothing too complicated for a somewhat tech savvy audience though. My mapping app of choice is locus maps. There are alternatives such as OruxMaps available too.
- amelius 6y agoOr use a real map, and don't risk running out of batteries.
- dolmen 6y agoWhile I love paper maps (especially for hiking), digital maps are more convenient in cities. Also, I'm running out of pockets.
- ghaff 6y agoI'll pretty much always carry a paper map when hiking (and a compass) so I'm not dependent on batteries. But otherwise I'm pretty much OK with depending on digital--so long as I have the maps downloaded locally.
- pressto 6y agoWe live in 2020, of course using digital maps are more useful and comfortable
- ascii_only 6y agoPaper maps are pretty heavy downgrade in a lot of places compared to something that have satellite + osm + topographic map. They are often outdated or not nearly as detailed.
- hk__2 6y agoYou need to buy one for every place and some don't have the level of details you’d get with a digital map. Also, they’re quickly outdated.
- fab1an 6y agoI did a hike a few years ago with nothing but a drawn map and a compass - it's a very enjoyable experience indeed.
- kolinko 6y agoApple Maps has an option to bookmark any arbitrary point and create collections without creating an account or doing any sort of sharing.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- 0df8dkdf 6y agothe iphone is your account.
- tomaskafka 6y agoAs recommended by others, mapy.cz is an excellent app/offline renderer of OSM data. Don't be afraid of czech website, the app and map data are international. Download links for app are here: https://en.mapy.cz/zakladni?x=15.5833000&y=49.4000000&z=11&mobilepromo=1 https://en.mapy.cz/zakladni?x=15.5833000&y=49.4000000&z=11&m...
- Biganon 6y ago> Too bad, maps.me was by far the best maps application for non city use Was it? The only time I tried to use it to find my way with a car in a forest, it guided me towards a road that simply wasn't there. It was on the map, and in real life it was just trees. My friend, who was driving, wasn't too happy. I switched to Google Maps and it worked.
- Doctor_Fegg 6y agoI'm guessing GP is European and you're American. There are significant issues with OSM data in the rural US.
- reaperducer 6y agoNot just OSM. Google Maps is missing plenty of roads, and even entire towns in rural America. Every National Park I've been to in the last three years has had a sign, a flyer, a notice, or a line in the brochure pleading with people not to rely on Google Maps and to use paper maps.
- ornel 6y agoGoogle Maps in next to unusable in rural areas of the third world (as far as I have seen) with unpaved roads. I guess there is no business case for Google in spending money to map those areas
- pressto 6y agoIn all programs always there are troubles because we are not have ideals but maps.me not rarely help me
- Angostura 6y agoOn Apple Maps, press on the map and you have marked the location. Err, that's it. You can also make it a 'favourite' if you want. You're correct - no offline mapping, though it's pretty parsimonious with data
- wendyto 6y agoI'm sure that in future we can get cool version, it's standard updates that will fix
- mackrevinack 6y agoI always found maps.me to me much easier than osmand to start navigation by using the "to here" and "from here" buttons, but osmand is still better than nothing at least. the thing I love about offline maps is that there is no nagging to update the map like there is with google. I also don't think that google downloads everything so you still need an internet connection if you want to search for some things
- RileyJames 6y agoGoogle maps is annoying for offline use, and then the offline content “expires” after xx amount of days. Making it completely unreliable. Maps.me offline functionality was great.
- volyt 6y agorecently downloaded before the update. With and without it so far I like everything
- stevense 6y agoI think that they will be more upgraded and everything will be even better