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Every so often I try to use OsmAnd again for navigation. It's... sufficient for most things. But I can't understand why it still fails at a basic address search

Every so often I try to use OsmAnd again for navigation. It's... sufficient for most things. But I can't understand why it still fails at a basic address search. Why can't I just copy-paste an address into the search bar? I'm not going to individually search the state and then the city and then try to figure out what's the base road and then estimate where on the road whatever number it is. That should all happen automatically

70rd 4y ago
Geocoding is a non-trivial problem, and OSM's engine,Nominatim [1] isn't great. [1] https://nominatim.org/ https://nominatim.org/
- kqr 4y ago
  There is not "an" engine used by OSM -- Nominatim is used by the application at OpenStreetMap.org, but I'm fairly sure OsmAnd does not use it.
- blendergeek 4y ago
  OsmAnd used to integrate nominatim as an option (it was called "Online Search"). It worked okay. Unfortunately, that option has been removed.
  - tau255 4y ago
    Do you know a reson?
jszymborski 4y ago
I've had the same frustration. I don't know too much about OSM so I might be completely off but I think it has something to do with address ranges being specified but individual addresses not being assigned shapes.
- aqfamnzc 4y ago
  I'm not an expert either, but my understanding is that it's actually the opposite. From what I've seen, geocoders can find an address great when there's an exact match whether it's a point or area/shape. But they struggle to extrapolate or interpolate to find a spot along a road. ("Range")
  - richiebful1 4y ago
    Agreed. I added all the house numbers in my neighborhood into OSM. Now OSM and apps using OSM will take me to my home address. Before it would only find my street and take me to the midpoint.
    - jszymborski 4y ago
      I've had the exact same experience with Ranges.
- openmapsguy 4y ago
  It’s a mismatch between OSM’s address format and the normal address format. Osmand does basic string matching for search so it only finds exact matches. You search for 108 1st st Portland, OSM has 108 1st street Portland, Osmand finds nothing.
FrostKiwi 4y ago
The search works well, but only if you follow a specific input structure of typing in the first letter of each, clicking Country->City->Street->House number and fails with anything beyond that. Anything else, like searching for businesses fails miserably, even though it is indexed properly in OSM and shows up in OsmAnd. There used to be an app using Google's API to search addresses and output coordinates to OsmAnd, but support stopped after API changes IIRC. Quite a sad statement, that that app had to be made in the first place. It really is the achilles heel on an otherwise great app. With plugins, it even surpasses Google Maps in terms of extensibility.
- calvinmorrison 4y ago
  Seems like a fuzzy search would yield decent results if you already have the database
- uoaei 4y ago
  Are there any guides for getting started with OsmAnd?
  - raybb 4y ago
    I think this video is a pretty good guide to get started (only 1 year old) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzY1qROPLV0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzY1qROPLV0 Same creator's video on advanced features: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ctb_S9Fb-8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ctb_S9Fb-8
- aidenn0 4y ago
  That ... Doesn't work reliably for me. Heck I type "United" and "United States of America" isn't anywhere in the list. Then it also Geocodes poorly. The place where I grew up has a dearth of incorporated towns and cities due to the legal structures in place. However, each address has a well defined item that goes in the "City" portion of the mailing address. OsmAnd gets it right about 1% of the time. Plus, it lacks most house numbers for the area, so I end up just looking for the nearest intersection.
oakpond 4y ago
I personally am alright with that annoying thing given that the alternative is Google tracking my location in real-time.
Ruthalas 4y ago
While not ideal, I've found a usable solution. This GitHub repo [1] has map files generated using OpenAddresses. Load the appropriate one for your area and you can search using addresses in the normal format. They currently provide maps for North America, and are regenerated roughly monthly. (Thank you pnoll1!) [1] https://github.com/pnoll1/osmand_map_creation https://github.com/pnoll1/osmand_map_creation
- openmapsguy 4y ago
  Also have maps for au, ca and mx. Maps for this month just got posted.
branon 4y ago
Same experience, and I'd love it if it were fixed, but I've already adjusted my behavior to compensate. What I do is create my own waypoints before I get in the car. I can compare against Google's mapdata from the comfort of my home, drop a pin on OsmAnd, and then it routes me without fail. Google abuses Maps users when they are not signed into the app on Android. It will not remember more than a handful of previously-visited or searched addresses. At the bottom of the meager seven-item list, there's a dark pattern which points out how tired the user must be of retyping addresses, and promises to make things better if they would only just sign in. This makes me extremely, irrationally angry to think about. To me this is a bigger usability crisis than OsmAnd's funny search. I know the phone has enough resources to save nearly infinite addresses, but Google has purposefully broken this functionality. Programming software which abuses the user by explicitly refusing to cache local-first search results is unethical and should be illegal, and the persons responsible for taking Google Maps in this direction should be dragged into court and prosecuted.
- skybrian 4y ago
  This seems like using incognito mode and complaining that it doesn't remember anything about you. The point of not signing in is to preserve your privacy and remembering your search history is the opposite of that.
  - branon 4y ago
    Maybe, if you have already been conditioned to use Chrome while logged into your Google account and you see that as normal. That ship sailed a few years ago I suppose. The point of not signing in is that I'm not signed in, and so either your software still works, or it's worse than useless. Guess which one Google picked. Also doesn't explain why Maps keeps a handful of search results around, right beside the dark pattern they employ to try and get people to log in.
    - skybrian 4y ago
      That seems too binary. Maps is still quite useful if you’re not logged in. They didn’t have to allow it at all. Why is limited functionality “worse than useless?”
jona-f 4y ago
I had the same issue years ago, but there was a button where you could switch to a more reasonable search. Now I cant reproduce that behavior, cause I get a good search right away, maybe try updating.
djaychela 4y ago
I'm in the UK, and have found it really difficult to use osmand purely because of poor postcode search. A correctly formatted and valid postcode will be rejected by osmand, and this is not an "out in the sticks" postcode, but ones in a decent sized city (Bournemouth). Its a real pity as this combined with a lack of real-time traffic makes it hard to use osmand, despite me being mostly Google free (and I'd love to not use maps at all).
- FrostKiwi 4y ago
  > real-time traffic That is just beyond FOSS I fear. Live traffic would entail centralized data collection, which goes against the F in FOSS. Make it opt-in and you will never have the user count needed for real time traffic tracking. A P2P real time traffic exchange would be out of scope magic smoke. OsmAnd Live is as close as we will get to that. I was suprised by OsmAnd live actually properly reporting road construction within 3 days, but beyond that best case, this is something OsmAnd won't become I think.
  - seanw444 4y ago
    I was thinking about this the other day while giving it a spin after the renderer update. To me, the privacy benefits of having community-sourced maps downloaded and routes calculated locally, would be eliminated by adding in what is essentially a GPS data botnet. I would rather lose out on that data. As with most things in the privacy world, it's a tradeoff. Nearly everything is privacy/freedom vs. convenience.
    - dTal 4y ago
      First order, yes. Second order, people may avoid OsMand entirely if it doesn't provide the functionality they want, in favor of Google Maps. That's a privacy loss. Perhaps it should be a togglable option? The perfect is the enemy of the good.
      - seanw444 4y ago
        The toggleability of it would kill its usefulness. Most people wouldn't opt-in, whether for privacy reasons, or not realizing it's there.
Rudism 4y ago
This is most likely because geocoding (converting an address to lat/long coordinates) is a non-trivial thing to implement, and any 3rd party service that might offer an integration point to provide this directly in OsmAnd probably wants money, wouldn't be compliant with FOSS licenses, and could easily introduce privacy concerns. I typically use an online geocoder website (there are several out there) to convert an address to lat/long and then enter those coordinates into OSMand. It's a less-than-ideal workflow but it works.
- seanw444 4y ago
  Maybe optional integrations to enable or log in with credentials to those services through OsmAnd. It already has plugin support. It would be nice to at least have the option to streamline that process.
- blendergeek 4y ago
  OsmAnd used to integrate nominatim (a free online geocoder) and it just worked (but it was nearly impossible to figure out how to use the online search instead of the broken local search). Unfortunately, that disappeared a few updates back. Organic Maps has a search function that works for addresses (and it is FOSS). Pure Maps has search function that works for addresses (and it is FOSS).
troyvit 4y ago
Yeah this is a crippling problem. That previous suggestion for address data on GitHub seems worth it and I might try it. That said I currently use an app called GPS Coordinates. I input the address there, it spits out lat/long coordinates, and I paste those into OSMAnd. It's not elegant but it gets the job done. It's a hassle trying to go back and review an address though.

70rd 4y ago

Geocoding is a non-trivial problem, and OSM's engine,Nominatim [1] isn't great. [1] https://nominatim.org/ https://nominatim.org/

kqr 4y ago
There is not "an" engine used by OSM -- Nominatim is used by the application at OpenStreetMap.org, but I'm fairly sure OsmAnd does not use it.
blendergeek 4y ago
OsmAnd used to integrate nominatim as an option (it was called "Online Search"). It worked okay. Unfortunately, that option has been removed.
- tau255 4y ago
  Do you know a reson?

jszymborski 4y ago

I've had the same frustration. I don't know too much about OSM so I might be completely off but I think it has something to do with address ranges being specified but individual addresses not being assigned shapes.

aqfamnzc 4y ago
I'm not an expert either, but my understanding is that it's actually the opposite. From what I've seen, geocoders can find an address great when there's an exact match whether it's a point or area/shape. But they struggle to extrapolate or interpolate to find a spot along a road. ("Range")
- richiebful1 4y ago
  Agreed. I added all the house numbers in my neighborhood into OSM. Now OSM and apps using OSM will take me to my home address. Before it would only find my street and take me to the midpoint.
  - jszymborski 4y ago
    I've had the exact same experience with Ranges.
openmapsguy 4y ago
It’s a mismatch between OSM’s address format and the normal address format. Osmand does basic string matching for search so it only finds exact matches. You search for 108 1st st Portland, OSM has 108 1st street Portland, Osmand finds nothing.

FrostKiwi 4y ago

The search works well, but only if you follow a specific input structure of typing in the first letter of each, clicking Country->City->Street->House number and fails with anything beyond that. Anything else, like searching for businesses fails miserably, even though it is indexed properly in OSM and shows up in OsmAnd. There used to be an app using Google's API to search addresses and output coordinates to OsmAnd, but support stopped after API changes IIRC. Quite a sad statement, that that app had to be made in the first place. It really is the achilles heel on an otherwise great app. With plugins, it even surpasses Google Maps in terms of extensibility.

calvinmorrison 4y ago
Seems like a fuzzy search would yield decent results if you already have the database
uoaei 4y ago
Are there any guides for getting started with OsmAnd?
- raybb 4y ago
  I think this video is a pretty good guide to get started (only 1 year old) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzY1qROPLV0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzY1qROPLV0 Same creator's video on advanced features: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ctb_S9Fb-8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ctb_S9Fb-8
aidenn0 4y ago
That ... Doesn't work reliably for me. Heck I type "United" and "United States of America" isn't anywhere in the list. Then it also Geocodes poorly. The place where I grew up has a dearth of incorporated towns and cities due to the legal structures in place. However, each address has a well defined item that goes in the "City" portion of the mailing address. OsmAnd gets it right about 1% of the time. Plus, it lacks most house numbers for the area, so I end up just looking for the nearest intersection.

oakpond 4y ago

I personally am alright with that annoying thing given that the alternative is Google tracking my location in real-time.

Ruthalas 4y ago

While not ideal, I've found a usable solution. This GitHub repo [1] has map files generated using OpenAddresses. Load the appropriate one for your area and you can search using addresses in the normal format. They currently provide maps for North America, and are regenerated roughly monthly. (Thank you pnoll1!) [1] https://github.com/pnoll1/osmand_map_creation https://github.com/pnoll1/osmand_map_creation

openmapsguy 4y ago
Also have maps for au, ca and mx. Maps for this month just got posted.

branon 4y ago

Same experience, and I'd love it if it were fixed, but I've already adjusted my behavior to compensate. What I do is create my own waypoints before I get in the car. I can compare against Google's mapdata from the comfort of my home, drop a pin on OsmAnd, and then it routes me without fail. Google abuses Maps users when they are not signed into the app on Android. It will not remember more than a handful of previously-visited or searched addresses. At the bottom of the meager seven-item list, there's a dark pattern which points out how tired the user must be of retyping addresses, and promises to make things better if they would only just sign in. This makes me extremely, irrationally angry to think about. To me this is a bigger usability crisis than OsmAnd's funny search. I know the phone has enough resources to save nearly infinite addresses, but Google has purposefully broken this functionality. Programming software which abuses the user by explicitly refusing to cache local-first search results is unethical and should be illegal, and the persons responsible for taking Google Maps in this direction should be dragged into court and prosecuted.

skybrian 4y ago
This seems like using incognito mode and complaining that it doesn't remember anything about you. The point of not signing in is to preserve your privacy and remembering your search history is the opposite of that.
- branon 4y ago
  Maybe, if you have already been conditioned to use Chrome while logged into your Google account and you see that as normal. That ship sailed a few years ago I suppose. The point of not signing in is that I'm not signed in, and so either your software still works, or it's worse than useless. Guess which one Google picked. Also doesn't explain why Maps keeps a handful of search results around, right beside the dark pattern they employ to try and get people to log in.
  - skybrian 4y ago
    That seems too binary. Maps is still quite useful if you’re not logged in. They didn’t have to allow it at all. Why is limited functionality “worse than useless?”

jona-f 4y ago

I had the same issue years ago, but there was a button where you could switch to a more reasonable search. Now I cant reproduce that behavior, cause I get a good search right away, maybe try updating.

djaychela 4y ago

I'm in the UK, and have found it really difficult to use osmand purely because of poor postcode search. A correctly formatted and valid postcode will be rejected by osmand, and this is not an "out in the sticks" postcode, but ones in a decent sized city (Bournemouth). Its a real pity as this combined with a lack of real-time traffic makes it hard to use osmand, despite me being mostly Google free (and I'd love to not use maps at all).

FrostKiwi 4y ago
> real-time traffic That is just beyond FOSS I fear. Live traffic would entail centralized data collection, which goes against the F in FOSS. Make it opt-in and you will never have the user count needed for real time traffic tracking. A P2P real time traffic exchange would be out of scope magic smoke. OsmAnd Live is as close as we will get to that. I was suprised by OsmAnd live actually properly reporting road construction within 3 days, but beyond that best case, this is something OsmAnd won't become I think.
- seanw444 4y ago
  I was thinking about this the other day while giving it a spin after the renderer update. To me, the privacy benefits of having community-sourced maps downloaded and routes calculated locally, would be eliminated by adding in what is essentially a GPS data botnet. I would rather lose out on that data. As with most things in the privacy world, it's a tradeoff. Nearly everything is privacy/freedom vs. convenience.
  - dTal 4y ago
    First order, yes. Second order, people may avoid OsMand entirely if it doesn't provide the functionality they want, in favor of Google Maps. That's a privacy loss. Perhaps it should be a togglable option? The perfect is the enemy of the good.
    - seanw444 4y ago
      The toggleability of it would kill its usefulness. Most people wouldn't opt-in, whether for privacy reasons, or not realizing it's there.

Rudism 4y ago

This is most likely because geocoding (converting an address to lat/long coordinates) is a non-trivial thing to implement, and any 3rd party service that might offer an integration point to provide this directly in OsmAnd probably wants money, wouldn't be compliant with FOSS licenses, and could easily introduce privacy concerns. I typically use an online geocoder website (there are several out there) to convert an address to lat/long and then enter those coordinates into OSMand. It's a less-than-ideal workflow but it works.

seanw444 4y ago
Maybe optional integrations to enable or log in with credentials to those services through OsmAnd. It already has plugin support. It would be nice to at least have the option to streamline that process.
blendergeek 4y ago
OsmAnd used to integrate nominatim (a free online geocoder) and it just worked (but it was nearly impossible to figure out how to use the online search instead of the broken local search). Unfortunately, that disappeared a few updates back. Organic Maps has a search function that works for addresses (and it is FOSS). Pure Maps has search function that works for addresses (and it is FOSS).

troyvit 4y ago

Yeah this is a crippling problem. That previous suggestion for address data on GitHub seems worth it and I might try it. That said I currently use an app called GPS Coordinates. I input the address there, it spits out lat/long coordinates, and I paste those into OSMAnd. It's not elegant but it gets the job done. It's a hassle trying to go back and review an address though.