19 ms·

Organic Maps

1401 points by LeoPanthera 3y ago

baz00 3y ago
I cannot really express how much praise I have for Organic Maps. It has got me out of the mire a couple of times due to the complete offline capability and paper maps being completely wrong. The OSM base layer is better than a lot of native maps out there. Not only that, you can search for a toilet almost anywhere, including in the middle of nowhere in central Asia, and it found one!
- shellfishgene 3y ago
  Maybe I'm a little jaded by how the app economy works nowadays, but I find it almost suspicious how fast development seems and how well supported Organic Maps is. At least the high level of quality is explained by the fact that the lead developers seem to be the founders of the original maps.me.
  - biodranik 3y ago
    We're not alone, our community and contributors are helping us!
    - xNeil 3y ago
      Thanks for the work you and your community is doing! Quick question - why did you fork maps.me in the first place? And how do you make money?
      - matkoniecz 3y ago
        > And how do you make money? From what I see, https://organicmaps.app/ https://organicmaps.app/ is asking for donations ( https://organicmaps.app/donate/ https://organicmaps.app/donate/ )
      - OfSanguineFire 3y ago
        Maps.me got forked because it was sold from the original company to a new one (IIRC more than once). The most recent company to purchase Maps.me is in crypto, so their focus has been on e.g. adding a crypto wallet – yes, a crypto wallet in a maps app – instead of actually developing the app further for maps users.
        palata 3y ago
        Was Maps.me open source before, or did they somehow manage to make it open source just before it got bought by the cryptobros? That would be a pretty great move IMO.
        milliams 3y ago
        I believe that it was always open-source.
        dvdkon 3y ago
        I remember them promising to open-source it early on and then waiting at least a few months for the code. At the time I was jaded and thought they'd go back on the promise, but I'm grateful they didn't. It's the most polished FLOSS map app.
        johannes1234321 3y ago
        It wasn't always. It started as MapsWithMe by a swiss company, which gave it away for free with a pro version (for which I paid), then mail.ru took it over and made it opensource (while all my build attempts failed) and then a new owner later added tons of ads and stuff into it and made it closed. Then some people forked the slightly older open source version.
        ihatehn 3y ago
        Those people are the original founders who took it open source, which was a great move since otherwise it'd have become just another piece of shovelware getting enshittified into oblivion.
      - biodranik 3y ago
        New owners of Maps.Me ruined the offline UX in one of the updates in 2020. We could not allow our "baby" to die like this. The project runs on our own money and users' donations. With enough support, we can replace Google Maps in most use-cases in the future. Because we are listening to our users, and are actively using Organic Maps ourselves.
    - someone321 3y ago
      [dead]
  - ihatehn 3y ago
    I'm a volunteer working on an improvement to the spoken directions and I can say with firsthand experience that Organic Maps' development is not suspiciously fast. It is simply a fork of Maps.ME which has gone to crap, so when you look at features per year over the whole lifespan it's really not a lot. I think OSM is growing in popularity especially as more people realize that FAANG are awful and so we're seeing more activity lately, but let's just say that it's taken me a year to get around to working on this task again (is it just easier to accomplish things during Back to School week and Christmas-New Years' week?) and in that time I have not had many merge conflicts to deal with. It's getting better, and things are happening more quickly, but certainly not suspiciously-quickly. OM has been a thing since 2021 and I've been trying to ditch Google since 2015 so I've been around for awhile seeing the progress: much slower than I'd like, but still remarkable. Certainly not comparable in any way to a VC-funded startup that can churn out a product in months, this is funded by donations and volunteer work.
- rqtwteye 3y ago
  Organic Maps is great. I just wish OSM worked on search more. They are behind there.
  - mrd3v0 3y ago
    Which should be an exciting project any person can work on, given the decent amount of metadata OSM provides.
  - biodranik 3y ago
    We're actively improving our search in every release. Stay tuned!
  - ihatehn 3y ago
    The main issue with OSM search at least in America is a lack of addresses. Anyone can help with this by importing addresses from the National Address Database: https://www.openstreetmap.org/user/watmildon/diary/400812 https://www.openstreetmap.org/user/watmildon/diary/400812
- zikduruqe 3y ago
  As a cyclist, I use Organic Maps to add drinking water sources, shelters, repair stations, fix biking routes and lanes using just a mobile app to update OSM when I am out and about.
  - orbital-decay 3y ago
    Thanks for that! Editing the map on a bike can be a hassle though. I tried many options and came to conclusion that a 360° camera on the helmet and a physical Bluetooth button to take audio notes is the easiest possible setup.
    - Vinnl 3y ago
      If you both don't know about StreetComplete yet, you should check it out: https://github.com/streetcomplete/StreetComplete/#readme https://github.com/streetcomplete/StreetComplete/#readme
      - orbital-decay 3y ago
        Yeah I'm often using StreetComplete when walking in a city, but on a bike any operation with the phone involves stopping and switching the context. Besides, SC is intended to fill the missing or fix existing data, and sometimes I need more than that (adding/fixing paths and objects, for example). So I just record an audio note while passing by something, and later on I import the video/timelapse and edit it on my computer, which is much faster than doing that while cycling.
        aembleton 3y ago
        Worth looking at SCEE [1] for adding objects, unfortunatelly it doesn't do paths. [1] https://f-droid.org/packages/de.westnordost.streetcomplete.expert/ https://f-droid.org/packages/de.westnordost.streetcomplete.e...
        MayeulC 3y ago
        I also started using EveryDoor recently, which strikes a Nice middle ground betweek StreetComplete qnd Vespucci. https://f-droid.org/packages/info.zverev.ilya.every_door/ https://f-droid.org/packages/info.zverev.ilya.every_door/ https://every-door.app/ https://every-door.app/
dbrgn 3y ago
Organic Maps is less powerful than OSMAnd (on Android), but it's much more straightforward and easy to use. It's the go-to app I recommend to all casual map users that want offline maps.
- baz00 3y ago
  Organic maps is also 100% free unlike OSMAnd.
  - tangus 3y ago
    OsmAnd+ installed from FDroid is 100% free AFAIK.
    - biodranik 3y ago
      What about iOS?
      - teekert 3y ago
        There is no free option for iOS.
    - Freak_NL 3y ago
      On F-Droid that is OsmAnd~, and it is indeed the free equivalent of OsmAnd+ from Google's app store.
  - onetimeacc 3y ago
    I can get OsmAnd~ from FDroid for free.
    - Aachen 3y ago
      You can also download map files from the server manually via, e.g., a web browser and get unlimited downloads that way. Don't need to pay for the standard functionality no matter where you downloaded the apk. OsmAnd is free-as-in-beer if you want it to be, though imo that's not fair to the developers unless you truly can't afford a few euros (which can be, no judgement, especially in countries with lower incomes or high income disparity).
walteweiss 3y ago
Do they have Linux apps as well? There are links to Flathub and the native (repository) app in the bottom of the page.
- LeoPanthera 3y ago
  In beta, yes.
- grey_earthling 3y ago
  Yes. But the UI is much clunkier than the excellent Android version.
- mpawelski 3y ago
  There is, but the UX is not there yet. I think it was mostly used for for easier development and contributing to the project (you don't have to use mobile emulators to test map rendering), but apparently it's now officially in "beta" state, so maybe there is some hope for better UX improvement in future.
fuzzy2 3y ago
Organic Maps is super awesome. The routing feature is really good, too. It even works on Apple CarPlay! There are some glitches to be aware of though: Routing across region borders is often broken. Also, a warning about OSM in general: Do not blindly trust it. Map data can be very out of date in some places, especially on remote-ish hiking trails.
- izacus 3y ago
  > Do not blindly trust it. Map data can be very out of date in some places, especially on remote-ish hiking trails. Also, for the love of everything that's holy, do the same with Apple/Google Maps. They can be horribly wrong to the point of being actively dangerous.
  - IshKebab 3y ago
    For roads though they generally hook into official sources (e.g. Ordnance Survey in the UK) so they are guaranteed to get updated when the layout changes. That's not true for OSM. (Though obviously in the UK there are enough map nerds that it's very unlikely to be an issue.)
    - matkoniecz 3y ago
      Official sources also may have outdated maps. Especially when for example bridge was destroyed hours/days ago.
    - izacus 3y ago
      I don't know for UK, but in Swiss Alps the data is extremely scarce, which paths outright missing and Maps showing paths that can be closed or extremely dangerous.
    - ihatehn 3y ago
      Apple and Google are not guaranteed to be updated when government road data changes. They do their best and they have tons of money and user-reported data (like live GPS traces from users' devices) to do decent work, but there are many times that OSM map nerds do a better job. The real issue with OSM is in remote areas where not a lot of people are around on the ground to realize that it's broken or care: the first user in an area often has some volunteer work to do. But fortunately it's easy and you can do it. Any random person can make a better map of their area than Google, instead of having to beg them for it.
onetimeacc 3y ago
I love organic maps. It's my daily driver for navigation, especially in rural areas where GoogleMaps just sucks. I wish they added warnings for speed limits though. They do this only when there is a speed camera, but not generally. The PR is here: https://github.com/organicmaps/organicmaps/pull/5233 https://github.com/organicmaps/organicmaps/pull/5233
- biodranik 3y ago
  This feature is planned, please check our Github and other 1800+ features/issues :)
  - Vinnl 3y ago
    I think that would be https://github.com/organicmaps/organicmaps/issues/952 https://github.com/organicmaps/organicmaps/issues/952.
fhchl 3y ago
I highly recommend "mapy.cz", another free, ad free, offline map app. I used it for a longer hike in Slovenia this summer and was amazed that it included all of the hiking trails we encountered in the area. We were hiking the Slovenian Mountain Trail. What a beauty!
- mmoskal 3y ago
  I've been using it for a while and love it but intend to give the open source Organic maps a try. In particular sharing a way point in Mapy.cz seem to require an account with a Czech web portal. The reason Mapy.cz has all the trails is because they also use open street maps.
- shpx 3y ago
  I tried both this summer and Mapy.cz is definitely better for hiking. You don't have to zoom in as much to see the trails, hiking trails are marked more clearly with major trails marked in a nice thick red line and it has relief maps (though they can't be downloaded) and the peaks are more clearly labeled along with their height. Also when you zoom out you see a height map instead of just grey for land and blue for water. Overall it has a nicer attention to detail, for example dashed lines stay in one place as you zoom in/out instead of swimming around and I like the selection of downloaded areas better on Mapy.cz (it has flags next to country names and downloading a new area takes one tap instead of two or three) though it still feels flimsy.
- RivieraKid 3y ago
  I wonder why this app isn't more popular. Basically, there's a map app which is much better than Google Maps for a lot of use cases and very few people outside of Czechia use it. Is this a matter of marketing or is the app actually not that good?
solarkraft 3y ago
I love Organic Maps! I just wish getting a route somewhere was a tad bit more intuitive; I keep being thrown off by the UX there.
rlaimondas 3y ago
[flagged]
rlaimondas 3y ago
Superb mapping with a lot of details.
bertil 3y ago
I genuinely want to know what lead Google to not support Maps offline properly. It’s truly staggering how, even when I do everything I can to say: save this journey, don’t delete the map around it, don’t delete the journey, just passively show me where I am next to it, it will gleefully delete everything. I once met their lead designer (who had just changed to work at another FAANG) and… boy was that not a conversation I wanted to have. You know how designers like to say that users are always right? Well, not that guy. Literally 45 minutes of monologue, none of it about connectivity, being lost or unfamiliar languages. Just how people were wrong, wrong reviews wrong and how they couldn’t read information properly unless they had ‘a mission’. “What if the mission is finding their way in a new city where they don’t have connection?” Didn’t care. Not a real mission. A little later, he was told that the company he was now working for throttled wifi every Wednesday to encourage empathy. That was not a conversation he wanted to have.
- Tee3993 3y ago
  Google Maps has pretty good support for offline maps. Select rectangular area, download, it expires after year. I am in Europe, maybe you have different copyright on data?
  - palata 3y ago
    If you find it "pretty good", I guess you have never tried an OpenStreetMap-based app like Organic Maps. I also like OSMAnd a lot (I use both for different use-cases).
    - aix1 3y ago
      > I also like OSMAnd a lot (I use both for different use-cases). This is the first come I come across Organic Maps but I do use OSMAnd. I'm wondering how the two compare and would love to hear more about the use cases you have for each of them.
      - rakoo 3y ago
        I use organic maps most of the time but osmand has much better support for hiking trails: you can see them (not just a path, but the name of the route, with a different color to separate it), I can tell the app to prefer it when building an itinerary, and the altitude info is way more detailed. You can spot the exact altitude and gradient at any spot. You can add a second map as an overlay, and I typically use a contour maps to quickly see where the peaks are, where the route will be flat, etc... OSMand is slightly too powerful for everyday use, organic maps is the perfect good-enough, less-is-better example.
rus64 3y ago
Fantastic app. Saw me through a 6 month backpacking trip in South East Asia.
fizwidget 3y ago
I highly recommend OrganicMaps. It’s leagues better than Google Maps for walking & hiking paths, thanks to being powered by OpenStreetMap data. Not to mention it’s much lighter on resource usage.
Leo_Verto 3y ago
Organic Maps really nails the use case for a minimalistic, no-nonsense mapping app with great UX design. Whereas OsmAnd tries to accommodate all use cases with full configurability, which results in a mess of nested options menus, OM goes for reasonable defaults and short menu paths. Unfortunately that minimalism comes with some downsides. While OM has a great metro map, it doesn't show bus lines (which would probably blot the map size quite a bit), making it unfortunately unusable for my use case.
- palata 3y ago
  I use both Organic Maps and OsmAnd, I see both your descriptions as features: - Organic Maps is minimalistic, easy, great for what it does. - OsmAnd does everything. Whenever I want to do something more advanced that is not in Organic Maps (typically I like the GPX stuff for hiking, or the ski maps, etc), I turn to OsmAnd. I just need both.
  - Freak_NL 3y ago
    Same here. Although I also keep both around from the perspective of an OpenStreetMap contributor and mapper. OrganicMaps is a bit spartan at times, but it has its place.
  - JeremyNT 3y ago
    I use both as well, we are lucky to have such great options for both use cases!
- ajuc 3y ago
  I love OSMand but I can't figure out why it announces speed bumps when I'm in walking and biking mode but not when in car mode :) But it's still the best navigation app I've used.
  - ihatehn 3y ago
    That's a good bug to report to OsmAnd. It used to be they announced a turn every time the road hit a slight angle too which was absolute insanity lol
matkoniecz 3y ago
Note that if some data is missing or wrong - you can fix it by editing on https://www.openstreetmap.org/ https://www.openstreetmap.org/ as they use OpenStreetMap data Such help is really welcome! If you are on Android then I recommend StreetComplete which asks questions and edits OSM based on answers (disclaimer: I wrote parts of it) (Organic Maps has some limited editing capability, but for example you will not change road geometry or add forest area with it)
- technothrasher 3y ago
  I started using StreetComplete a few months ago. It's a good "time waster" when I'm sitting somewhere in my car waiting for somebody, or I'm out for a stroll somewhere. I did laugh though when I was recently in Europe and was filling in data with it, and it kept wanting to know how wide the streets were in meters. I had visions of annoying motorists by putting a tape measure across the streets to get an answer.
  - matkoniecz 3y ago
    There is a separate app to install with VR tool that is capable of measuring it without tape measure :) See https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.westnordost.streetmeasure https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.westnordost... (initially it was bundled in one app, later it turned out that Google was lying about license of arcore repository, see https://github.com/streetcomplete/StreetComplete/issues/4289 https://github.com/streetcomplete/StreetComplete/issues/4289 )
    - technothrasher 3y ago
      Nice, I'll take a look. Thanks. Though it doesn't seem to want to know street widths here in New England.
vintagedave 3y ago
This was the first time I’d heard of the app, but due to comments in this thread I downloaded it. * Website, ethos: straightforward. “Old internet” vibes, love it. They seem very active, have a presence on every platform, very impressive * The app seems very nice. Simple clear UI. Lots of features. I need to experiment for more than a few minutes but I get the impression it could replace Google Maps for me, especially because Google Maps has trouble doing things like showing road names or other key navigation tools * On design and UI: the offline approach is very visible. I zoomed in to where I live and it starts downloading it. First, a great way to get a download (go there on the map, it downloads) but also compare how many steps it is to download offline for Google Maps compared to this (go to a special section of the app, download something in your screen’s aspect ratio, limited in size, give it a manual name, prompted to manually curate downloads, they expire when they could still be perfectly valid…) — this is significantly better design. It’s the same difference angainst other map apps. I have a hiking trail app (AllTrails) that advertises offline, but getting the data and keeping it is a complex series of steps and it’s impossible to know if it’s there until you’re in the wilderness and unable to download if it’s not. This is so much simpler… good simple design. * It’s developed in Estonia! Estonia has a remarkable IT and software culture (I live there) and every so often you come across an absolute gem. This looks like one of them
- mcv 3y ago
  I've had it for a while, but I don't use it nearly enough. I still rely on Google Maps for most things, until Google Maps lets me down. Which it does mostly when I'm on vacation. Although now that I think about it, Google Maps lets me down on vacation because I'm in unfamiliar territory and I have no idea how to correct for the mistakes it makes. When I'm at home (in Amsterdam) it makes plenty of mistakes too, but I'm familiar with them and the are, so I can easily correct for it. For example, Google really dislikes the Sarphatistraat for some reason. It's a bike street: basically a gigantic bike path that also allows cars, but bikes have right of way. It's one of the most important bike thoroughfares in Amsterdam, so of course you should always take it. But for some reason, Google always prefers to send me along the Stadhouderskade, which is part of the centrumring for cars, one of the major car thoroughfares, parallel to the Sarphatistraat, and it does have a separate bike path, but you're still in car fumes. Also, it's slightly longer. There are plenty of other bike routes it doesn't know. I should really try to get used to using Organic Maps on my bike from now on. It's excellent on bike and pedestrian infrastructure, including hiking trails, things to see, etc. Many years ago when I first learned about OSM, I was amazed about the level of detail I got when I zoomed in on Artis, the Amsterdam Zoo. You don't get that kind of detail on Google Maps. I really should use it more.
BlackLotus89 3y ago
I often use my smartphone when driving somewhere by bike/scooter and for this only osmand is usable since background mode is not yet implemented https://github.com/organicmaps/organicmaps/pull/4611 https://github.com/organicmaps/organicmaps/pull/4611
- redauburn 3y ago
  Background mode will be in the next release :)
freyfogle 3y ago
Roman, one of the founders of Organic Maps, was recently interviewed on the Geomob podcast: https://thegeomob.com/podcast/episode-190 https://thegeomob.com/podcast/episode-190
DoingIsLearning 3y ago
Started using Organic Maps during the pandemic, this is the app that weaned me out of Google Maps. At the moment I only really use Google Maps to check opening times of certain shops. Also way better routing for cyclists than Google maps.
- OfSanguineFire 3y ago
  You can often find opening times of shops by searching for their own Facebook page instead of using Google Maps. Moreover, you can add business’ opening hours to OpenStreetMap so that other people in future will see the opening hours in Organic Maps and other OSM-based maps. For a programming-savvy crowd like HN, the syntax of OSM’s opening-hours tag is pretty straightforward.
  - Vinnl 3y ago
    > you can add business’ opening hours to OpenStreetMap And by far the easiest way to do this, if you have an Android phone, is to use the beautiful StreetComplete app: https://github.com/streetcomplete/StreetComplete/#readme https://github.com/streetcomplete/StreetComplete/#readme
    - raybb 3y ago
      Street complete may be a bit more beginner friendly but if you just need to update hours or want to add details to several stores quickly everydoor is easier to me https://every-door.app/ https://every-door.app/
      - aembleton 3y ago
        Worth taking a look at Street Complete Extended Edition too: https://f-droid.org/packages/de.westnordost.streetcomplete.expert/ https://f-droid.org/packages/de.westnordost.streetcomplete.e...
    - emaro 3y ago
      You can do it directly in Organic Maps as well.
elcapitan 3y ago
Does this support custom map styles? OsmAnd has the option to create custom xml styles for certain use cases (which I find interesting for non-standard uses).
- izacus 3y ago
  Nope, it's meant to be simple to use not a kitchen sink app like OsmAnd.
  - elcapitan 3y ago
    No need to be defensive, it's ok if it's less powerful, I just need to know what I get.
dzogchen 3y ago
Organic Maps is the best for biking and walking, Google Maps has left me hanging so many times there.
- Freak_NL 3y ago
  It depends on the area of course, but many hiking routes are indeed kept meticulously up to date in OpenStreetMap (and thus OrganicMaps). Sometimes even by the regional maintainer of those paths (like in Northern Italy). (That said, anyone hiking in the wild should always consider a paper map in addition to a digital one. Especially in mountainous terrain.)
jacooper 3y ago
Personally, I lost hope in finding any gmaps alternative. It's always either super out of date, or missing details and nice features like reviews, photos and advanced integrations like gmaps integration with public transport. That's without mentioning the clearly worse routing Algorithms. These issues mostly stem from a lack of data, but there are many related to the way the OSM project sees itself, and concepts like point of interest. Let's see what comes from the new big tech alliance against gmaps.
wooque 3y ago
My go to app for hiking and navigation on trails.
sv0la4 3y ago
[flagged]
123pie123 3y ago
fantastic app, I easily prefer it to OSMand thanks to all those involved on making a wonderful application
botanical 3y ago
I'm currently using Magic Earth, any major differences between the two? I realise this one's open source, but I really like Magic Earth's live traffic and recording.
- jacekm 3y ago
  If you're using maps primarily for driving I'd stick to Magic Earth.
narrowtux 3y ago
I still want some app that makes the awesome brouter algorithm usable on iOS. They have an android app which is "easy" to do since the routing module is written in Java, but alas, iOS doesn't support Java. IMO, brouter generates the best routes for bicycling with lots of options to customize for what kind of riding you want to do (road, trekking, gravel, recreational, commuting, safe and quiet vs. quick, etc.). Right now I use brouter-web on my iPhone but it's really hard to use since the UI is really small and it's very simple to accidentally place a waypoint. After that, I send the GPX file to my bike computer.
iagooar 3y ago
Besides hiking and biking, how good are the maps for 4x4 off-road driving?
ricardobayes 3y ago
It installed automatically on the external storage to save space! Finally someone thinks of the general population who doesn't buy the latest gadget just to keep up. A 3-4-5 year old smartphone should be perfectly adequate if devs actually thought of supporting the "normal phones".
hnarn 3y ago
I’ve used maps.me for years and years, I had no idea it had been forked by the original creators. I’ll definitely move over to using this instead.
l9i 3y ago
If you enjoy Organic Maps, please consider supporting them financially: https://organicmaps.app/donate/ https://organicmaps.app/donate/. Supporting their serving infrastructure for numerous users is surely costly.
- matkoniecz 3y ago
  Right now infrastructure appears to be donated, but donations increase how much effort developers can spend on it!
rob74 3y ago
I'm currently using OSMAnd, which is pretty powerful, but also feels a bit overloaded UI-wise - does anyone have any experience on how Organic Maps compares to it? Sounds like it could be a worthwile alternative. Especially the claim "go for a weeklong trip on a single battery charge" sounds interesting - I have the feeling that OSMAnd actually increases battery usage, because all rendering has to be done client-side, but of course it's probably possible to optimize this. Also, the free version of OSMAnd can only download a limited number of maps (split up by regions, which are sometimes a whole country, sometimes less) - I hope that the donation-based model works out and they will not be forced to do something similar.
- orblivion 3y ago
  Organic Maps is way less overloaded UI-wise. It's the go-to app for basic use as far as I'm concerned. I keep OSMAnd around just in case I need something more advanced.
- Vinnl 3y ago
  > I'm currently using OSMAnd, which is pretty powerful, but also feels a bit overloaded UI-wise - does anyone have any experience on how Organic Maps compares to it? It's less powerful, but not overloaded UI-wise. (Where "powerful" means things like travel guides and bus lines, but also things like being able to set up different profiles with the ability to customise the icon indicating your position per profile.)
itronitron 3y ago
Very cool, I was in a small metropolitan region recently and looking up directions to get places was absolutely killing my phone battery. Seems like the perfect use for this.
al_be_back 3y ago
looks great - the UI is simple/easy to use. I like the Compass Needle , it integrates well on the Map/tile as well as on Place Details popover (arrow top-right corner), so smart!
reify 3y ago
Great app. Being a non google user I have used Organic maps for years. I have tried all the open source others but they dont compete for me. I install E/OS and lineage with Organic maps on all my phones and on all phones my family use. Its because I am old that I continually get confused with (route to) and (route from) selection when working out my destination route. I always have to do it twice. There is a selection of voices but I only like one voice. I generally dont need a voice to direct me, I only need to have a quick glimpse at the screen every now and then I walk/ramble a lot and use .gpx files in organic maps for rambling routes. I also download .gpx files from rambling websites when looking for new rambling routes.
hkt 3y ago
I used this app to navigate around Italy on a cycling holiday. It was marvellous and I'd recommend it to anyone. Donated afterwards as a thank you for making such excellent software.
gorbypark 3y ago
I use Organic Maps for hiking specifically because it's not a "hiking app". There are way too many apps out there that expect you to just hike a trail that someone else has already hiked. Want to combine intersecting trails? You're out of luck. Want to use a trail you didn't explicitly pre-download without a data connection? You're out of luck But with Organic Maps, I find it has all the trails (at least on two separate one and a half month hiking trips in Andorra), and since they're all included with the base data, you can mix and match trails and do whatever you want. Pain points: The search isn't so great, there's a lack of names for trails and no real way to tell the "grade" of a trail. It could be a super easy walking path or some barely marked scramble. But overall I love it and it's way better than the commercial hiking offerings (WikiLoc, AllTrails, etc)
- biodranik 3y ago
  Please write us more details about search issues at support [at] organicmaps.app, or even better, create/update an issue on our Github: https://github.com/organicmaps/organicmaps/issues https://github.com/organicmaps/organicmaps/issues If trails have names in osm.org but names are not present in OM, please let us know, it's a bug.
  - gorbypark 3y ago
    Will do! I am pretty sure the trails where I hike (mostly Andorra) are just not named is OSM. I thought about trying to update some myself, but there's a lot of overlapping trails, so it would be tough to get right. For example big stretches of the same trail might be both GR-7 and GR-11 and also a local Andorran trail number. I'd rather not do it than do it and get it wrong!
- ijustlovemath 3y ago
  You can tell the grade of a trail by doing Route To / Route From and selecting the walking option. After computing the route it shows you a fairly accurate elevation profile, as well as the length and total elevation gains/losses. If you're using imperial units, you can also quickly estimate difficulty by doing the following: - take the total elevation change, in hundreds of feet, eg 900ft = 9 * 100ft - take the total distance, in tenths of a mile, eg 2.1 mi = 21 * .1 mi - divide the elevation by the length and convert to a percentage: 9/21 ~ 43% - grades are like so: 0-40%: relatively easy 40-70%: moderately big elevation, may be hard to sustain 70-100%: steep terrain, may involve some scrambling >100%: very steep, technical terrain. Sometimes involves ladders or a static line in particularly steep sections For example, there's a pretty lengthy trail near me called Shining Creek, that's very sustained, but I wouldn't call it steep. It's got 2300ft of elevation change over 3.9mi, which corresponds to a 58% steepness, aka the upper end of a moderately difficulty hike if sustained.
FrustratedMonky 3y ago
Been looking for a different map app like this, Thank You. All the others have turned into commercials, weighed down my ad's.
pete_3c1f 3y ago
I'm a bit disappointed by OSM and their map rendering and always wondered why there isn't a good Nav app using MapBox, like StreetComplete does for example. This is wonderful, thanks HN!
fredsmith219 3y ago
I really want to like it, but I can only figure out how to navigate to the street level. It doesn’t seem to route to a specific address.
- pete_3c1f 3y ago
  For my city this seems to work (Northern Germany)
- redauburn 3y ago
  this is usually due to a lack of data in OpenStreetMap, if you go to https://osm.org https://osm.org and check one of the addresses, is it there? the good thing about OpenStreetMap is that if something is missing, you can add it in 1 minute :)
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
thom 3y ago
I bought this app when it was maps.me out of a weird prepper urge to have more offline stuff on my phone (shout out to Kiwix for offline Wikipedia, and modern phones for having terabytes of storage). But then I grew to absolutely love it, the coverage of walking routes is amazing, it works for car journeys in low coverage areas, and often has archaeological points of interest that I wouldn't see in other maps apps.
speg 3y ago
Been using this since last time it was posted on HN. Great little app that complements Apple Maps with offline mode and random stuff like water fountains. Only thing I would want them to improve is the color scheme when used with CarPlay, I don’t know why but one of the day/night color schemes is almost impossible to read.
LifeDesigner 3y ago
Hey guys! So happy to vote for Organic Maps. As a part of the team (when it was MAPS.ME) I'm very happy to see new life of MAPS.ME in Organic Maps. Good luck and all the best for you guys! Use your product with a pleasure. Alex Matveenko
sva_ 3y ago
Very fast and responsive compared to OsmAnd. Would really benefit from having Terrain maps for the mountains though.
davelondon 3y ago
My friend is a heavy iOS maps.me user, and has hundreds of bookmarks all over the world. She isn't a fan of the new maps.me, and would love to use Organic Maps. I've tested the import / export function, and it looks like we can transfer all her bookmarks over and preserve the colour information... The only thing we're missing is an auto-backup function to store the bookmarks online. She's not a techie, so it has to be free from settings and automatically enabled. As soon as that feature is added you'll have another user!
mothsonasloth 3y ago
Bookmarked. Definitely will use this for the Mongol Rally next year
curionymous 3y ago
I've used organicmaps for a while. but it needs a way to sync bookmarks. I bookmark places like a good restaurant, parking places, fuel stations, stores, roadside attractions to places I've been to. But without a cloud sync(preferably self-hosted nextcloud), I always fear I'm going to lose my bookmarks. There was another open-source maps.me fork before Organic maps and it lost maps/bookmarks with certain updates and became abandoned.[1] With file access limitation with recent android versions, I can't just use foldersync or syncthing on the bookmarks. [1]https://gitlab.com/axet/omim/-/issues/168 https://gitlab.com/axet/omim/-/issues/168
Madeyro 3y ago
How doeas rhis compare to mapy.cz?
michaelmior 3y ago
> Organic Maps doesn't request excessive permissions to spy on you To be fair, the requesting of these permissions doesn't mean the other app highlighted is "spying on you." Some of those permissions are required for certain features. Not everyone will be comfortable with that, and that's ok. But I think it's unfair to suggest that the intention is spying.
- F30 3y ago
  In this particular case I read the statement as a dig at maps.me (the app they forked from). On iOS, maps.me would always continue accessing my location in the background unless force-quit, even if nothing was actually happening in the background. I might be wrong of course, the statement could have a different background and maps.me's behavior could be an honest bug.
mezod 3y ago
Looked awesome until I saw there's no satellite imagery, I cannot get lost in the middle of the mountains with so little reference points :(
koziserek 3y ago
Fantastic app. To reach perfection for me, it would need: - to allow storing my POIs in some sync-able location (e.g. Nextcloud folder) - to improve rendering and reach same level of beauty as mapy.cz / Windy has...
threemux 3y ago
A fantastic app that has saved me a few times when I didn't have service. I know they're actively working on Android Auto support and I'm eagerly awaiting it!
euroderf 3y ago
Is there someway to lock North so that it doesn't try to keep rotating so "helpfully" ?
1970-01-01 3y ago
I've been looking something like this for many years. I installed it and it works as described. Old Androids and iPhones sitting in my drawer can now be permanently left in my old vehicles as an emergency backup GPS.
marbartolome 3y ago
One thing I find missing from most alternative map apps is satellite view - I find it very useful for orienting myself and for "exploration". OSM supports microsoft satellite maps as a layer - any way to add it to organic maps too? I do like the simpler interface.
gerry_shaw 3y ago
o
patchtopic 3y ago
organic maps is great but it does not have street numbers. I know this is a limit of the underlying OSM data it uses.
methou 3y ago
This is so nice! I checked out the map, works great even outside of the US/EU. I checked my favorite local food chain, routes are very good. I found one missing, followed the lead to OSM and updated the venue data. Things gets interesting when you can edit the data behind the scenes! Kudos to people behind both projects!
evantbyrne 3y ago
The critical issue I've always had with OSM-based map apps has been stale data. If I were to update something on OSM, then how long could I reasonably expect it to take for that change to make it onto my phone with Organic Maps? And would it happen automatically in the background while I'm on WiFi, or would I have to do something manually?
- SushiHippie 3y ago
  If you change something on OSM it takes a few minutes to a day to be visible on the *online* map. And in their faq they state, that they update their maps 1-4 times per month. Automatic updates are planned https://github.com/organicmaps/organicmaps/issues/5679 https://github.com/organicmaps/organicmaps/issues/5679
  - evantbyrne 3y ago
    Yeah, such massive delays will be the one thing preventing me from using Organic Maps. OSM being community-editable is where these map apps get most of their value. Letting the data go that stale defeats the purpose. Thanks for the link I'll keep an eye on that issue.
    - eisa01 3y ago
      I don't think monthly updates is letting the data go stale, and there's a bandwidth cost of updating e.g., every day. Maybe they would update more often if they got more donations ;) Google often takes longer than that to process edits...
      - evantbyrne 3y ago
        A month+ is incredibly stale. OSM releases full dumps on a weekly basis for free, so cost is not a reasonable excuse. It is also not normal for updates to Google Maps from business owners to take that long. I have on multiple recent occasions seen businesses push update same day in my small city. It's a shame they went through the trouble of rebranding without addressing users' most common complaint, which is that data is oftentimes wrong. Keeping it up-to-date with OSM and pushing people to contribute would help significantly.
LispSporks22 3y ago
Is this one good for motorcycle?
2143 3y ago
Great app, I like it, but I did notice some problems: My city is comprised of several islands, and there's relatively large bodies of water between them (over 100 metres), but this map shows those large water bodies as narrow (1 or 2 metre) river-like things. I understand this might be the problem of the underlying data source, and not the app itself. (For what it's worth, both Google and Apple maps correctly displays the islands and water bodies).
- orblivion 3y ago
  Check if it looks the same on openstreetmap.org
  - 2143 3y ago
    openstreetmap.org correctly displays the islands and the relative distances between them!
    - orblivion 3y ago
      Sounds like a bug in the app then. Though, OSM apps have their choice on how to interpret the underlying data, so it could be based on a deliberate decision. May be worth reporting if you don't mind revealing your town on their github.
    - orblivion 3y ago
      Alternate thought just came to mind - is your map data on OrganicMaps up-to-date?
      - deleted 3y ago
        [deleted]
      - 2143 3y ago
        I hope so. I first heard about it (from this very post on HN), downloaded, and installed the app all within the past 1 hour. And when I zoomed into my city, it downloaded the map information.
pseudoshikhar 3y ago
damn, I've been waiting for something like this for a long time.
kibwen 3y ago
I'm slowly de-googling due to the WEI debacle, and my resident OpenStreetMap evangelist recommended this as a Google Maps replacement. It obviously doesn't have all the features of Google Maps, but surprisingly there are several things that I feel it does better. For example, the transit overlay is much more visible and shows transfers between lines (although that's the only overlay it offers, no bike lane overlay sadly (although, honestly, GM's bike overlay isn't all that useful)). Searching is obviously instantaneous and shows all your hits, so I can search for "cafe" in my city and immediately get a map with pins for every single cafe, which can be overwhelming at large zoom levels but it's fine once you zoom into an area (and it's much less "mystery meat" than GM's approach of selectively only displaying a subset of your search results based on your zoom level, so I think it's a worthwhile tradeoff). And no ads, obviously. The biggest downside is that the search is basic, and searches the whole planet while only sporadically prioritizing results in your current area, or your current zoom, or your downloaded maps. If you have an address it doesn't matter, but if you don't have an address then you'll find yourself longing for the more intelligent search of Google Maps. But it's nice, and I'm using it more and more often by default over time. However, until search is improved, I don't think I'll be able to uninstall Google Maps entirely (although eventually maybe I'll just use it through mobile Firefox).
vladharbuz 3y ago
I would use Organic Maps if OSM supported entering UK postcodes in the search box. Can’t wait to stop using Google Maps.
- aembleton 3y ago
  Try mapy.cz app. You can use UK postcodes in there and it uses OSM data.
rcarmo 3y ago
I love this thing, it’s been tremendously useful in all kinds of situations, especially when offline.
lionkor 3y ago
Not affiliated with them, but I did find their incredible selection of donation options very interesting: https://organicmaps.app/donate/ https://organicmaps.app/donate/
sjkoelle 3y ago
mapsme had the conch in its hand
somewhat_drunk 3y ago
I've been using maps.me for a long time for offline map use while hiking and traveling off the grid, but recently switched to organic maps due to their superior interface. They both use openstreetmaps, which I have found to be outstanding. Even the most obscure trails and overgrown overlanding tracks are almost always on openstreetmaps. The file sizes are quite small, and being able to download specific areas, or states, or entire countries at a time is perfect. I prefer organic maps to alltrails, gaia maps, etc. It's become an indispensable tool for me while hiking and traveling.
yumraj 3y ago
Just tried it iOS. Maps look interesting. Tried to plan a route, couldn’t figure out how to see step by step directions in a list view which is supported by almost every map. Is that possible?
ospohngellert 3y ago
Downloaded the app, searched for mexican restaurants in my area and it missed a few. I tried searching for the restaurants specifically and they were in the DB and categorized as mexican. Any recommended way to accomplish this?
pwillia7 3y ago
Love it. thanks for making this. Feature Request: Add a Thrilling style mode for navigation so I can map fun drives without using a real computer. https://help.tomtom.com/hc/en-us/articles/10428741608466-Routing-modes-in-the-GO-Ride-app https://help.tomtom.com/hc/en-us/articles/10428741608466-Rou... Here is more information about the variables they use to figure out the most thrilling route -- https://developer.tomtom.com/blog/build-different/thrills-and-hills-tutorial-understanding-route-parameters-routing-api/ https://developer.tomtom.com/blog/build-different/thrills-an...
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- ihatehn 3y ago
  One way I did this randomly the other day was choosing Bicycle or Walking mode which prioritize slow streets and pedestrian pathways. Maybe a different definition of thrilling than most people in cars, but I appreciate being taken into other areas of town I might not normally go since they're not major roads. OsmAnd also has many different navigation profile options, you might try customizing that to get what you want. Organic Maps focuses on what the bulk of people need to navigate decently, so that the end result is simple and usable for everyone even if it's not the most feature-packed.
SamuelAdams 3y ago
Just a reminder: Apple will (finally!) update Maps in iOS 17 with an offline mode. https://9to5mac.com/2023/06/07/ios-17-offline-maps-in-apple-maps/ https://9to5mac.com/2023/06/07/ios-17-offline-maps-in-apple-...
uhtred 3y ago
Is it better than OSMAnd? (I love OSMAnd)
- rcMgD2BwE72F 3y ago
  Simpler.
Borg3 3y ago
Anyone know how to upload maps files into app? I do NOT want to download maps from their servers. Is it possible?
fuddle 3y ago
I'm impressed normally free open source apps aren't great quality. This looks quite polished. I was trying to figure out what library it uses for map rendering. It seems like it uses a custom C++ code for map rendering?
kensai 3y ago
I would use in Europe Komoot. So amazing for hiking and cycling.
eh__dub 3y ago
Using OSM is not unique amongst mapping apps. Almost every company's mapping app is using OSM data in some way. The no ads bit is nice. I don't think I properly understand the "no tracking" claim. I don't want to be tracked by miscellaneous third parties, but designers and engineers should absolutely be instrumenting the app so they can understand user behavior via empirical means. I saw another comment mention they can update OSM via this app. That is def cool and I wish more apps supported that use case and educated users about it. The topo map leaves something to be desired. Once you go Gaia Topo, it's hard to look at other companies' topo maps.
- janc_ 3y ago
  Whenever a company is tracking such data, there is no way for users to know if collected data is used or sold for other purposes, now or in the future, so the default should always be to collect no data at all. If you want to run UI/UX tests/experiments on users, just ask them (and maybe offer incentives to participate?).
ryukoposting 3y ago
Wow, I had no idea this existed 10 minutes ago, and I'm already thinking about deleting my AllTrails account. I'm driving about 6 hours tonight and I think I'm going to give this thing a try. The UI is tremendous. Takes a while for it to make longer routes, but that could be my old phone's fault. One thing I don't like - it doesn't seem to be possible to save a route. You can save places, but not routes. Especially for hiking trips that have very particular manually-selected paths and/or lots of destinations, it would be nice to be able to save a route to a list, tap it, and have that route show up immediately instead of waiting for it to calculate.
- lost_tourist 3y ago
  before doing anything drastic, just add a 30 day calendar reminder to remove the account after you've used this new app for a while. That's how I always handle things that are hard to reverse.
  - ryukoposting 3y ago
    Doesn't seem like Organic Maps requires an account, but this is excellent advice.
joshlemer 3y ago
This looks great! But it needs a bike route layer please!
dang 3y ago
Related: OrganicMaps is Android and iOS offline maps for travel without trackers or ads - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27576882 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27576882 - June 2021 (116 comments)
_AntonM_ 3y ago
It’s a great open-source with great team. If you want to improve/create some feature and have relevant experience - you can join.
rurp 3y ago
I love the offline focus of this app, but the one killer feature it lacks is the ability to download satellite maps. One of my most used and loved apps is a hiking app that supports saving different types of maps offline, and I use the satellite views quite a bit.
raylad 3y ago
Organic Maps has the best walking directions. It's always picking interesting routes and has never led me astray. Also, if you go in a different direction, it automatically remaps from where you are at the moment to where you told it you wanted to go, unlike Google maps and most others that I've used.
chaz6 3y ago
I am very happy that this exists, great job! Unfortunately there is one important feature missing for me. On Android I cannot change the storage location. Edit: I was mistaken, the option is not available while maps are downloading. It is perfect!
pSYoniK 3y ago
When I went full "no-google" on my smartphone I had to find a Google Maps alternative. Organic Maps filled the gap nicely and I've used it for personal navigation about 95% of the time since (2ish years now). The one thing that makes me pull up gmaps now is public transport routing in new cities where the information boards in bus/tram/metro stations doesnt help me figure out the routes. Also, for driving OM offers less hand-holding than GM so it took a while to get used to that, but it made me a better driver. I now use OM to get an idea of which way to go and thn rely on public signs to drive. It's been really amazing. OM also just wins hands down when I'm hiking and cycling. I've donatrd to the project each year but every once in a while I'm just so happy with itthat I feel bad for not being able to afford giving them more money.
joren 3y ago
By far the best app when abroad. Use it to plan a holiday with color coded bookmarks. Easy to plan hikes, runs etc. And all offline. Great to spot where you find drinking water, playgrounds, and all the other great details OSM provides. Started using it in Montenegro for driving as well since I didn’t want to pay a fortune for roaming and all other offline apps or even GPS device did not have the country available offline.
brailsafe 3y ago
Seems like a noble effort, and I'll keep it installed and in-mind, but I'm just about to head out on a rather well-tread trail that just happens to be quite long and segmented, and I can't make anything useful of the UI at all. Though I could piece together a custom trail I was satisfied with—after much irritation and rezooming—there was then no way to save it for later that I could see, and when I tried importing a KML or GPX it was rather clumsy; I eventually succeeded at displaying the route, and maybe that'll ckme in handy later today, but I ultimately just decided to use the AllTrails pro trial and hopefully remember to cancel in time. I can't mess around with iffy, unpredictable interfaces when I'm exhausted both physically and mentally and cell service is spotty at best. hwat would be awesome is to seriously iterate on the UI of the trail side of things, if the technical bits are in-place, because it seems like an otherwise commendable endeavor. It just feels very open-source, as in maybe it technically works, but I wouldn't put myself in a vulnerable position with it
itwillnotbeasy 3y ago
It has a cool feature on Android, when phone is locked, I only need to press the unlock button to see the map, phone doesn't ask for a password/fingerprint scan. This saves so much time when traveling on a bicycle because I don't like planning a detailed route, i just set a destination point, and ride in that direction, choosing the best scenic view. In that scenario, my phone mostly sits in my pocket, and I pull it out only when I get lost, but it saves so much time through the whole route. If I want to switch to another app, Android asks me to authenticate, I don't know why google maps doesn't work the same way.
dotluis 3y ago
Is there any way to disable the POIs on the map?
MagicMoonlight 3y ago
I really want a car navigation app that actually routes you correctly. Apps like Waze have fallen for the "AI" meme where they take a limited data set of people driving and extrapolate it. "It's 0.2 seconds quicker if you take a hard right across 4 lanes of traffic in rush hour" it thinks, so it takes you off the main road and onto a side street. You are then stuck there for 10 minutes because you can't turn right across 4 lanes of traffic in rush hour.
Zmicier42 3y ago
Height profile on the route is one of the most useful features of Organic maps for hiking. Have not seen such functionality in most of other maps apps.
quercusa 3y ago
Great for airline passengers! I saw this while preparing for the return leg of an airplane trip, so I downloaded the offline maps and was able to follow my flight via GPS - made things much more interesting.
- anderiv 3y ago
  If you’re on iOS, the University of Minnesota (USA) has release an purpose-built app for this sort of thing. I’ve enjoyed it on many flights: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/flyover-country/id1059886913 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/flyover-country/id1059886913
  - quercusa 3y ago
    Thanks, I'll give it a shot.
leokennis 3y ago
If this app would support “streaming” maps it would be the best. I don’t need an entire region stored on my device just because I want to navigate to the closest supermarket while I’m there, and I also don’t want to wait for it to download 50MB of data on cellular just to navigate me a few streets.
yonatan8070 3y ago
It seems like a great app with a nice and fast UI, but it doesn't support public transport in my area, and seeing as my primary mode of transportation is public, it's not very useful to me. I hope a future update might add that functionality (bus, train, and light rail schedules, routes, and real time arrival data)
therealdrag0 3y ago
It’s honestly better for hiking than many hiking apps I have. (Comparing free for free)

1401 points by LeoPanthera 3y ago

I cannot really express how much praise I have for Organic Maps. It has got me out of the mire a couple of times due to the complete offline capability and paper maps being completely wrong. The OSM base layer is better than a lot of native maps out there. Not only that, you can search for a toilet almost anywhere, including in the middle of nowhere in central Asia, and it found one!

shellfishgene 3y ago
Maybe I'm a little jaded by how the app economy works nowadays, but I find it almost suspicious how fast development seems and how well supported Organic Maps is. At least the high level of quality is explained by the fact that the lead developers seem to be the founders of the original maps.me.
- biodranik 3y ago
  We're not alone, our community and contributors are helping us!
  - xNeil 3y ago
    Thanks for the work you and your community is doing! Quick question - why did you fork maps.me in the first place? And how do you make money?
    - matkoniecz 3y ago
      > And how do you make money? From what I see, https://organicmaps.app/ https://organicmaps.app/ is asking for donations ( https://organicmaps.app/donate/ https://organicmaps.app/donate/ )
    - OfSanguineFire 3y ago
      Maps.me got forked because it was sold from the original company to a new one (IIRC more than once). The most recent company to purchase Maps.me is in crypto, so their focus has been on e.g. adding a crypto wallet – yes, a crypto wallet in a maps app – instead of actually developing the app further for maps users.
      - palata 3y ago
        Was Maps.me open source before, or did they somehow manage to make it open source just before it got bought by the cryptobros? That would be a pretty great move IMO.
        milliams 3y ago
        I believe that it was always open-source.
        dvdkon 3y ago
        I remember them promising to open-source it early on and then waiting at least a few months for the code. At the time I was jaded and thought they'd go back on the promise, but I'm grateful they didn't. It's the most polished FLOSS map app.
        johannes1234321 3y ago
        It wasn't always. It started as MapsWithMe by a swiss company, which gave it away for free with a pro version (for which I paid), then mail.ru took it over and made it opensource (while all my build attempts failed) and then a new owner later added tons of ads and stuff into it and made it closed. Then some people forked the slightly older open source version.
        ihatehn 3y ago
        Those people are the original founders who took it open source, which was a great move since otherwise it'd have become just another piece of shovelware getting enshittified into oblivion.
    - biodranik 3y ago
      New owners of Maps.Me ruined the offline UX in one of the updates in 2020. We could not allow our "baby" to die like this. The project runs on our own money and users' donations. With enough support, we can replace Google Maps in most use-cases in the future. Because we are listening to our users, and are actively using Organic Maps ourselves.
  - someone321 3y ago
    [dead]
- ihatehn 3y ago
  I'm a volunteer working on an improvement to the spoken directions and I can say with firsthand experience that Organic Maps' development is not suspiciously fast. It is simply a fork of Maps.ME which has gone to crap, so when you look at features per year over the whole lifespan it's really not a lot. I think OSM is growing in popularity especially as more people realize that FAANG are awful and so we're seeing more activity lately, but let's just say that it's taken me a year to get around to working on this task again (is it just easier to accomplish things during Back to School week and Christmas-New Years' week?) and in that time I have not had many merge conflicts to deal with. It's getting better, and things are happening more quickly, but certainly not suspiciously-quickly. OM has been a thing since 2021 and I've been trying to ditch Google since 2015 so I've been around for awhile seeing the progress: much slower than I'd like, but still remarkable. Certainly not comparable in any way to a VC-funded startup that can churn out a product in months, this is funded by donations and volunteer work.
rqtwteye 3y ago
Organic Maps is great. I just wish OSM worked on search more. They are behind there.
- mrd3v0 3y ago
  Which should be an exciting project any person can work on, given the decent amount of metadata OSM provides.
- biodranik 3y ago
  We're actively improving our search in every release. Stay tuned!
- ihatehn 3y ago
  The main issue with OSM search at least in America is a lack of addresses. Anyone can help with this by importing addresses from the National Address Database: https://www.openstreetmap.org/user/watmildon/diary/400812 https://www.openstreetmap.org/user/watmildon/diary/400812
zikduruqe 3y ago
As a cyclist, I use Organic Maps to add drinking water sources, shelters, repair stations, fix biking routes and lanes using just a mobile app to update OSM when I am out and about.
- orbital-decay 3y ago
  Thanks for that! Editing the map on a bike can be a hassle though. I tried many options and came to conclusion that a 360° camera on the helmet and a physical Bluetooth button to take audio notes is the easiest possible setup.
  - Vinnl 3y ago
    If you both don't know about StreetComplete yet, you should check it out: https://github.com/streetcomplete/StreetComplete/#readme https://github.com/streetcomplete/StreetComplete/#readme
    - orbital-decay 3y ago
      Yeah I'm often using StreetComplete when walking in a city, but on a bike any operation with the phone involves stopping and switching the context. Besides, SC is intended to fill the missing or fix existing data, and sometimes I need more than that (adding/fixing paths and objects, for example). So I just record an audio note while passing by something, and later on I import the video/timelapse and edit it on my computer, which is much faster than doing that while cycling.
      - aembleton 3y ago
        Worth looking at SCEE [1] for adding objects, unfortunatelly it doesn't do paths. [1] https://f-droid.org/packages/de.westnordost.streetcomplete.expert/ https://f-droid.org/packages/de.westnordost.streetcomplete.e...
      - MayeulC 3y ago
        I also started using EveryDoor recently, which strikes a Nice middle ground betweek StreetComplete qnd Vespucci. https://f-droid.org/packages/info.zverev.ilya.every_door/ https://f-droid.org/packages/info.zverev.ilya.every_door/ https://every-door.app/ https://every-door.app/

dbrgn 3y ago

Organic Maps is less powerful than OSMAnd (on Android), but it's much more straightforward and easy to use. It's the go-to app I recommend to all casual map users that want offline maps.

baz00 3y ago
Organic maps is also 100% free unlike OSMAnd.
- tangus 3y ago
  OsmAnd+ installed from FDroid is 100% free AFAIK.
  - biodranik 3y ago
    What about iOS?
    - teekert 3y ago
      There is no free option for iOS.
  - Freak_NL 3y ago
    On F-Droid that is OsmAnd~, and it is indeed the free equivalent of OsmAnd+ from Google's app store.
- onetimeacc 3y ago
  I can get OsmAnd~ from FDroid for free.
  - Aachen 3y ago
    You can also download map files from the server manually via, e.g., a web browser and get unlimited downloads that way. Don't need to pay for the standard functionality no matter where you downloaded the apk. OsmAnd is free-as-in-beer if you want it to be, though imo that's not fair to the developers unless you truly can't afford a few euros (which can be, no judgement, especially in countries with lower incomes or high income disparity).

walteweiss 3y ago

Do they have Linux apps as well? There are links to Flathub and the native (repository) app in the bottom of the page.

LeoPanthera 3y ago
In beta, yes.
grey_earthling 3y ago
Yes. But the UI is much clunkier than the excellent Android version.
mpawelski 3y ago
There is, but the UX is not there yet. I think it was mostly used for for easier development and contributing to the project (you don't have to use mobile emulators to test map rendering), but apparently it's now officially in "beta" state, so maybe there is some hope for better UX improvement in future.

fuzzy2 3y ago

Organic Maps is super awesome. The routing feature is really good, too. It even works on Apple CarPlay! There are some glitches to be aware of though: Routing across region borders is often broken. Also, a warning about OSM in general: Do not blindly trust it. Map data can be very out of date in some places, especially on remote-ish hiking trails.

izacus 3y ago
> Do not blindly trust it. Map data can be very out of date in some places, especially on remote-ish hiking trails. Also, for the love of everything that's holy, do the same with Apple/Google Maps. They can be horribly wrong to the point of being actively dangerous.
- IshKebab 3y ago
  For roads though they generally hook into official sources (e.g. Ordnance Survey in the UK) so they are guaranteed to get updated when the layout changes. That's not true for OSM. (Though obviously in the UK there are enough map nerds that it's very unlikely to be an issue.)
  - matkoniecz 3y ago
    Official sources also may have outdated maps. Especially when for example bridge was destroyed hours/days ago.
  - izacus 3y ago
    I don't know for UK, but in Swiss Alps the data is extremely scarce, which paths outright missing and Maps showing paths that can be closed or extremely dangerous.
  - ihatehn 3y ago
    Apple and Google are not guaranteed to be updated when government road data changes. They do their best and they have tons of money and user-reported data (like live GPS traces from users' devices) to do decent work, but there are many times that OSM map nerds do a better job. The real issue with OSM is in remote areas where not a lot of people are around on the ground to realize that it's broken or care: the first user in an area often has some volunteer work to do. But fortunately it's easy and you can do it. Any random person can make a better map of their area than Google, instead of having to beg them for it.

onetimeacc 3y ago

I love organic maps. It's my daily driver for navigation, especially in rural areas where GoogleMaps just sucks. I wish they added warnings for speed limits though. They do this only when there is a speed camera, but not generally. The PR is here: https://github.com/organicmaps/organicmaps/pull/5233 https://github.com/organicmaps/organicmaps/pull/5233

biodranik 3y ago
This feature is planned, please check our Github and other 1800+ features/issues :)
- Vinnl 3y ago
  I think that would be https://github.com/organicmaps/organicmaps/issues/952 https://github.com/organicmaps/organicmaps/issues/952.

fhchl 3y ago

I highly recommend "mapy.cz", another free, ad free, offline map app. I used it for a longer hike in Slovenia this summer and was amazed that it included all of the hiking trails we encountered in the area. We were hiking the Slovenian Mountain Trail. What a beauty!

mmoskal 3y ago
I've been using it for a while and love it but intend to give the open source Organic maps a try. In particular sharing a way point in Mapy.cz seem to require an account with a Czech web portal. The reason Mapy.cz has all the trails is because they also use open street maps.
shpx 3y ago
I tried both this summer and Mapy.cz is definitely better for hiking. You don't have to zoom in as much to see the trails, hiking trails are marked more clearly with major trails marked in a nice thick red line and it has relief maps (though they can't be downloaded) and the peaks are more clearly labeled along with their height. Also when you zoom out you see a height map instead of just grey for land and blue for water. Overall it has a nicer attention to detail, for example dashed lines stay in one place as you zoom in/out instead of swimming around and I like the selection of downloaded areas better on Mapy.cz (it has flags next to country names and downloading a new area takes one tap instead of two or three) though it still feels flimsy.
RivieraKid 3y ago
I wonder why this app isn't more popular. Basically, there's a map app which is much better than Google Maps for a lot of use cases and very few people outside of Czechia use it. Is this a matter of marketing or is the app actually not that good?

solarkraft 3y ago

I love Organic Maps! I just wish getting a route somewhere was a tad bit more intuitive; I keep being thrown off by the UX there.

rlaimondas 3y ago

[flagged]

rlaimondas 3y ago

Superb mapping with a lot of details.

bertil 3y ago

I genuinely want to know what lead Google to not support Maps offline properly. It’s truly staggering how, even when I do everything I can to say: save this journey, don’t delete the map around it, don’t delete the journey, just passively show me where I am next to it, it will gleefully delete everything. I once met their lead designer (who had just changed to work at another FAANG) and… boy was that not a conversation I wanted to have. You know how designers like to say that users are always right? Well, not that guy. Literally 45 minutes of monologue, none of it about connectivity, being lost or unfamiliar languages. Just how people were wrong, wrong reviews wrong and how they couldn’t read information properly unless they had ‘a mission’. “What if the mission is finding their way in a new city where they don’t have connection?” Didn’t care. Not a real mission. A little later, he was told that the company he was now working for throttled wifi every Wednesday to encourage empathy. That was not a conversation he wanted to have.

Tee3993 3y ago
Google Maps has pretty good support for offline maps. Select rectangular area, download, it expires after year. I am in Europe, maybe you have different copyright on data?
- palata 3y ago
  If you find it "pretty good", I guess you have never tried an OpenStreetMap-based app like Organic Maps. I also like OSMAnd a lot (I use both for different use-cases).
  - aix1 3y ago
    > I also like OSMAnd a lot (I use both for different use-cases). This is the first come I come across Organic Maps but I do use OSMAnd. I'm wondering how the two compare and would love to hear more about the use cases you have for each of them.
    - rakoo 3y ago
      I use organic maps most of the time but osmand has much better support for hiking trails: you can see them (not just a path, but the name of the route, with a different color to separate it), I can tell the app to prefer it when building an itinerary, and the altitude info is way more detailed. You can spot the exact altitude and gradient at any spot. You can add a second map as an overlay, and I typically use a contour maps to quickly see where the peaks are, where the route will be flat, etc... OSMand is slightly too powerful for everyday use, organic maps is the perfect good-enough, less-is-better example.

rus64 3y ago

Fantastic app. Saw me through a 6 month backpacking trip in South East Asia.

fizwidget 3y ago

I highly recommend OrganicMaps. It’s leagues better than Google Maps for walking & hiking paths, thanks to being powered by OpenStreetMap data. Not to mention it’s much lighter on resource usage.

Leo_Verto 3y ago

Organic Maps really nails the use case for a minimalistic, no-nonsense mapping app with great UX design. Whereas OsmAnd tries to accommodate all use cases with full configurability, which results in a mess of nested options menus, OM goes for reasonable defaults and short menu paths. Unfortunately that minimalism comes with some downsides. While OM has a great metro map, it doesn't show bus lines (which would probably blot the map size quite a bit), making it unfortunately unusable for my use case.

palata 3y ago
I use both Organic Maps and OsmAnd, I see both your descriptions as features: - Organic Maps is minimalistic, easy, great for what it does. - OsmAnd does everything. Whenever I want to do something more advanced that is not in Organic Maps (typically I like the GPX stuff for hiking, or the ski maps, etc), I turn to OsmAnd. I just need both.
- Freak_NL 3y ago
  Same here. Although I also keep both around from the perspective of an OpenStreetMap contributor and mapper. OrganicMaps is a bit spartan at times, but it has its place.
- JeremyNT 3y ago
  I use both as well, we are lucky to have such great options for both use cases!
ajuc 3y ago
I love OSMand but I can't figure out why it announces speed bumps when I'm in walking and biking mode but not when in car mode :) But it's still the best navigation app I've used.
- ihatehn 3y ago
  That's a good bug to report to OsmAnd. It used to be they announced a turn every time the road hit a slight angle too which was absolute insanity lol

matkoniecz 3y ago

Note that if some data is missing or wrong - you can fix it by editing on https://www.openstreetmap.org/ https://www.openstreetmap.org/ as they use OpenStreetMap data Such help is really welcome! If you are on Android then I recommend StreetComplete which asks questions and edits OSM based on answers (disclaimer: I wrote parts of it) (Organic Maps has some limited editing capability, but for example you will not change road geometry or add forest area with it)

technothrasher 3y ago
I started using StreetComplete a few months ago. It's a good "time waster" when I'm sitting somewhere in my car waiting for somebody, or I'm out for a stroll somewhere. I did laugh though when I was recently in Europe and was filling in data with it, and it kept wanting to know how wide the streets were in meters. I had visions of annoying motorists by putting a tape measure across the streets to get an answer.
- matkoniecz 3y ago
  There is a separate app to install with VR tool that is capable of measuring it without tape measure :) See https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.westnordost.streetmeasure https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.westnordost... (initially it was bundled in one app, later it turned out that Google was lying about license of arcore repository, see https://github.com/streetcomplete/StreetComplete/issues/4289 https://github.com/streetcomplete/StreetComplete/issues/4289 )
  - technothrasher 3y ago
    Nice, I'll take a look. Thanks. Though it doesn't seem to want to know street widths here in New England.

vintagedave 3y ago

This was the first time I’d heard of the app, but due to comments in this thread I downloaded it. * Website, ethos: straightforward. “Old internet” vibes, love it. They seem very active, have a presence on every platform, very impressive * The app seems very nice. Simple clear UI. Lots of features. I need to experiment for more than a few minutes but I get the impression it could replace Google Maps for me, especially because Google Maps has trouble doing things like showing road names or other key navigation tools * On design and UI: the offline approach is very visible. I zoomed in to where I live and it starts downloading it. First, a great way to get a download (go there on the map, it downloads) but also compare how many steps it is to download offline for Google Maps compared to this (go to a special section of the app, download something in your screen’s aspect ratio, limited in size, give it a manual name, prompted to manually curate downloads, they expire when they could still be perfectly valid…) — this is significantly better design. It’s the same difference angainst other map apps. I have a hiking trail app (AllTrails) that advertises offline, but getting the data and keeping it is a complex series of steps and it’s impossible to know if it’s there until you’re in the wilderness and unable to download if it’s not. This is so much simpler… good simple design. * It’s developed in Estonia! Estonia has a remarkable IT and software culture (I live there) and every so often you come across an absolute gem. This looks like one of them

mcv 3y ago
I've had it for a while, but I don't use it nearly enough. I still rely on Google Maps for most things, until Google Maps lets me down. Which it does mostly when I'm on vacation. Although now that I think about it, Google Maps lets me down on vacation because I'm in unfamiliar territory and I have no idea how to correct for the mistakes it makes. When I'm at home (in Amsterdam) it makes plenty of mistakes too, but I'm familiar with them and the are, so I can easily correct for it. For example, Google really dislikes the Sarphatistraat for some reason. It's a bike street: basically a gigantic bike path that also allows cars, but bikes have right of way. It's one of the most important bike thoroughfares in Amsterdam, so of course you should always take it. But for some reason, Google always prefers to send me along the Stadhouderskade, which is part of the centrumring for cars, one of the major car thoroughfares, parallel to the Sarphatistraat, and it does have a separate bike path, but you're still in car fumes. Also, it's slightly longer. There are plenty of other bike routes it doesn't know. I should really try to get used to using Organic Maps on my bike from now on. It's excellent on bike and pedestrian infrastructure, including hiking trails, things to see, etc. Many years ago when I first learned about OSM, I was amazed about the level of detail I got when I zoomed in on Artis, the Amsterdam Zoo. You don't get that kind of detail on Google Maps. I really should use it more.

BlackLotus89 3y ago

I often use my smartphone when driving somewhere by bike/scooter and for this only osmand is usable since background mode is not yet implemented https://github.com/organicmaps/organicmaps/pull/4611 https://github.com/organicmaps/organicmaps/pull/4611

redauburn 3y ago
Background mode will be in the next release :)

freyfogle 3y ago

Roman, one of the founders of Organic Maps, was recently interviewed on the Geomob podcast: https://thegeomob.com/podcast/episode-190 https://thegeomob.com/podcast/episode-190

DoingIsLearning 3y ago

Started using Organic Maps during the pandemic, this is the app that weaned me out of Google Maps. At the moment I only really use Google Maps to check opening times of certain shops. Also way better routing for cyclists than Google maps.

OfSanguineFire 3y ago
You can often find opening times of shops by searching for their own Facebook page instead of using Google Maps. Moreover, you can add business’ opening hours to OpenStreetMap so that other people in future will see the opening hours in Organic Maps and other OSM-based maps. For a programming-savvy crowd like HN, the syntax of OSM’s opening-hours tag is pretty straightforward.
- Vinnl 3y ago
  > you can add business’ opening hours to OpenStreetMap And by far the easiest way to do this, if you have an Android phone, is to use the beautiful StreetComplete app: https://github.com/streetcomplete/StreetComplete/#readme https://github.com/streetcomplete/StreetComplete/#readme
  - raybb 3y ago
    Street complete may be a bit more beginner friendly but if you just need to update hours or want to add details to several stores quickly everydoor is easier to me https://every-door.app/ https://every-door.app/
    - aembleton 3y ago
      Worth taking a look at Street Complete Extended Edition too: https://f-droid.org/packages/de.westnordost.streetcomplete.expert/ https://f-droid.org/packages/de.westnordost.streetcomplete.e...
  - emaro 3y ago
    You can do it directly in Organic Maps as well.

elcapitan 3y ago

Does this support custom map styles? OsmAnd has the option to create custom xml styles for certain use cases (which I find interesting for non-standard uses).

izacus 3y ago
Nope, it's meant to be simple to use not a kitchen sink app like OsmAnd.
- elcapitan 3y ago
  No need to be defensive, it's ok if it's less powerful, I just need to know what I get.

dzogchen 3y ago

Organic Maps is the best for biking and walking, Google Maps has left me hanging so many times there.

Freak_NL 3y ago
It depends on the area of course, but many hiking routes are indeed kept meticulously up to date in OpenStreetMap (and thus OrganicMaps). Sometimes even by the regional maintainer of those paths (like in Northern Italy). (That said, anyone hiking in the wild should always consider a paper map in addition to a digital one. Especially in mountainous terrain.)

jacooper 3y ago

Personally, I lost hope in finding any gmaps alternative. It's always either super out of date, or missing details and nice features like reviews, photos and advanced integrations like gmaps integration with public transport. That's without mentioning the clearly worse routing Algorithms. These issues mostly stem from a lack of data, but there are many related to the way the OSM project sees itself, and concepts like point of interest. Let's see what comes from the new big tech alliance against gmaps.

wooque 3y ago

My go to app for hiking and navigation on trails.

sv0la4 3y ago

[flagged]

123pie123 3y ago

fantastic app, I easily prefer it to OSMand thanks to all those involved on making a wonderful application

botanical 3y ago

I'm currently using Magic Earth, any major differences between the two? I realise this one's open source, but I really like Magic Earth's live traffic and recording.

jacekm 3y ago
If you're using maps primarily for driving I'd stick to Magic Earth.

narrowtux 3y ago

I still want some app that makes the awesome brouter algorithm usable on iOS. They have an android app which is "easy" to do since the routing module is written in Java, but alas, iOS doesn't support Java. IMO, brouter generates the best routes for bicycling with lots of options to customize for what kind of riding you want to do (road, trekking, gravel, recreational, commuting, safe and quiet vs. quick, etc.). Right now I use brouter-web on my iPhone but it's really hard to use since the UI is really small and it's very simple to accidentally place a waypoint. After that, I send the GPX file to my bike computer.

iagooar 3y ago

Besides hiking and biking, how good are the maps for 4x4 off-road driving?

ricardobayes 3y ago

It installed automatically on the external storage to save space! Finally someone thinks of the general population who doesn't buy the latest gadget just to keep up. A 3-4-5 year old smartphone should be perfectly adequate if devs actually thought of supporting the "normal phones".

hnarn 3y ago

I’ve used maps.me for years and years, I had no idea it had been forked by the original creators. I’ll definitely move over to using this instead.

l9i 3y ago

If you enjoy Organic Maps, please consider supporting them financially: https://organicmaps.app/donate/ https://organicmaps.app/donate/. Supporting their serving infrastructure for numerous users is surely costly.

matkoniecz 3y ago
Right now infrastructure appears to be donated, but donations increase how much effort developers can spend on it!

rob74 3y ago

I'm currently using OSMAnd, which is pretty powerful, but also feels a bit overloaded UI-wise - does anyone have any experience on how Organic Maps compares to it? Sounds like it could be a worthwile alternative. Especially the claim "go for a weeklong trip on a single battery charge" sounds interesting - I have the feeling that OSMAnd actually increases battery usage, because all rendering has to be done client-side, but of course it's probably possible to optimize this. Also, the free version of OSMAnd can only download a limited number of maps (split up by regions, which are sometimes a whole country, sometimes less) - I hope that the donation-based model works out and they will not be forced to do something similar.

orblivion 3y ago
Organic Maps is way less overloaded UI-wise. It's the go-to app for basic use as far as I'm concerned. I keep OSMAnd around just in case I need something more advanced.
Vinnl 3y ago
> I'm currently using OSMAnd, which is pretty powerful, but also feels a bit overloaded UI-wise - does anyone have any experience on how Organic Maps compares to it? It's less powerful, but not overloaded UI-wise. (Where "powerful" means things like travel guides and bus lines, but also things like being able to set up different profiles with the ability to customise the icon indicating your position per profile.)

itronitron 3y ago

Very cool, I was in a small metropolitan region recently and looking up directions to get places was absolutely killing my phone battery. Seems like the perfect use for this.

al_be_back 3y ago

looks great - the UI is simple/easy to use. I like the Compass Needle , it integrates well on the Map/tile as well as on Place Details popover (arrow top-right corner), so smart!

reify 3y ago

Great app. Being a non google user I have used Organic maps for years. I have tried all the open source others but they dont compete for me. I install E/OS and lineage with Organic maps on all my phones and on all phones my family use. Its because I am old that I continually get confused with (route to) and (route from) selection when working out my destination route. I always have to do it twice. There is a selection of voices but I only like one voice. I generally dont need a voice to direct me, I only need to have a quick glimpse at the screen every now and then I walk/ramble a lot and use .gpx files in organic maps for rambling routes. I also download .gpx files from rambling websites when looking for new rambling routes.

hkt 3y ago

I used this app to navigate around Italy on a cycling holiday. It was marvellous and I'd recommend it to anyone. Donated afterwards as a thank you for making such excellent software.

gorbypark 3y ago

I use Organic Maps for hiking specifically because it's not a "hiking app". There are way too many apps out there that expect you to just hike a trail that someone else has already hiked. Want to combine intersecting trails? You're out of luck. Want to use a trail you didn't explicitly pre-download without a data connection? You're out of luck But with Organic Maps, I find it has all the trails (at least on two separate one and a half month hiking trips in Andorra), and since they're all included with the base data, you can mix and match trails and do whatever you want. Pain points: The search isn't so great, there's a lack of names for trails and no real way to tell the "grade" of a trail. It could be a super easy walking path or some barely marked scramble. But overall I love it and it's way better than the commercial hiking offerings (WikiLoc, AllTrails, etc)

biodranik 3y ago
Please write us more details about search issues at support [at] organicmaps.app, or even better, create/update an issue on our Github: https://github.com/organicmaps/organicmaps/issues https://github.com/organicmaps/organicmaps/issues If trails have names in osm.org but names are not present in OM, please let us know, it's a bug.
- gorbypark 3y ago
  Will do! I am pretty sure the trails where I hike (mostly Andorra) are just not named is OSM. I thought about trying to update some myself, but there's a lot of overlapping trails, so it would be tough to get right. For example big stretches of the same trail might be both GR-7 and GR-11 and also a local Andorran trail number. I'd rather not do it than do it and get it wrong!
ijustlovemath 3y ago
You can tell the grade of a trail by doing Route To / Route From and selecting the walking option. After computing the route it shows you a fairly accurate elevation profile, as well as the length and total elevation gains/losses. If you're using imperial units, you can also quickly estimate difficulty by doing the following: - take the total elevation change, in hundreds of feet, eg 900ft = 9 * 100ft - take the total distance, in tenths of a mile, eg 2.1 mi = 21 * .1 mi - divide the elevation by the length and convert to a percentage: 9/21 ~ 43% - grades are like so: 0-40%: relatively easy 40-70%: moderately big elevation, may be hard to sustain 70-100%: steep terrain, may involve some scrambling >100%: very steep, technical terrain. Sometimes involves ladders or a static line in particularly steep sections For example, there's a pretty lengthy trail near me called Shining Creek, that's very sustained, but I wouldn't call it steep. It's got 2300ft of elevation change over 3.9mi, which corresponds to a 58% steepness, aka the upper end of a moderately difficulty hike if sustained.

FrustratedMonky 3y ago

Been looking for a different map app like this, Thank You. All the others have turned into commercials, weighed down my ad's.

pete_3c1f 3y ago

I'm a bit disappointed by OSM and their map rendering and always wondered why there isn't a good Nav app using MapBox, like StreetComplete does for example. This is wonderful, thanks HN!

fredsmith219 3y ago

I really want to like it, but I can only figure out how to navigate to the street level. It doesn’t seem to route to a specific address.

pete_3c1f 3y ago
For my city this seems to work (Northern Germany)
redauburn 3y ago
this is usually due to a lack of data in OpenStreetMap, if you go to https://osm.org https://osm.org and check one of the addresses, is it there? the good thing about OpenStreetMap is that if something is missing, you can add it in 1 minute :)

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

thom 3y ago

I bought this app when it was maps.me out of a weird prepper urge to have more offline stuff on my phone (shout out to Kiwix for offline Wikipedia, and modern phones for having terabytes of storage). But then I grew to absolutely love it, the coverage of walking routes is amazing, it works for car journeys in low coverage areas, and often has archaeological points of interest that I wouldn't see in other maps apps.

speg 3y ago

Been using this since last time it was posted on HN. Great little app that complements Apple Maps with offline mode and random stuff like water fountains. Only thing I would want them to improve is the color scheme when used with CarPlay, I don’t know why but one of the day/night color schemes is almost impossible to read.

LifeDesigner 3y ago

Hey guys! So happy to vote for Organic Maps. As a part of the team (when it was MAPS.ME) I'm very happy to see new life of MAPS.ME in Organic Maps. Good luck and all the best for you guys! Use your product with a pleasure. Alex Matveenko

sva_ 3y ago

Very fast and responsive compared to OsmAnd. Would really benefit from having Terrain maps for the mountains though.

davelondon 3y ago

My friend is a heavy iOS maps.me user, and has hundreds of bookmarks all over the world. She isn't a fan of the new maps.me, and would love to use Organic Maps. I've tested the import / export function, and it looks like we can transfer all her bookmarks over and preserve the colour information... The only thing we're missing is an auto-backup function to store the bookmarks online. She's not a techie, so it has to be free from settings and automatically enabled. As soon as that feature is added you'll have another user!

mothsonasloth 3y ago

Bookmarked. Definitely will use this for the Mongol Rally next year

curionymous 3y ago

I've used organicmaps for a while. but it needs a way to sync bookmarks. I bookmark places like a good restaurant, parking places, fuel stations, stores, roadside attractions to places I've been to. But without a cloud sync(preferably self-hosted nextcloud), I always fear I'm going to lose my bookmarks. There was another open-source maps.me fork before Organic maps and it lost maps/bookmarks with certain updates and became abandoned.[1] With file access limitation with recent android versions, I can't just use foldersync or syncthing on the bookmarks. [1]https://gitlab.com/axet/omim/-/issues/168 https://gitlab.com/axet/omim/-/issues/168

Madeyro 3y ago

How doeas rhis compare to mapy.cz?

michaelmior 3y ago

> Organic Maps doesn't request excessive permissions to spy on you To be fair, the requesting of these permissions doesn't mean the other app highlighted is "spying on you." Some of those permissions are required for certain features. Not everyone will be comfortable with that, and that's ok. But I think it's unfair to suggest that the intention is spying.

F30 3y ago
In this particular case I read the statement as a dig at maps.me (the app they forked from). On iOS, maps.me would always continue accessing my location in the background unless force-quit, even if nothing was actually happening in the background. I might be wrong of course, the statement could have a different background and maps.me's behavior could be an honest bug.

mezod 3y ago

Looked awesome until I saw there's no satellite imagery, I cannot get lost in the middle of the mountains with so little reference points :(

koziserek 3y ago

Fantastic app. To reach perfection for me, it would need: - to allow storing my POIs in some sync-able location (e.g. Nextcloud folder) - to improve rendering and reach same level of beauty as mapy.cz / Windy has...

threemux 3y ago

A fantastic app that has saved me a few times when I didn't have service. I know they're actively working on Android Auto support and I'm eagerly awaiting it!

euroderf 3y ago

Is there someway to lock North so that it doesn't try to keep rotating so "helpfully" ?

1970-01-01 3y ago

I've been looking something like this for many years. I installed it and it works as described. Old Androids and iPhones sitting in my drawer can now be permanently left in my old vehicles as an emergency backup GPS.

marbartolome 3y ago

One thing I find missing from most alternative map apps is satellite view - I find it very useful for orienting myself and for "exploration". OSM supports microsoft satellite maps as a layer - any way to add it to organic maps too? I do like the simpler interface.

gerry_shaw 3y ago

patchtopic 3y ago

organic maps is great but it does not have street numbers. I know this is a limit of the underlying OSM data it uses.

methou 3y ago

This is so nice! I checked out the map, works great even outside of the US/EU. I checked my favorite local food chain, routes are very good. I found one missing, followed the lead to OSM and updated the venue data. Things gets interesting when you can edit the data behind the scenes! Kudos to people behind both projects!

evantbyrne 3y ago

The critical issue I've always had with OSM-based map apps has been stale data. If I were to update something on OSM, then how long could I reasonably expect it to take for that change to make it onto my phone with Organic Maps? And would it happen automatically in the background while I'm on WiFi, or would I have to do something manually?

SushiHippie 3y ago
If you change something on OSM it takes a few minutes to a day to be visible on the *online* map. And in their faq they state, that they update their maps 1-4 times per month. Automatic updates are planned https://github.com/organicmaps/organicmaps/issues/5679 https://github.com/organicmaps/organicmaps/issues/5679
- evantbyrne 3y ago
  Yeah, such massive delays will be the one thing preventing me from using Organic Maps. OSM being community-editable is where these map apps get most of their value. Letting the data go that stale defeats the purpose. Thanks for the link I'll keep an eye on that issue.
  - eisa01 3y ago
    I don't think monthly updates is letting the data go stale, and there's a bandwidth cost of updating e.g., every day. Maybe they would update more often if they got more donations ;) Google often takes longer than that to process edits...
    - evantbyrne 3y ago
      A month+ is incredibly stale. OSM releases full dumps on a weekly basis for free, so cost is not a reasonable excuse. It is also not normal for updates to Google Maps from business owners to take that long. I have on multiple recent occasions seen businesses push update same day in my small city. It's a shame they went through the trouble of rebranding without addressing users' most common complaint, which is that data is oftentimes wrong. Keeping it up-to-date with OSM and pushing people to contribute would help significantly.

LispSporks22 3y ago

Is this one good for motorcycle?

2143 3y ago

Great app, I like it, but I did notice some problems: My city is comprised of several islands, and there's relatively large bodies of water between them (over 100 metres), but this map shows those large water bodies as narrow (1 or 2 metre) river-like things. I understand this might be the problem of the underlying data source, and not the app itself. (For what it's worth, both Google and Apple maps correctly displays the islands and water bodies).

orblivion 3y ago
Check if it looks the same on openstreetmap.org
- 2143 3y ago
  openstreetmap.org correctly displays the islands and the relative distances between them!
  - orblivion 3y ago
    Sounds like a bug in the app then. Though, OSM apps have their choice on how to interpret the underlying data, so it could be based on a deliberate decision. May be worth reporting if you don't mind revealing your town on their github.
  - orblivion 3y ago
    Alternate thought just came to mind - is your map data on OrganicMaps up-to-date?
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
    - 2143 3y ago
      I hope so. I first heard about it (from this very post on HN), downloaded, and installed the app all within the past 1 hour. And when I zoomed into my city, it downloaded the map information.

pseudoshikhar 3y ago

damn, I've been waiting for something like this for a long time.

kibwen 3y ago

I'm slowly de-googling due to the WEI debacle, and my resident OpenStreetMap evangelist recommended this as a Google Maps replacement. It obviously doesn't have all the features of Google Maps, but surprisingly there are several things that I feel it does better. For example, the transit overlay is much more visible and shows transfers between lines (although that's the only overlay it offers, no bike lane overlay sadly (although, honestly, GM's bike overlay isn't all that useful)). Searching is obviously instantaneous and shows all your hits, so I can search for "cafe" in my city and immediately get a map with pins for every single cafe, which can be overwhelming at large zoom levels but it's fine once you zoom into an area (and it's much less "mystery meat" than GM's approach of selectively only displaying a subset of your search results based on your zoom level, so I think it's a worthwhile tradeoff). And no ads, obviously. The biggest downside is that the search is basic, and searches the whole planet while only sporadically prioritizing results in your current area, or your current zoom, or your downloaded maps. If you have an address it doesn't matter, but if you don't have an address then you'll find yourself longing for the more intelligent search of Google Maps. But it's nice, and I'm using it more and more often by default over time. However, until search is improved, I don't think I'll be able to uninstall Google Maps entirely (although eventually maybe I'll just use it through mobile Firefox).

vladharbuz 3y ago

I would use Organic Maps if OSM supported entering UK postcodes in the search box. Can’t wait to stop using Google Maps.

aembleton 3y ago
Try mapy.cz app. You can use UK postcodes in there and it uses OSM data.

rcarmo 3y ago

I love this thing, it’s been tremendously useful in all kinds of situations, especially when offline.

lionkor 3y ago

Not affiliated with them, but I did find their incredible selection of donation options very interesting: https://organicmaps.app/donate/ https://organicmaps.app/donate/

sjkoelle 3y ago

mapsme had the conch in its hand

somewhat_drunk 3y ago

I've been using maps.me for a long time for offline map use while hiking and traveling off the grid, but recently switched to organic maps due to their superior interface. They both use openstreetmaps, which I have found to be outstanding. Even the most obscure trails and overgrown overlanding tracks are almost always on openstreetmaps. The file sizes are quite small, and being able to download specific areas, or states, or entire countries at a time is perfect. I prefer organic maps to alltrails, gaia maps, etc. It's become an indispensable tool for me while hiking and traveling.

yumraj 3y ago

Just tried it iOS. Maps look interesting. Tried to plan a route, couldn’t figure out how to see step by step directions in a list view which is supported by almost every map. Is that possible?

ospohngellert 3y ago

Downloaded the app, searched for mexican restaurants in my area and it missed a few. I tried searching for the restaurants specifically and they were in the DB and categorized as mexican. Any recommended way to accomplish this?

pwillia7 3y ago

Love it. thanks for making this. Feature Request: Add a Thrilling style mode for navigation so I can map fun drives without using a real computer. https://help.tomtom.com/hc/en-us/articles/10428741608466-Routing-modes-in-the-GO-Ride-app https://help.tomtom.com/hc/en-us/articles/10428741608466-Rou... Here is more information about the variables they use to figure out the most thrilling route -- https://developer.tomtom.com/blog/build-different/thrills-and-hills-tutorial-understanding-route-parameters-routing-api/ https://developer.tomtom.com/blog/build-different/thrills-an...

deleted 3y ago
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ihatehn 3y ago
One way I did this randomly the other day was choosing Bicycle or Walking mode which prioritize slow streets and pedestrian pathways. Maybe a different definition of thrilling than most people in cars, but I appreciate being taken into other areas of town I might not normally go since they're not major roads. OsmAnd also has many different navigation profile options, you might try customizing that to get what you want. Organic Maps focuses on what the bulk of people need to navigate decently, so that the end result is simple and usable for everyone even if it's not the most feature-packed.

SamuelAdams 3y ago

Just a reminder: Apple will (finally!) update Maps in iOS 17 with an offline mode. https://9to5mac.com/2023/06/07/ios-17-offline-maps-in-apple-maps/ https://9to5mac.com/2023/06/07/ios-17-offline-maps-in-apple-...

uhtred 3y ago

Is it better than OSMAnd? (I love OSMAnd)

rcMgD2BwE72F 3y ago
Simpler.

Borg3 3y ago

Anyone know how to upload maps files into app? I do NOT want to download maps from their servers. Is it possible?

fuddle 3y ago

I'm impressed normally free open source apps aren't great quality. This looks quite polished. I was trying to figure out what library it uses for map rendering. It seems like it uses a custom C++ code for map rendering?

kensai 3y ago

I would use in Europe Komoot. So amazing for hiking and cycling.

eh__dub 3y ago

Using OSM is not unique amongst mapping apps. Almost every company's mapping app is using OSM data in some way. The no ads bit is nice. I don't think I properly understand the "no tracking" claim. I don't want to be tracked by miscellaneous third parties, but designers and engineers should absolutely be instrumenting the app so they can understand user behavior via empirical means. I saw another comment mention they can update OSM via this app. That is def cool and I wish more apps supported that use case and educated users about it. The topo map leaves something to be desired. Once you go Gaia Topo, it's hard to look at other companies' topo maps.

janc_ 3y ago
Whenever a company is tracking such data, there is no way for users to know if collected data is used or sold for other purposes, now or in the future, so the default should always be to collect no data at all. If you want to run UI/UX tests/experiments on users, just ask them (and maybe offer incentives to participate?).

ryukoposting 3y ago

Wow, I had no idea this existed 10 minutes ago, and I'm already thinking about deleting my AllTrails account. I'm driving about 6 hours tonight and I think I'm going to give this thing a try. The UI is tremendous. Takes a while for it to make longer routes, but that could be my old phone's fault. One thing I don't like - it doesn't seem to be possible to save a route. You can save places, but not routes. Especially for hiking trips that have very particular manually-selected paths and/or lots of destinations, it would be nice to be able to save a route to a list, tap it, and have that route show up immediately instead of waiting for it to calculate.

lost_tourist 3y ago
before doing anything drastic, just add a 30 day calendar reminder to remove the account after you've used this new app for a while. That's how I always handle things that are hard to reverse.
- ryukoposting 3y ago
  Doesn't seem like Organic Maps requires an account, but this is excellent advice.

joshlemer 3y ago

This looks great! But it needs a bike route layer please!

dang 3y ago

Related: OrganicMaps is Android and iOS offline maps for travel without trackers or ads - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27576882 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27576882 - June 2021 (116 comments)

_AntonM_ 3y ago

It’s a great open-source with great team. If you want to improve/create some feature and have relevant experience - you can join.

rurp 3y ago

I love the offline focus of this app, but the one killer feature it lacks is the ability to download satellite maps. One of my most used and loved apps is a hiking app that supports saving different types of maps offline, and I use the satellite views quite a bit.

raylad 3y ago

Organic Maps has the best walking directions. It's always picking interesting routes and has never led me astray. Also, if you go in a different direction, it automatically remaps from where you are at the moment to where you told it you wanted to go, unlike Google maps and most others that I've used.

chaz6 3y ago

I am very happy that this exists, great job! Unfortunately there is one important feature missing for me. On Android I cannot change the storage location. Edit: I was mistaken, the option is not available while maps are downloading. It is perfect!

pSYoniK 3y ago

When I went full "no-google" on my smartphone I had to find a Google Maps alternative. Organic Maps filled the gap nicely and I've used it for personal navigation about 95% of the time since (2ish years now). The one thing that makes me pull up gmaps now is public transport routing in new cities where the information boards in bus/tram/metro stations doesnt help me figure out the routes. Also, for driving OM offers less hand-holding than GM so it took a while to get used to that, but it made me a better driver. I now use OM to get an idea of which way to go and thn rely on public signs to drive. It's been really amazing. OM also just wins hands down when I'm hiking and cycling. I've donatrd to the project each year but every once in a while I'm just so happy with itthat I feel bad for not being able to afford giving them more money.

joren 3y ago

By far the best app when abroad. Use it to plan a holiday with color coded bookmarks. Easy to plan hikes, runs etc. And all offline. Great to spot where you find drinking water, playgrounds, and all the other great details OSM provides. Started using it in Montenegro for driving as well since I didn’t want to pay a fortune for roaming and all other offline apps or even GPS device did not have the country available offline.

brailsafe 3y ago

Seems like a noble effort, and I'll keep it installed and in-mind, but I'm just about to head out on a rather well-tread trail that just happens to be quite long and segmented, and I can't make anything useful of the UI at all. Though I could piece together a custom trail I was satisfied with—after much irritation and rezooming—there was then no way to save it for later that I could see, and when I tried importing a KML or GPX it was rather clumsy; I eventually succeeded at displaying the route, and maybe that'll ckme in handy later today, but I ultimately just decided to use the AllTrails pro trial and hopefully remember to cancel in time. I can't mess around with iffy, unpredictable interfaces when I'm exhausted both physically and mentally and cell service is spotty at best. hwat would be awesome is to seriously iterate on the UI of the trail side of things, if the technical bits are in-place, because it seems like an otherwise commendable endeavor. It just feels very open-source, as in maybe it technically works, but I wouldn't put myself in a vulnerable position with it

itwillnotbeasy 3y ago

It has a cool feature on Android, when phone is locked, I only need to press the unlock button to see the map, phone doesn't ask for a password/fingerprint scan. This saves so much time when traveling on a bicycle because I don't like planning a detailed route, i just set a destination point, and ride in that direction, choosing the best scenic view. In that scenario, my phone mostly sits in my pocket, and I pull it out only when I get lost, but it saves so much time through the whole route. If I want to switch to another app, Android asks me to authenticate, I don't know why google maps doesn't work the same way.

dotluis 3y ago

Is there any way to disable the POIs on the map?

MagicMoonlight 3y ago

I really want a car navigation app that actually routes you correctly. Apps like Waze have fallen for the "AI" meme where they take a limited data set of people driving and extrapolate it. "It's 0.2 seconds quicker if you take a hard right across 4 lanes of traffic in rush hour" it thinks, so it takes you off the main road and onto a side street. You are then stuck there for 10 minutes because you can't turn right across 4 lanes of traffic in rush hour.

Zmicier42 3y ago

Height profile on the route is one of the most useful features of Organic maps for hiking. Have not seen such functionality in most of other maps apps.

quercusa 3y ago

Great for airline passengers! I saw this while preparing for the return leg of an airplane trip, so I downloaded the offline maps and was able to follow my flight via GPS - made things much more interesting.

anderiv 3y ago
If you’re on iOS, the University of Minnesota (USA) has release an purpose-built app for this sort of thing. I’ve enjoyed it on many flights: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/flyover-country/id1059886913 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/flyover-country/id1059886913
- quercusa 3y ago
  Thanks, I'll give it a shot.

leokennis 3y ago

If this app would support “streaming” maps it would be the best. I don’t need an entire region stored on my device just because I want to navigate to the closest supermarket while I’m there, and I also don’t want to wait for it to download 50MB of data on cellular just to navigate me a few streets.

yonatan8070 3y ago

It seems like a great app with a nice and fast UI, but it doesn't support public transport in my area, and seeing as my primary mode of transportation is public, it's not very useful to me. I hope a future update might add that functionality (bus, train, and light rail schedules, routes, and real time arrival data)

therealdrag0 3y ago

It’s honestly better for hiking than many hiking apps I have. (Comparing free for free)