6 ms·

CoMaps: The Offline App That Guided Rescuers Without a Signal in Venezuela

nkjvhb 1mo ago
CoMaps is the best. They recently integrated Panoramax into CoMaps, which gives street view in many locations.
- schubidubiduba 1mo ago
  Pretty sure the stretview part is still WIP
dariosalvi78 1mo ago
it's a great app, I use it whenever I have bad Internet coverage or when I want to use open street map, for example when hiking. It's really a competitor of commercial apps.
mixmastamyk 1mo ago
Recently noticed it is on flatpak as well, so can use from my tablet.
Mohamed_Mansour 1mo ago
Nice idea ♥
fluder 1mo ago
Its Organic Maps fork.
- matkoniecz 1mo ago
  which is a fork of MAPS.ME
nickspacek 1mo ago
I used this for my family's recent trip in Lisbon and Prague. It worked great! The OSM data was reasonably up-to-date for all of our destinations; I don't remember encountering bad information, even though I often double-checked with other mapping providers (which aren't immune to issues with out-of-date information). One awesome feature was being able to find "drinking water" while we were walking around. I did come across a tap that was shut off/unavailable, but only once. Again, this is more of an OSM data thing than CoMaps, but I generally found the app pleasant to use. There sometimes feels like there is something slightly off with the "Route To/From" UX that I can't put my finger on, but no complaints.
- goobatrooba 1mo ago
  Best ist you can directly report the broken tap from the app. So the dates will be fixed.
  - matkoniecz 1mo ago
    Even better is to edit directly at osm.org. Reporting from within CoMaps generates note that will sometimes wait years for verification.
- ihatehn 1mo ago
  We're working on the routing UI! It's a common hangup.
- Contortion 1mo ago
  The problem I have most of all with the routing is that it seems to default to my location as either the From or To value (whichever is the one I haven't selected). Once that's been chosen it's not immediately clear how to change it, all you can do is view the route. That's a fine solution when you're immediately looking to go somewhere, but it's not great when you're trying to plot a route between two places in advance. I've been using CoMaps for a few months and only just discovered that if you choose another location on the map once you've got an initial route and select Route To/From, it then updates the current routing.
zikduruqe 1mo ago
Even neater, I use CoMaps on my linux laptop, with a USB GPS receiver. It beats using IP based Geocoding.
- lucgommans 1mo ago
  Another alternative to geoIP could be WiFi-based location detection (comparing which WiFis are near you to a database). https://beacondb.net https://beacondb.net aims to replace Mozilla's shut-down location services, with public data releases once a proper anonymisation scheme has been figured out to avoid another Mozilla event. Google and Apple apparently also have usable back-ends: afaik it's not documented or meant for public use so ymmv, but the reverse engineered API is apparently super stable and not requiring any auth. In case you have a second device where you'd like location, or ever don't have the USB GNSS receiver on you or something :)
  - zikduruqe 1mo ago
    Yep. When I was screwing around getting geoclue to play around with NMEA sentences, I ran across beacondb. I might replace geoclue's back end with it next time I feel like messing around.
- rambambram 1mo ago
  I'm a little confused. You mean for getting your own location, I guess?
  - zikduruqe 1mo ago
    Yes. Default location on your linux computer will use geoclue2, which will give you a location based on your IP address. My location is about 30 miles away since my IP is associated with Google Fiber. https://github.com/deepin-community/geoclue-2.0/blob/master/README.md https://github.com/deepin-community/geoclue-2.0/blob/master/... Using a cheap USB GPS receiver you can get to meters level resolution, could use it mobile as a navigation device, and NTP timing too if you want.
akeck 1mo ago
Pocket Earth Pro also provides off-line OSM maps. That's what I use. I'll check out CoMaps as well.
BlackRabbit1 1mo ago
I love it for hiking, walking in cities and driving a bicycle.
bluebarbet 1mo ago
A potted history of mobile OSM-based mapping. First there was Osmand. AKA OSMAnd or officially OsmAnd. It was was powerful but complicated. Normies had never heard of it and preferred Maps.me, a user-friendly alternative with an opaque business model. Then something at Maps.me turned sour and the more privacy-minded normies turned to Organic Maps. Then something at Organic Maps turned sour and some of them moved to CoMaps. During all this time (literally 15 years), Osmand improved steadily and became more powerful than ever. Even the UX got (a bit) better. It is by far the best mapping app, either FOSS or commercial. And yet somehow it continues to languish in relative obscurity.
- ihatehn 1mo ago
  We tell our users that OsmAnd is great if you want a mapping swiss army knife in your pocket: it does a little bit of everything, for power users. It has plugins and customizability. CoMaps' mission is to be an accessible usable privacy-first FOSS map app for the entire world (average people) and so we always have our eye on the typical expected user experience and what obstacles remain between them and uninstalling those non-FOSS privacy-invading apps, but we're not going down the rabbit hole of adding all sorts of niche powerful features: OsmAnd already does that very well, and the world doesn't need two OsmAnds.
  - gedankenstuecke 1mo ago
    100% agree - I think even some of the CoMaps contributors use OsmAnd for the rare specialist use cases. I know I do: CoMaps is my main map app that I use basically every day and works perfectly for all of my common/normal use cases. but once in a while I have a map/nav need beyond that and then OsmAnd's customizability is great!
  - andrewshadura 1mo ago
    Please please, fix the long-standing bug: make it possible to use the navigation in "north is always up" mode.
    - schubidubiduba 1mo ago
pietervdvn 1mo ago
OpenStreetMap is a great ecosystem - I'm a long term contributor. Some pointers: - CoMaps is a fork of Organic Maps, which forked long time ago from Maps.me - OsmAnd is similar. It has more features but is slower and clunkier - If you see errors/missing stuff on OpenStreetMap, fix them. You need a free account for this. There are various tools to help out, such as the editor on Osm.org. Beginner-friendly editors are https://MapComplete.org https://MapComplete.org (which has thematic maps; disclaimer: I'm the main dev) and https://streetcomplete.app https://streetcomplete.app
- jech 1mo ago
  > It has more features but is slower and clunkier Just to clarify: OsmAnd has more features, CoMaps and Organic Maps are much faster. (Aside: I'm using CoMaps myself. The main missing features are tracking (I use OpenTracks for that) and public transportation (I use a website for that). End of aside.)
  - ihatehn 1mo ago
    CoMaps lets you record a route, though it's somewhat limited
  - atkirtland 1mo ago
    What website do you use for public transportation?
    - lucgommans 1mo ago
      I was recently recommended https://api.transitous.org https://api.transitous.org (it's a webapp despite the domain). It can do things like "someone can pick me up on the far side and I don't mind walking 30 minutes at the start at 6 km/h, what's the optimal route to take?" Revolutionary! Finally I don't have to look on a map to find all stations in walking/cycling/driving distance and then route to/from every possible combination of start and end station manually to see what busses and trains run there. And repeat the process with each schedule change in each involved country. Every other transport app that I know of will try to keep you within a few hundred metres of a bus stop or train station at all times and say "there exists no route" before telling you to cycle 10 minutes or from which station you have the shortest remaining distance by taxi or whatever
legastenigga 1mo ago
[dead]
swasheck 1mo ago
after about 6 years of using OSMAnd, i’m pivoting to CoMaps for a hike through switzerland that i’m leaving for tonight. i don’t actually need all of the features of OSMAnd and just downloading maps costs a subscription now. id pay outright for it but i just can’t justify a subscription for how infrequently i use it
- andrewshadura 1mo ago
  Come on, OsmAnd's subscriptions are super cheap for the value you're getting.
  - swasheck 1mo ago
    maybe. i use it every other year though and otherwise simply don’t. i never said that it wasn’t super cheap, i just said it wasn’t cost-effective for my usage profile.
- gentile 1mo ago
  You can download Osmand~ from F-droid which doesn't limit downloads. Or you could even download the map from another provider like bbbike or geofabrik, use osmandmapcreator (needs java) to convert the pbf to obf and then import it into the phone.
NoboruWataya 1mo ago
I use this regularly when I go on long walks out of the city (including the couple of times I've done stretches of the Camino de Santiago). The offline map support and being able to load and display GPX tracks are really helpful there. Not only because you can sometimes find yourself with spotty reception in remote areas, but also because if you are out all day and your phone battery is not the best, you can just stick on airplane mode which massively saves on battery. CoMaps also makes it quite easy to edit information about businesses etc, so if you spot something that isn't right you can correct it right there. Also, for long walks/hikes, OSM is excellent. Most people tend think think of OSM as "Google Maps but worse" but IMO it is clearly superior for this use case (at least, for reasonably popular routes). It will display a lot of paths that Google Maps won't and also has far more granular detail, so you can use it to find nearby water fountains, picnic benches, even bins and so on.
- matkoniecz 1mo ago
  > OSM as "Google Maps but worse" but IMO it is clearly superior for this use case (at least, for reasonably popular routes). for less popular areas it may be worse, but Google Maps often will be degraded even more I have yet to find case where for hiking/cycling Google was better (I am kind of cheating as I edit on OpenStreetMap and fix problems if found)
  - prmoustache 1mo ago
    I've been visiting some parts that are new to me on a rental car and my partner used Google maps with android auto to set the routes. In a week gmaps tried to send me twice against traffic into one-way streets and once in one that didn't even exist
constantlm 1mo ago
maps.me was my goto for years, but that has since devolved into a mess with ads and upselling. I recently discovered CoMaps, and it is excellent for my needs.
aguacaterojo 1mo ago
I've been using its predecessor organic maps for years. Maps.me before it. Been great in the outback and rural areas. Seems like Comaps is the open fork https://openletter.earth/open-letter-to-organic-maps-shareholders-a0bf770c https://openletter.earth/open-letter-to-organic-maps-shareho...
r0xsh 1mo ago
Funny to see this app pop up on Hacker News. I recently started tinkering with CoMaps to make it more useful for bikepacking, since I do quite a bit of it. I don’t plan to turn this fork into a product, it’s mostly something I’m building for my own needs ; but I figured it might be interesting to share: https://github.com/r0xsh/CoBike https://github.com/r0xsh/CoBike
- dollop3041 1mo ago
  The surface feature is really a great add-on that is missing from the original app for bikepacking. Thank you for sharing this.
- TFNA 1mo ago
  As a fellow keen bikepacker (about six months a year), I prefer OSMAnd. More features relevant to our community, and you can install Brouter as a routing engine.
aorth 1mo ago
This is nice to see. I've been a long-time contributor to OpenStreetMap and a long-time user of applications in the ecosystem. I recently tried the CoMaps fork of Organic Maps and was surprised by a few quality of life improvements. For example, the one named in the article about being able to receive periodic map updates outside of the monthly application update cycle. Another subtle example is the color scheme in CoMaps being slightly more pleasant.
prios8 1mo ago
This is very cool and inspiring.
thoughtpeddler 1mo ago
I had a student in my class propose an "AI for emergency response" that leveraged local models. Not a far stretch from what we see here with CoMaps, plus a small Gemma or similar low-parameter model running on-device to help with anything required at the 'last-mile' (beyond just mapping/navigation) during an earthquake, fire, flood, etc.
ligarota 1mo ago
[dead]
seemaze 1mo ago
as an alternative, I’ve used the Guru Maps (formerly Gaia) offline downloadable vector maps for years with great success. https://gurumaps.app/ https://gurumaps.app/
artyomsv 1mo ago
Everybody here compares CoMaps with OsmAnd, but for me most interesting part of article is different. Their bottleneck was not rendering or routing, it was that every map update needed new app release, so it had to pass through app store review. They decoupled this, processing went from 10 days to about 3, now fresh data weekly for whole planet, and around 35 hours when emergency is declared. Very unglamorous engineering, and it is what actually made buildings traced in Tasking Manager reach people standing in the rubble. Also worth to say: you can help with this part from home. During activation the tracing is done from satellite imagery, local knowledge is not required.
_joel 1mo ago
I was the sysadmin for the original version of https://sahanafoundation.org/eden/ https://sahanafoundation.org/eden/ over a decade and a half ago (!), this would have been amazing as a component. Not sure how well my HTC desire or whatever was current would run it though.
maelito 1mo ago
Note that the OpenStreetMap international conference is taking place this weekend in Paris. Most of the project cited here will be presented. https://2026.stateofthemap.org/ https://2026.stateofthemap.org/
indianwashlets 1mo ago
KotMapps, the let-me-konstantly-fiddle-with-our-UI, by Kotstantin from a past bin.

CoMaps is the best. They recently integrated Panoramax into CoMaps, which gives street view in many locations.

schubidubiduba 1mo ago
Pretty sure the stretview part is still WIP

it's a great app, I use it whenever I have bad Internet coverage or when I want to use open street map, for example when hiking. It's really a competitor of commercial apps.

mixmastamyk 1mo ago

Recently noticed it is on flatpak as well, so can use from my tablet.

Mohamed_Mansour 1mo ago

Nice idea ♥

fluder 1mo ago

Its Organic Maps fork.

matkoniecz 1mo ago
which is a fork of MAPS.ME

nickspacek 1mo ago

I used this for my family's recent trip in Lisbon and Prague. It worked great! The OSM data was reasonably up-to-date for all of our destinations; I don't remember encountering bad information, even though I often double-checked with other mapping providers (which aren't immune to issues with out-of-date information). One awesome feature was being able to find "drinking water" while we were walking around. I did come across a tap that was shut off/unavailable, but only once. Again, this is more of an OSM data thing than CoMaps, but I generally found the app pleasant to use. There sometimes feels like there is something slightly off with the "Route To/From" UX that I can't put my finger on, but no complaints.

goobatrooba 1mo ago
Best ist you can directly report the broken tap from the app. So the dates will be fixed.
- matkoniecz 1mo ago
  Even better is to edit directly at osm.org. Reporting from within CoMaps generates note that will sometimes wait years for verification.
ihatehn 1mo ago
We're working on the routing UI! It's a common hangup.
Contortion 1mo ago
The problem I have most of all with the routing is that it seems to default to my location as either the From or To value (whichever is the one I haven't selected). Once that's been chosen it's not immediately clear how to change it, all you can do is view the route. That's a fine solution when you're immediately looking to go somewhere, but it's not great when you're trying to plot a route between two places in advance. I've been using CoMaps for a few months and only just discovered that if you choose another location on the map once you've got an initial route and select Route To/From, it then updates the current routing.

zikduruqe 1mo ago

Even neater, I use CoMaps on my linux laptop, with a USB GPS receiver. It beats using IP based Geocoding.

lucgommans 1mo ago
Another alternative to geoIP could be WiFi-based location detection (comparing which WiFis are near you to a database). https://beacondb.net https://beacondb.net aims to replace Mozilla's shut-down location services, with public data releases once a proper anonymisation scheme has been figured out to avoid another Mozilla event. Google and Apple apparently also have usable back-ends: afaik it's not documented or meant for public use so ymmv, but the reverse engineered API is apparently super stable and not requiring any auth. In case you have a second device where you'd like location, or ever don't have the USB GNSS receiver on you or something :)
- zikduruqe 1mo ago
  Yep. When I was screwing around getting geoclue to play around with NMEA sentences, I ran across beacondb. I might replace geoclue's back end with it next time I feel like messing around.
rambambram 1mo ago
I'm a little confused. You mean for getting your own location, I guess?
- zikduruqe 1mo ago
  Yes. Default location on your linux computer will use geoclue2, which will give you a location based on your IP address. My location is about 30 miles away since my IP is associated with Google Fiber. https://github.com/deepin-community/geoclue-2.0/blob/master/README.md https://github.com/deepin-community/geoclue-2.0/blob/master/... Using a cheap USB GPS receiver you can get to meters level resolution, could use it mobile as a navigation device, and NTP timing too if you want.

akeck 1mo ago

Pocket Earth Pro also provides off-line OSM maps. That's what I use. I'll check out CoMaps as well.

BlackRabbit1 1mo ago

I love it for hiking, walking in cities and driving a bicycle.

bluebarbet 1mo ago

A potted history of mobile OSM-based mapping. First there was Osmand. AKA OSMAnd or officially OsmAnd. It was was powerful but complicated. Normies had never heard of it and preferred Maps.me, a user-friendly alternative with an opaque business model. Then something at Maps.me turned sour and the more privacy-minded normies turned to Organic Maps. Then something at Organic Maps turned sour and some of them moved to CoMaps. During all this time (literally 15 years), Osmand improved steadily and became more powerful than ever. Even the UX got (a bit) better. It is by far the best mapping app, either FOSS or commercial. And yet somehow it continues to languish in relative obscurity.

ihatehn 1mo ago
We tell our users that OsmAnd is great if you want a mapping swiss army knife in your pocket: it does a little bit of everything, for power users. It has plugins and customizability. CoMaps' mission is to be an accessible usable privacy-first FOSS map app for the entire world (average people) and so we always have our eye on the typical expected user experience and what obstacles remain between them and uninstalling those non-FOSS privacy-invading apps, but we're not going down the rabbit hole of adding all sorts of niche powerful features: OsmAnd already does that very well, and the world doesn't need two OsmAnds.
- gedankenstuecke 1mo ago
  100% agree - I think even some of the CoMaps contributors use OsmAnd for the rare specialist use cases. I know I do: CoMaps is my main map app that I use basically every day and works perfectly for all of my common/normal use cases. but once in a while I have a map/nav need beyond that and then OsmAnd's customizability is great!
- andrewshadura 1mo ago
  Please please, fix the long-standing bug: make it possible to use the navigation in "north is always up" mode.
  - schubidubiduba 1mo ago

pietervdvn 1mo ago

OpenStreetMap is a great ecosystem - I'm a long term contributor. Some pointers: - CoMaps is a fork of Organic Maps, which forked long time ago from Maps.me - OsmAnd is similar. It has more features but is slower and clunkier - If you see errors/missing stuff on OpenStreetMap, fix them. You need a free account for this. There are various tools to help out, such as the editor on Osm.org. Beginner-friendly editors are https://MapComplete.org https://MapComplete.org (which has thematic maps; disclaimer: I'm the main dev) and https://streetcomplete.app https://streetcomplete.app

jech 1mo ago
> It has more features but is slower and clunkier Just to clarify: OsmAnd has more features, CoMaps and Organic Maps are much faster. (Aside: I'm using CoMaps myself. The main missing features are tracking (I use OpenTracks for that) and public transportation (I use a website for that). End of aside.)
- ihatehn 1mo ago
  CoMaps lets you record a route, though it's somewhat limited
- atkirtland 1mo ago
  What website do you use for public transportation?
  - lucgommans 1mo ago
    I was recently recommended https://api.transitous.org https://api.transitous.org (it's a webapp despite the domain). It can do things like "someone can pick me up on the far side and I don't mind walking 30 minutes at the start at 6 km/h, what's the optimal route to take?" Revolutionary! Finally I don't have to look on a map to find all stations in walking/cycling/driving distance and then route to/from every possible combination of start and end station manually to see what busses and trains run there. And repeat the process with each schedule change in each involved country. Every other transport app that I know of will try to keep you within a few hundred metres of a bus stop or train station at all times and say "there exists no route" before telling you to cycle 10 minutes or from which station you have the shortest remaining distance by taxi or whatever

legastenigga 1mo ago

[dead]

swasheck 1mo ago

after about 6 years of using OSMAnd, i’m pivoting to CoMaps for a hike through switzerland that i’m leaving for tonight. i don’t actually need all of the features of OSMAnd and just downloading maps costs a subscription now. id pay outright for it but i just can’t justify a subscription for how infrequently i use it

andrewshadura 1mo ago
Come on, OsmAnd's subscriptions are super cheap for the value you're getting.
- swasheck 1mo ago
  maybe. i use it every other year though and otherwise simply don’t. i never said that it wasn’t super cheap, i just said it wasn’t cost-effective for my usage profile.
gentile 1mo ago
You can download Osmand~ from F-droid which doesn't limit downloads. Or you could even download the map from another provider like bbbike or geofabrik, use osmandmapcreator (needs java) to convert the pbf to obf and then import it into the phone.

NoboruWataya 1mo ago

I use this regularly when I go on long walks out of the city (including the couple of times I've done stretches of the Camino de Santiago). The offline map support and being able to load and display GPX tracks are really helpful there. Not only because you can sometimes find yourself with spotty reception in remote areas, but also because if you are out all day and your phone battery is not the best, you can just stick on airplane mode which massively saves on battery. CoMaps also makes it quite easy to edit information about businesses etc, so if you spot something that isn't right you can correct it right there. Also, for long walks/hikes, OSM is excellent. Most people tend think think of OSM as "Google Maps but worse" but IMO it is clearly superior for this use case (at least, for reasonably popular routes). It will display a lot of paths that Google Maps won't and also has far more granular detail, so you can use it to find nearby water fountains, picnic benches, even bins and so on.

matkoniecz 1mo ago
> OSM as "Google Maps but worse" but IMO it is clearly superior for this use case (at least, for reasonably popular routes). for less popular areas it may be worse, but Google Maps often will be degraded even more I have yet to find case where for hiking/cycling Google was better (I am kind of cheating as I edit on OpenStreetMap and fix problems if found)
- prmoustache 1mo ago
  I've been visiting some parts that are new to me on a rental car and my partner used Google maps with android auto to set the routes. In a week gmaps tried to send me twice against traffic into one-way streets and once in one that didn't even exist

constantlm 1mo ago

maps.me was my goto for years, but that has since devolved into a mess with ads and upselling. I recently discovered CoMaps, and it is excellent for my needs.

aguacaterojo 1mo ago

I've been using its predecessor organic maps for years. Maps.me before it. Been great in the outback and rural areas. Seems like Comaps is the open fork https://openletter.earth/open-letter-to-organic-maps-shareholders-a0bf770c https://openletter.earth/open-letter-to-organic-maps-shareho...

r0xsh 1mo ago

Funny to see this app pop up on Hacker News. I recently started tinkering with CoMaps to make it more useful for bikepacking, since I do quite a bit of it. I don’t plan to turn this fork into a product, it’s mostly something I’m building for my own needs ; but I figured it might be interesting to share: https://github.com/r0xsh/CoBike https://github.com/r0xsh/CoBike

dollop3041 1mo ago
The surface feature is really a great add-on that is missing from the original app for bikepacking. Thank you for sharing this.
TFNA 1mo ago
As a fellow keen bikepacker (about six months a year), I prefer OSMAnd. More features relevant to our community, and you can install Brouter as a routing engine.

aorth 1mo ago

This is nice to see. I've been a long-time contributor to OpenStreetMap and a long-time user of applications in the ecosystem. I recently tried the CoMaps fork of Organic Maps and was surprised by a few quality of life improvements. For example, the one named in the article about being able to receive periodic map updates outside of the monthly application update cycle. Another subtle example is the color scheme in CoMaps being slightly more pleasant.

prios8 1mo ago

This is very cool and inspiring.

thoughtpeddler 1mo ago

I had a student in my class propose an "AI for emergency response" that leveraged local models. Not a far stretch from what we see here with CoMaps, plus a small Gemma or similar low-parameter model running on-device to help with anything required at the 'last-mile' (beyond just mapping/navigation) during an earthquake, fire, flood, etc.

ligarota 1mo ago

[dead]

seemaze 1mo ago

as an alternative, I’ve used the Guru Maps (formerly Gaia) offline downloadable vector maps for years with great success. https://gurumaps.app/ https://gurumaps.app/

artyomsv 1mo ago

Everybody here compares CoMaps with OsmAnd, but for me most interesting part of article is different. Their bottleneck was not rendering or routing, it was that every map update needed new app release, so it had to pass through app store review. They decoupled this, processing went from 10 days to about 3, now fresh data weekly for whole planet, and around 35 hours when emergency is declared. Very unglamorous engineering, and it is what actually made buildings traced in Tasking Manager reach people standing in the rubble. Also worth to say: you can help with this part from home. During activation the tracing is done from satellite imagery, local knowledge is not required.

_joel 1mo ago

I was the sysadmin for the original version of https://sahanafoundation.org/eden/ https://sahanafoundation.org/eden/ over a decade and a half ago (!), this would have been amazing as a component. Not sure how well my HTC desire or whatever was current would run it though.

maelito 1mo ago

Note that the OpenStreetMap international conference is taking place this weekend in Paris. Most of the project cited here will be presented. https://2026.stateofthemap.org/ https://2026.stateofthemap.org/

indianwashlets 1mo ago

KotMapps, the let-me-konstantly-fiddle-with-our-UI, by Kotstantin from a past bin.