I use Komoot for wild walking and biking, and it’s incredible. Hugely more accurate and reliable. Just wondering if there’s something like that for city and intercity travel. Thanks for suggestions!
As komoot is just using openstreetmap data + some magic i would look into that direction.
OsmAnd is good but quirky
OsmAnd is good if you know where you’re going, since you won’t get e.g. ratings on cafes or something like that, there is less algorithmic magic going on. But i for myself love the details that OSM brings and also like that it’s offline, just like thise tomtom navigation devices in the old days only using gps and therefor not relying on mobile data.
I also like OsmAnd+ and use it regularly. I’m just not happy with the user-interface. That could be easier to operate and more intuitive.
I have also noticed Google maps keeps getting worse…why
I suspect it’s probably the prelude to “Subscribe to Maps Pro for more accurate directions!!!”
is there any Google product that is not getting worse though?
I would say Android is doing great ngl. As long as you have a clean rom and not some samsung shit over it or whatever
In some way, yes. Personally I like the Material You design, but it became worse in other areas tho. Google slowly pulls a bunch of functionality out of the AOSP codebase, which is a total L move.
Samsung’s One UI is great.
Ui is pretty good, bloatware is pretty bad. Not obtrusive exactly, but invasive and not useful.
I hear people saying this but they never say why. I use it to navigate almost every day and the directions are always accurate. It will also warn me about speed traps and route me around traffic. It tells me if a business will be closed when I arrive. It tells me when a business is the most busy.
The only thing I don’t like is the new colors but that’s nitpicking.
To me this “Google Maps keeps getting worse” has the distinct whiff of “Onyxia deep breathes more” after every patch.
Since you’re talking about city travel, do you care about traffic? That has been my main issue with any alternatives.
- Osmand: solid overall, you do need to buy Osmand+ in the play store if you need Android Auto functionality though (the f-droid version does not work with AA). But no traffic data so you’ll get the best route if there was no traffic. Another quirk is that you need to download the region you’re navigating in - you can view maps online but can’t navigate without the downloaded maps. And downloads are large chunks - it is by country or state/province so you’re likely using a lot of storage that you don’t need.
- OrganicMaps: a cleaner interface than Osmand while using the same map data. No Android Auto support. It still needs to download maps but can auto download as you go and uses smaller chunks so you can download more locally.
- MapFactor: one of the early offline options on Android before Google Maps offered the option to download. It has traffic data but I’ve found routing to be mediocre. It’s also subscription based rather than a purchase.
Definitely for osmand+, I think this is one of the best opensource app on Android (and the fact being openstreetmap based is a definitive plus because you can correct the map for benefit of the community).
Magic Earth is really nice as well.
Didn’t knew this one, still a fan of osmand but why not give a try
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In the motorcycle world we love Kurviger and DMD2 (this one can be used as a launcher), you can also get OSMAnd~ on fdroid and for walking/biking there’s Trailforks (mountain bike) and I used to use Viewranger to track my hikes.
Also there’s the Garmin series of apps, I think you can use them directly on your phone but I’m not 100% on that…
Edit: Don’t forget one caveat! Map quality isn’t the same! Maps sourced from OSM might be more precise for off road stuff in busy locations but in general Google maps will be more precise for city streets if you’re looking for an address.
Maps sourced from OSM might be more precise for off road stuff in busy locations but in general Google maps will be more precise for city streets if you’re looking for an address.
The quality of OSM data really just depends on how many people are interested in mapping the area. Look at German cities for example and the data is excellent.
I’ve used Komoot and Google Maps and my experience is the exact opposite. Komoot is buggy, freezes and crashes all the time and has crappy UX. Google Maps just works. What problems do you have with Google Maps?
Agreed about the UX for Komoot, it needs work. But I’ve been on multiple, multiple-day trips with it and it’s never crashed once. The accuracy is down to a metre too
I hear a lot of people praise Organic Maps but I haven’t tried it personally.
Would you be able to let us know how Google Maps is getting worse?
Took me the wrong direction multiple times, wrong entrances three times, twice tried to send me the wrong way up a one way. Every time you stop, and put in a new destination, it assumes you’ve turned round 180° and gives you wrong directions to start with, then takes 30 seconds to correct itself. While walking, it constantly thinks you’re walking backwards. This is over the course of a 5 day trip
It’s fucking infuriating now!
Thanks for the suggestion, I’ll look it up!
You might need to calibrate the compass in your phone
Yeah I did that constantly, with the tip and tilt movement. Is there another way?
The spinning thing is the best you can hope for, but some phones just don’t have good compasses. Sometimes calibrating the compass and then using GPS to get the right heading will fix a phone’s sense of direction for a while, but if the phone keeps losing north, it’s possible you’ll need to recalibrate constantly.
Note that these sensors are affected by nearby magnetic metals, so if you have a metal phone case of some kind, or if you attach it to a metal steering handle, you may be messing up the readings that way. Electromagnetic fields (of, say, a high current wire) can also induce errors, though I’m not sure how you would accomplish such a field while using your phone for navigation.
Mine just recently embedded advertisements for businesses inside the map navigation screen itself, I just want to drive without seeing coupons for Firestone
Just a reminder that !askandroid@lemdro.id is the place for specific questions like these. Thanks!
Maps.me is pretty functional, powered by OpenStreetMaps, and has a not too expensive annual charge to remove ads. It allows one to store entire countries offline on your phone. Although it seems to be plugging some “pro” feature now so not sure if they’ve become enshittified. It also has an option to not use Play Services in settings.
Maps.me used to be open source, I believe the Foss continuation of the project is Organic Maps. Thats not necessarily relevant to OPs question, but it’s worth knowing about :)
Thanks for that! I actually hadn’t bothered checking in on the app’s lineage in a few years. One must apparently always stay vigilant anymore.
Happy I could help ☺️
Have good one!
How is maps getting worse? You don’t like the colours?
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For the last year (at least for me and people I know) Google Maps has been suggesting batshit insane alternate routes and then conninuously suggesting you turn around and take the already longer route.
I went on a road trip, it was not uncommon to see it suggest an alternate route with +2 or more hours. Then it would suggest you turn around and follow said route for 30 minutes (with the delay increasing as you drive further away from the alternate).
There’s something weird with gmaps but it still works. I wonder if its some kind of test to see if people will just blindly follow alternates for some goal of theirs.
You may want to try going into Maps settings->Navigation settings and turn off “Prefer fuel-efficient routes” as it tries to pick poor routes to keep speed down to save gas, and it is enabled by default.
Their navigation was already mediocre at mapping successfully to a destination, now they’re trying to map down secondary roads they have even less knowledge about to pretend to be “green” annnd…stupidity ensues.
I’m looking to replace it because of the ads.
The colors are objectively worse. Nighttime navigation contrast is zero. Even the bloody text is hard to read.
I’ve missed turns because the chosen route and other roads are indistinguishable. I should be focused on driving, not squinting try to read their shitty gray-on-slightly-different-gray text.
Someone is going to die in a crash because they didn’t test a fucking theme.
As someone using maps only for cycling and walking. I mainly use mapy.cz, they work well in Czech but can be clunky in other parts of world but EU should be ok. They have incomplete car navigation, it is getting there more of my friends use it now.
Othervise I try OsmAnd+ and Organic maps (osm clients) and it is good but mapy.cz are better in most cases.
Could try magic earth
My only problem with magic earth is there is no easy access mute button on Android auto and apparently they can’t put buttons on the left side due to limitations of android auto, but like thats the best spot for them. Google maps also recently figured this out and started placing them on the left side.
Yeah they could do with better controls, realising you can’t mute speed camera alerts easily mid-drive is far from ideal.
Damn Google making usability only better for them lol Google maps is so hard for me to leave but I want to so bad.
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I just use HereWeGo or whatever it’s called - used to be Ovi maps. Not quite as good as it was but still way better than google.
I mostly use organic maps but I sometimes use OsmAnd.
Keep in mind both use Openstreetmap. You can contribute to the map with streetcomplete
I use organic maps, but mostly for cycling and walking. Mind that organic maps only works with offline maps (afaik), so if you are in an area that you havent downloaded the map for yet, you will need to download the entire map. Pluspoint to that is that you arent reliant on reception if you have the map
