I imagine certain features like Google Maps’ different busyness indicators might be missing because otherwise that would require telemetry?
openstreetmaps.org ecosystem
for navigation I use Organic Maps: https://f-droid.org/en/packages/app.organicmaps/
I like OsmAnd too, but it’s too much for most of my use cases. I still use it for recording trips.
I like OsmAnd as a client for using open street maps. I hadn’t heard of organic maps though which someone else mentioned- I’ll have to give it a try!
https://www.openstreetmap.org/
It’s the only one I know, I’ve also done mapping for them and updating several places around my home town.
I like Organic Maps. It uses the openstreetmap data.
Open Street Map is legitimate. In bicycling communities, Strava is the gold standard app for tracking rides, and it uses Open Street Maps on the backend. It’s always super accurate for me, even for fairly obscure bike trails off the beaten path.
I noticed allot of the trails in my area are mapped better than on Google.
My house doesn’t even exist on OpenStreetMap, so I don’t have much faith in it
Then you can map it and add it to the map with a free account and some “proof”, unlike Google Maps where the main road to my colleague and his four neighbours houses still isn’t on Google Maps after almost a year of reporting. The road is almost a year old but my colleague still can’t get deliveries to his house.
Try it out! The mapping community on OpenStreetMap is often very helpful and open to new people.
Open Street Maps. It has some gaps or missed addresses/neighborhoods/roads because it is built on contributions of volunteers.
Osmand with some of these custom maps that add address data to the normal maps. It works amazingly and is also entirely offline.
Why isn’t that address data included in OpenStreetMaps and/or OSMAnd by default?
good question :( why not upstream the data?
Oh my thank you so much, this and no trafic data are my main 2 pain points with this app, now it’s one less!
I’ve been using Osmand for years, it works fine here in Denmark. I just use the standard maps.
Offline functionality used to be very important to me, but not so much anymore. Still I’d hate my map to stop working, just because I don’t have good enough signal.
I find offline still very important. Great for travelling, mobile data, and reliability
But I also have a SD card full of music on my phone. And no cloud storage
I use OsmAnd~ it’s very nice ,and open source . Oh and if you use the F-droid version you got the pro feature .
OsmAnd is awesome, I use it especially for cycling. It has an awesome cycling/hiking route planner, and even the smallest forest paths are on the map!
I use Open Street Maps. There are multiple clients available, but the one I use is called OSMAnd+. It pretty much works just as well as Google Maps in my experience.
Magic Earth (not FOSS), such an underrated app
Organic Maps. It uses OpenStreetMap as a backend, plus it has hiking trails as well.
The FOSS ones suck in comparison honestly. There’s really just osmAnd that has a really ancient UI. As for other OSM(OpenStreetMaps), I find MAPS.ME to be the best, but it’s closed source with some crypto scam crap built in that you can’t disable.
I don’t really like OSM based maps because they miss tons of places where I’m at, when I specifically need building numbers and locations. Also the search on both apps is god awful and straight broken.
Google Maps is definitely miles ahead of the competition here. The other features like seeing how busy businesses are, reviews/images, menu and phone number/website. These are also icing on top of the cake that make it essential to have which none of the competition have, let alone any FOSS ones.
Honestly, OsmAnd doesn’t have that bad of an ui these days. I’m perfectly happy with it, most of the time. Definitely prefer it to Google Maps while cycling.
Organic Maps is a great open source replacement for MAPS.ME and osmAND, but also with the same disadvantage of not having good public transport options and needing to download offline maps beforehand. Magic Earth, while not FOSS, at least does show public transport times (in my country at least).
Address based search works, but the data is largely lacking.
You can help by adding building numbers from within Organ Maps (tap a building and, then “edit place”).
The underlying OSM dataset supports building number interpolation, so even a few accurate entries could be very helpful.
It really depends on where in the world. I’m in the Caribbean and Google maps is terrible here.
Even on the main road network there is places where a bridge is seen as an intersection on Google maps.
Open street maps is much better here.
The app I’m using for open street map is called Organic Maps.
Try OrganicMaps (https://organicmaps.app) on Android. It’s awesome!
Only thing I consistently don’t see well done are parks and other green spaces, where the boundaries are ill defined or missing. Other than that, also my mainstay
Try adjusting them on openstreetmap.org/edit, takes a few minutes at most
Magic Earth. I’ve tried every other major OSM google maps alternative and none have been as good as Magic Earth.
Osmand, Maps.me, Organic maps, and one other I can’t remember now, used them all. I still use Osmand because I’m trying to support the project, but Magic Earth by far has the best address searching, best UI, best directions, and limited but existing live traffic data to help you avoid really bad backups.
Now I’m in the USA, and some folks say some of these apps work better in Europe, that’s fair, but that’s still my point, Magic Earth. Not FOSS, but privacy respecting and uses OSM data. If you wanna break away from Google but aren’t willing to deal with a bunch of jank, Magic Earth is your friend.
They have maps with USA style addresses, updated monthly. They cover pretty much everything. So that would solve your address search Problem in OsmAnd.
There is also a google traffic overlay.
Oh dang, do you just download and import into OSMand?
Yes. In fact, when you open the file in a file manager, you can have OsmAnd automatically import it.
Just did it, I’ll test it out over the coming weeks and see how it works, thanks!
For walking nothing beats OpenStreetMap. Absolutely destroys Google maps as it knows all the footpaths and what is and isn’t walkable.
For driving I’m stuck with Google due to Android Auto.
For finding businesses etc Here is the best alternative but frankly Google is in a different league in this regard, nothing beats it.
If you want a good alternative for driving try out Magic Earth! Also uses openstreetmaps and has some Waze like features to report stuff
I am waiting for an android auto update where it has a mute button for navigation, if it had that I could live with all the inconveniences.
I am not using Android Auto, but cant you just change the voice volume to 0 in the app? Wont it carry over the settings to the car?
Sure but that is a lot more difficult to do when you forget and your a mile down the road and it’s illegal to use your phone while driving. I might use it for my normal drives that I just leave on for reporting and use gmaps for navigation until it’s added though.
Removed by mod
Almost all alternatives use OpenStreetMaps. I prefer Magic Earth but all of them are similar enough
The main issue is OSM. They lack many addresses (varies A LOT among different countries, some are fine) and POIs. Please consider contributing yourself, because it depends only on volunteers!
It is SUPER easy. Just download StreetComplete on Android to add multiple different info in a very easy way (or just house numbers which are the most important info) and EveryDoor for POI editing/deletion/addition in just a few clicks. And don’t worry if you don’t input something because you aren’t sure as long as what you enter is correct
interestingly in my region in germany osm is more reliable in regards of house numbers then google is
in some areas osm is insanely detailed, with trash cans, flower pots, and all kind of stuff. Nerds fucking rock.
Some basic information, including building numbers, can also be edited from within Organic Maps.
