Organic Maps is the most private offline map app, it looks prettier than Google Maps and Apple Maps, it leverages data from openstreetmap that you can update easily compared to the competitors, it’s very battery efficient and the best of all its FOSS.
It seems to work well. I tried navigating today and it went fine, it’s just different from Google maps and it’ll take some getting used to.
The dark mode needs more contrast, the map is impossible to discern in the mash of Navy and black.
Dark mode really needs a bit of work for sure.
My main issue with organic maps is the lack of public transit routing. There seems to be a way to use GTFS - but you have to manually download the data and build the app…
Long term there might be a way - but unfortunately not ready yet
Edit: I found OsmAnd that has public transit routing 🙌
I just realized yesterday there’s a beta Linux version. It’s nowhere near as polished as the Android one, but it does seem to work. Hopefully that gets some love.
I removed Google maps and installed organic maps just last week!
I know it goes against privacy concerns, but I miss the traffic/congestion capabilities of Google maps. Sure, taking the interstate may be the fastest/most direct route normally, but today there’s an accident that’s blocking the two left lanes and everything is fucked.
You can use the app magic earth for driving which still way more private.
Does it offer alternative routes if there’s an accident/congestion?
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Can I talk to it while I’m driving?
Sure! Do you need it to react in any way at all?..
More seriously though, there’s a microphone button for the search box, which uses the Google Speech service on my phone. It doesn’t seem like it does a lot with speech though.
I’d love to use it but for some reason it can’t find my location. Other apps can though.
If you’re on android you may need to give it permission to access your location.
Still can’t find basic addresses. Useless.
You can contribute to OpenStreetMaps using apps like StreetComplete.
OSM search is actually really, really bad if you don’t use overpass. This has nothing to do with data quality. The default search just sucks. Organic Maps is no different here. You simply cannot throw a basic string search at a relational database and expect good results.
You simply cannot throw a basic string search at a relational database and expect good results.
True, would something like Elasticsearch work better? What is Overpass?
I have no clue about Elasticsearch, but Overpass is a very advanced search and filter interface for the OSM database
