I much prefer OsmAnd. Organic maps is too simplistic for my taste.
this post was submitted on 20 Dec 2024
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Privacy
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I didn't know the developers are Russian, just like OsmAnd.
Really love Organic Maps. I live in a semi-rural area, though, so the only issue I've had with it is getting it to recognize addresses. I can navigate "close enough" in most cases to get there. Solid project.
I recently switched from Google Maps to Apple Maps in an effort to de-google, but this seems like an even better alternative.
Does it work with CarPlay?
EDIT: It looks like it does.
I got mad at my iPhone yesterday because I asked Siri to navigate home using Apple Maps, and it said that I hadn't shared my location with Siri so that wasn't possible. No... I shared my location with Apple Maps, open the app and have it navigate home. If you're not going to allow me to use native iPhone features with Apple Maps, I'll just use something else.
as far as I'm concerned, apple maps is a lesser evil but you're still sending your data to one of the largest corporations in the world who are frantically trying to sell you something. only a matter of time you'll hear news of your data went somewhere you didn't expect.
Downloaded it. It's crazy how its not really that far behind gmaps.
I tried it last night and couldn't get it to find specific addresses, particularly in rural areas. Any tips you've found?
When I type in my home address, it lists it in a city that's three towns away from where it is. Maps it in the correct location though. My address is correct and in the correct town in OpenStreetMap. That's enough for me to not use Organic Maps. I don't want to guess what incorrect town to use if I type in an address to navigate to.
Edit: typo
I have had trouble with it finding addresses as well. I use Magic Earth for driving because it can actually find most all the locations I search for.
It's a lot better in cities obviously
I live in a relatively high tourist traffic beach town, just outside of a large city (~15 mins) and there was zero accurate POIs when I first moved here a few years back. I ended up mapping a lot of the high interest areas around here around 6 months or so back on street complete during my walks, but kinda burnt out on it.
I head about some mastodon or twitter page that post rural areas and a bunch of people mob on mapping them.
What they really should do is post towns like mine that are very very busy but are lacking up to date maps
I live in a shithole and had to add most POIs myself, but in tourist areas I've been to, the map quality is so good here. Even beach towns where 200-300 people live off season.
Weird, wonder why my area was so outdated
I live in a city and it didn't map out every address here, like my friend's address for example. But I feel its fine because that way everyone's privacy is maintained and if I want to share my location to anyone I can use those unique links associated to my place. Besides that it mapped almost all of the public places and even has navigation built into it(which I thought wouldn't be available).
These are my initial impressions. Let's see how it fares up as I keep using it.
I started using Organic Maps recently, it's incredible that so much of Google Maps can be done offline, and the maps are sooooo pretty. It was certainly something I didn't expect to find and was a pleasant surprise.
This looks like it has come a long way, but since this is a privacy community I have to ask: Realistically, whether you are on iOS or Android, isn’t it likely Google or Apple are still tracking your location much of the time directly from the OS?
Not if you're using a privacy focused OS
True; I think I used LineageOS or similar back when I was still in Android but if you’re not in the 0.01% who do have a custom Android OS installed it seems like a privacy focused map app is still of limited use potentially.
Like you noticed, this is a privacy community, so the percentage is much higher here. And there is value in offline maps even if we put privacy aside.
Is there also a privacy focused alternative to yelp? I’d like to know the ratings of a business before I start driving.
There are organizations that purport to be Yelp alternatives, such as Open Reviews Association, but I haven't seen anything with widespread integration or adoption. It's a cool idea nonetheless.
This is honestly the only thing I use gmaps for too. I feel like organic and other map apps are useful, but there are very few others for looking up restaurant/business info with the ease of gmaps
Is yelp even reliable? No bots?
Bots are not the problem, yelp's own business practices are.
Pretty sure they’re able to rank votes differently based on how sure they are a person is a person.
Well, recaptcha has trouble with this.
Pretty cool project I’d not heard of. Those offline gps nav permissions seem pretty excessive for a project claiming privacy focus.
Care to share what specifically worries you about an offline app utilizing your gps nav data to feed you real time directions? Which permissions I mean. I have org maps but don’t use it too too often because it’s still a little unreliable for me. But I’d love to completely move to it
Camera, contacts, advertising ID, Google Play billing all seem excessive for offline use, particularly when the aren’t needed for online use. Access to turn WiFi off/on may be needed to go offline via the app, but that also means it can turn on WiFi while offline.
Storage makes sense, given it needs to download the maps for offline use, but the permissions seem to imply full access to all storage.
I’m going off of the screenshot at https://organicmaps.app/