I bet Google sees this as a bug, and this as a report ;)
Download offline maps in the Google Maps app without signing in
11–20 of 29 posts
Re: Download offline maps in the Google Maps app without signing in
#12I bet Google sees this as a bug, and this as a report ;)
this is one reason I don't reveal such tricks online. if only GOOG engineers would play cool and let us enjoy nice things.
PS: Same thing with YouTube and tricks that bring back the dislike count. Don't reveal them...
Re: Download offline maps in the Google Maps app without signing in
#13Pro tip to make it even easier: just type "ok maps" into the search bar of Google Maps, crop to fit the view and press download :)
Great tip! Never knew this. Thank you!!
Re: Download offline maps in the Google Maps app without signing in
#14I recommend OSMAnd: https://f-droid.org/packages/net.osmand.plus/
Or Organic Maps: https://organicmaps.app/
Re: Download offline maps in the Google Maps app without signing in
#15Very cool! However, I would like something similar without Google or Apple or Microsoft ever knowing what I downloaded. Is there a privacy-respecting mapping app that supports ahead-of-time downloading of map data that actually works well?
Re: Download offline maps in the Google Maps app without signing in
#16Very cool! However, I would like something similar without Google or Apple or Microsoft ever knowing what I downloaded. Is there a privacy-respecting mapping app that supports ahead-of-time downloading of map data that actually works well?
Here maps is run by a consortium of european car manufacturers. They let you download entire countries even.
IIRC they have their roots in navteq, which was acquired by nokia in their heyday. They have really good level of detail in my corner of the world in the middle-east, FWIW.
Re: Download offline maps in the Google Maps app without signing in
#17Googles offline maps have odd pseudo-DRM...
The file is encrypted, and the encryption key is buried in the app. The downloaded files also have expiration dates beyond which the pseudo-drm refuses to show that map data.
I really don't know why they went to such efforts to protect their map data, considering it's easy enough to dump the vector data from the web version as it's sent to the GPU for rendering.
The whole setup smells of being driven by legal rather than technical requirements.
Re: Download offline maps in the Google Maps app without signing in
#18I recommend OSMAnd: https://f-droid.org/packages/net.osmand.plus/ Or Organic Maps: https://organicmaps.app/
The problem with OSMAnd is the search feature is really bad and they are missing most addresses in many states (like Georgia)... I still use it instead of Google Maps but I often have to convert addresses to Lon-Lat using a 3rd party web service.
Re: Download offline maps in the Google Maps app without signing in
#19No post body was provided.
Re: Download offline maps in the Google Maps app without signing in
#20I recommend OSMAnd: https://f-droid.org/packages/net.osmand.plus/ Or Organic Maps: https://organicmaps.app/
The problem with OSMAnd is the search feature is really bad and they are missing most addresses in many states (like Georgia)... I still use it instead of Google Maps but I often have to convert addresses to Lon-Lat using a 3rd party web service.
I agree, search in OSMAnd is really bad. Organic Maps is a significant improvement in local search, but it doesn't have all the features that OSMAnd has. I use OSMAnd for mapping and Organic Maps for navigation and a Google Maps equivalent (in Germany Google Maps is trash and Organic Maps is much better).