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Organic Maps

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491–493 of 493 posts

Re: Organic Maps

#491
post #40

I genuinely want to know what lead Google to not support Maps offline properly. It’s truly staggering how, even when I do everything I can to say: save this journey, don’t delete the map around it, don’t delete the journey, just passively show me where I am next to it, it will gleefully delete everything. I once met their lead designer (who had just changed to work at another FAANG) and… boy was that not a conversati…

> I genuinely want to know what lead Google to not support Maps offline properly. Perhaps Google's mapping business isn't so much showing maps but helping local businesses get found, rated, reviewed... (restaurants,shops etc).

I would love to do that offline too. Just suggest any cafe every two hours of walking, or a gas station every two hours of driving and I’ll stop there and nowhere else.

Re: Organic Maps

#492
post #10
post #3

Organic Maps is less powerful than OSMAnd (on Android), but it's much more straightforward and easy to use. It's the go-to app I recommend to all casual map users that want offline maps.

In your opinion what is the most important feature missing in organic maps (compared to OSMAnd)?

- Good contour lines and hill shading! I live in Switzerland and it's considerably harder to understand the terrain without these features.

- Configurable POIs. In Organic Maps I can show POIs for a few common categories, but many are missing (for example EV charging stations). And I can only show one type of POI at once on the map. In OSMand, I can show POIs for "drinking water, EV charging stations and public bathrooms" at the same time.

- Track recording and especially live tracking (OSMand has a very nice plugin for that, which works with services like Traccar).

Re: Organic Maps

#493
post #490
post #283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple Maps in iOS 17 has good offline maps support: - Full searching and POI details including hours, etc. - Full routing (no traffic of course, but possibly expected traffic? I'm not sure) - Freeform region selection, overlapping regions, etc.

Apple Maos was only relevant in the Bay Area when they launched. They had no meaningful details elsewhere; they didn’t have most street, told you the Louvre was open on Tuesdays and closed the weekend… “embarrassing” would not cover it. They gradually increased the radius to bring hood and well documented in most of California, then some of the US coastline. I’m not sure where they are now, but I’d be surprised if th…

Yes, I'm aware that Apple Maps was very different 11 years ago when it launched. While it still has a lesser POI database than Google, I would say in the areas where it has launched its in-house maps (Currently 20% by area, 11% by population - primarily lacking South America, Asia, and Africa)

You'll be happy to know that the Louvre is now marked as closed on Tuesdays, has a 94% positive rating, and its own 3D model

In France, Apple Maps has

- country-wide bike routing (accounts for the size of road, elevation, and prefers bike lanes where present)

- trains and busses (I can't say with certainty that every local bus will be present but the trains are)

- Paris will have detailed bus and bike lane markings directly on the map

I've attached a screenshot of public transit navigation in the greater Paris region:

Apple Maps: https://i.imgur.com/9n61j0F.jpg

Google Maps: https://i.imgur.com/uHHkYVZ.jpg

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