I ask because I have tried both and neither consistently find destinations I need, and when they do, they don’t route me there in the fastest or most efficient way possible. My first experience with Organic Maps, for instance, tried to turn what was usually a 4 hour drive into a nearly 6 hour drive. I used Google Maps to get there instead.
Google Maps is still the best navigation I’ve used, followed closely by Magic Earth, which gets the job done but still isn’t all that great. I find myself resorting to Google Maps 9 times out of 10 because even Magic Earth will add 15-30 minutes to any trip. Even when I do use Magic Earth, I have to double-check it against Google’s navigation just to make sure I’m not wasting any extra time or gas money on the road.
Also, a little gripe with OSMAnd that probably isn’t too big of a deal, but OSMAnd can’t find anything unless I download my state map. It tells me “nothing found within 5 miles” and gives me the option to expand the radius. But at 10, 15, 20, all the way up to 50 miles, it won’t find I’m looking for. Like I said, not too big a deal since downloading the map of my state solves this issue, but it’s still inconvenient and kind of a waste of internal storage space given that other apps can navigate successfully using online maps.
I’m wondering how any of you get by using OSMAnd / Organic Maps as I’ve seen people post on Lemmy that they do. Am I just missing something? Or are these apps really as bad as I think they are?
Edit: I should specify that I use navigation mainly for driving and Olive in the US. Seems like people biking / hiking in the EU have a bit of an easier time with some of these apps
For me it’s at its best when using it offline and without decent phone signal. I mostly use it off the beaten track, cycling, hiking and when needing to understand the terrain. I wouldn’t use it as a substitute for Google maps or Waze though.
Same, would love to switch completely to an OSM based app. But my main use case currently is for hiking, the trails are usually better, and for situations where I have poor cell reception.
in France, we’ve been using it for years now and it works fine
its efficiency may depend on the number of volunteers that map a country and France seems to be in top 3. That may explain why it works here
I’ve used organic maps for a while but had a problem in a trip I had to arrive on time and there was a change in the road that wasn’t in open street maps that almost caused me losing a test I had so when I really need to make it I choose Waze lately. And I live in a big city where traffic info is a must so I’m using less of organic maps because of that…Waze gets me off heavy traffic while organic maps doesn’t show arriving time correctly so…great alternative but not that reliable about traffic info depending on your needs
Not great for car navigation, I use Osmand 100% for bike navigation and for hiking
I’ve had the exact same experience. The maps are great but the navigation (at least by car) is just not there yet. I’ve tried it a bunch of times and after getting sent off the highway and along dirt roads in the middle of nowhere for no apparent reason I gave up on it.
There are some options in the settings screen which allow you to avoid unpaved/4wd/toll roads when calculating nav routes. You can also specify your car’s dimension and weight to tune it even further.
Well this hasn’t happened to me yet. The lack of real time traffic warnings is a bit annoying tho.
I sometimes use mapy.cz. It’s Czech and proprietary, but works great, has good English interface, no ads, no account requirement (it tries to convince you to make an account, but I’ve been using it without acc for years), great navigation and route planning and sources data from OSM. It’s proprietary, but I like how they contribute a lot to OSM.
The reason you can’t find addresses is likely because the data is not added to the maps in your region. I have similar problems here, though my state got much detail from batch updates last year.
I found a resource that merges addresses into osmand maps monthly, for north america and beyond. Even better, it does so in a way that normal address layout for north Americans can be used when searching.
Here in north america, we search by typing “255 maple street, some town 01234”, while osmand expects something like " USA some town street 123".
You can download merged maps from opensupermaps.com, and find almost any address you seek, then you can navigate. Osmand is pretty good with directions, but sometimes messes up. Magic Earth is better at navigation, and has similar features to Waze. OSMAnd has much greater map detail, where people have uploaded it.
It just doesn’t have the data to find every place you want to find. Didn’t use it for driving directions, but walking directions in South Korea were excellent. Google doesn’t have them!
I often use maps.me in the UK, which sources the same mapset as OSMand, and it’s… Good? Very useful when you’re out of signal. The OSM dataset is about the best I know of for walking, even compared to Ordnance Survey, which many consider the best. I find their online maps, even on dedicated GPS devices, cluttered and not very zoomable. I’ve spent many hours adding to OSM over the years and it’s quite wonderful to see local features that I added popping up in all kinds of places - it’s amazing how many commercial mapping options source data from there.
I do agree that Google Maps is the best at routing, especially for traffic and re-routing options. I often have it on even for commutes and more than once it’s saved me getting stuck in bad traffic because a road was closed.
@eddie_of_ny MagicEarth is superior from my tests. Better in all regards in terms of navigation: from the UI to the maps, voices, detection of radar, heads up when you speed up too much. Overall I managed to switch to it after so many years of being unable to find a Google Maps alternative. But truth is if you want to find an exact place to go, and then maybe parking and what not, google maps is still far superior. Has a lot of info about a lot of places. But in terms of navigation MagicEarth is superior in my view.
I can confirm the experiences of the OP. As for OSMAnd, see my response to the post, which i am writing next.
Yes i love magic earth but almost non existence of traffic data makes it useless in big cities
Is Magic Earth for android only available through the play store?
Yes, Magic Earth is not Open Source
@uninvitedguest Unfortunately…
Agree Magicearth not so accurate on traffic info. But my biggest problem with Google is that it focuses so much on commercial info that takes most of the map’s real estate (shops, stores, malls, etc) ,which it’s not usually what I’m looking for, that it causes some kind of allergic reaction.
Magic is great, better than Google, for navigation and clarity in directions and graphically much more appropriate to driving.
Osmand works great for me, at least for bike navigation. Not driving yet so can’t comment on how good that aspect is. Google maps has a few paths & routes in my area (village) either unmapped or incorrectly mapped, and i’m not too fond of Google anyway.
Personally I was after offline maps for my device to begin with, so for my use case Osmand is absolutely amazing
I’m using organic maps almost every day
Usually if i’m not in a rush, and i’m not looking for a place that is definitely not on organic maps
And yes, hiking, long trips, organic map works really great
Also sometimes it’s possible to share a link from gmapsVW to organic, but it’s devastating to find out that this time it got the location wrong
Don’t own a car, for cycling ans walking in northern Europe it’s very good (except for the very occasional routing glitch).
I used it on a roadtrip around Utah. There aren’t too many options for roads in the southern part so as long as it takes me home it’s doing its job.
OSMAnd seems to work fine for me, but it has a bit of a tendency to prefer smaller roads over larger ones that are longer but still faster.
