I couldn’t make heads or tails of how to navigate with OSMAnd until thumbing through GitHub issues and finding out about https://opensupermaps.com/ which, after importing a few gigabytes of text files, allows general search of street addresses - not a great learning curve for adoption!
What I’d really like to do is copy the old school car GPS interface of, select state, select city, select street, house number, where at each stage it narrows down the list of possibilities so you only have to type 3 or 4 letters before auto completion. If there’s any pull request I would make it would be to build that out using the open super maps database
stevage · 31m ago
I use Osmand a lot. It work well, but I dearly wish they'd improve some UX issues.
I always seem to have the map telling me how far it is to some temporary marker I placed months ago that I can't easily work out how to remove.
Also any time I do navigation, the Trip Recording plugin pops up as a sticky system notification even when I haven't enabled trip recording.
But the offline navigation is a killer feature, and following custom GPX's.
Related but annoying question. What are you all using for public lands access and land ownership? This is a similar problem where the paid/closed apps (OnX et al) have very good data but serious issues for obvious reasons.
pavon · 41m ago
I have both OSMAnd and Organic Maps installed, but I usually end up reaching for OSMAnd. I like the softer color scheme of Organic Maps better, but not the decrease in detail. Neither are perfect about choosing when/where to draw street names, but I have to zoom/pan a lot more to find them in Organic Maps.
Also, the address search on OSMAnd used to be much worse than Organic Maps, but it has improved, and I actually prefer it over Organic Maps now.
NoboruWataya · 3h ago
It calls Organic Maps new (and the article is recent) but Organic Maps has been around for a while now?
FWIW I prefer Organic Maps for casual usage - I think OSMAnd is very featureful but the UI is less intuitive IMO.
jraph · 2h ago
It's been around for some time and is a fork of Maps.me, which was called MapWithMe before this.
dvdkon · 1h ago
Personally I've settled on OSMAnd, due to its extra features (e.g. hillshading and map configurable hiking trail display) and better (IMO) map styles. The Topo style is one of my favourite styles for hiking.
It has two downsides not mentioned in the article: OSMAnd's maps are noticeably larger, and the renderer is much slower.
risico · 2h ago
I've been trying really hard to get off Google Maps and almost managed to do it, but one thing that Google Maps offers and the others are not even close (at least for me) is discoverability.
For example if I am out riding some trails and then I want to pop out of the wilderness to grab a bite only Google has been able to provide good information of whats nearby (reviews help a lot as well).
Other than that I've been switching between OsmAnd and Gaia GPS (and Garmin built in device maps).
pferde · 2h ago
I guess that's country-specific. Over here, Google Maps has woefully outdated business info, apart from big names like McDonald or Starbucks. And I'm not even talking about building shapes, sidewalks, paths, or even roads.
Meanwhile in OSM, everything is much more detailed and kept up to date. I know, because I'm a mapper myself, and help keep it that way.
Google Maps seem like just another ad platform, for companies to pay if they want to be shown in higher zoom levels.
jraph · 3h ago
And now we have CoMaps [1], an Organic Maps fork.
I have both OSMAnd and CoMaps installed and started with OSMand, but I see myself reaching for CoMaps exclusively now.
I am sympathetic to the motivation for forking CoMaps, but their website, aside from a few vague statements, does not give me any reassurance that they are better governed. Who are these people (names)? How are they incorporated, and where? How are donations spent? How is the development direction decided? Until these points are clarified, I am hesitant to switch to CoMaps.
Disclaimer: I don't know anything about this other than having seen the above link mentioned in a comment elsewhere as to why people should switch to CoMaps.
orbital-decay · 1h ago
What I don't like in Organic (and by extension CoMaps) is curve and polygon rendering. If you put it side by side with OSMAnd, you can see how crude they look in Organic.
deepsun · 3h ago
One of the best map apps I saw is Mapy.com -- same OSM database, but works way smoother and looks better than OsmAnd. Less features, of course, but 99% of time I just need to see the map.
ximeng · 8m ago
They have a really nice feature I haven’t seen elsewhere to find a circular walking/cycling/ski route of a certain length. Useful to get ideas on where to go if you have some time for a walk or ride in an area you’re not entirely familiar with.
fisiu · 2h ago
It's better known as mapy.cz Indeed, works really well, I use it mostly when hiking or cycling, but it's also helpful when sightseeing. It provides all details from OSM tiles when needed.
vanous · 2h ago
Do note that mapy.cz is not open source and that they started moving more and more features into their subscription based paid offering... The beginning of enshittification.
timeon · 2h ago
Mapy are (that name is plural) cool but as I remember the app requires account.
charlie-83 · 2h ago
An important thing to mention is that OSMAnd has multiple (somewhat confusing) paid tiers.
Since its FOSS you can presumably just compile it yourself if you wanted to bypass the paywall (the ethics of this are left as an exercise for the reader). However, Android Auto support is behind the paywall and Android Auto only works with apps downloaded from the play store.
OSMAnd definitely has more features (especially with the paid tiers) but, personally, I just wanted to get from A to B and I actually struggled to work out how to do that in OSMAnd which didn't give me a great impression of it.
I have both installed since I can imagine OSMAnd being better if I was planning a hike or something, but for day to day navigation CoMaps (Organic Maps fork with better governance)
sorenjan · 2h ago
One killer feature in OSMAnd is the ability to add new maps layers. It's possible to find Strava's heatmaps as overlays (unofficially), which can be really helpful for instance.
Vinnl · 2h ago
> Since its FOSS you can presumably just compile it yourself if you wanted to bypass the paywall (the ethics of this are left as an exercise for the reader).
You don't even have to do it yourself - F-Droid does it too. (Which is why it's called OSMand~, as a nod to OSMand+.)
nine_k · 2h ago
I frankly don't see any trouble in paying for open-source software once. I see it as a way to support the development. I often buy "premium" versions even if they add nothing on top of the OSS version.
As of OSMAnd, $40 might look like a steep price even for a lifetime unlimited license, but they regularly run sales where the same costs $25.
jazzyjackson · 11m ago
I’m pretty sure I’ve spent more than $40 on paper road atlases, and last time I updated the offline maps on my Toyota it cost me a $220 for the SD card from OEM, so a lifetime license is a steal.
charles_f · 2h ago
I have used osmand for a long time, but one thing that really broke it for me is when Android removed the ability for apps to read other apps data, thus making it impossible to backup track records with folder sync
I think it can be fixed by configuring where to save these. But I find it interesting that one os change in the api can have a somewhat remote impact on feature use.
What I’d really like to do is copy the old school car GPS interface of, select state, select city, select street, house number, where at each stage it narrows down the list of possibilities so you only have to type 3 or 4 letters before auto completion. If there’s any pull request I would make it would be to build that out using the open super maps database
I always seem to have the map telling me how far it is to some temporary marker I placed months ago that I can't easily work out how to remove.
Also any time I do navigation, the Trip Recording plugin pops up as a sticky system notification even when I haven't enabled trip recording.
But the offline navigation is a killer feature, and following custom GPX's.
Vector tiles are generated and served on-demand by https://github.com/styluslabs/geodesk-tiles so there's no need to download an entire country or region first.
Is it just you building it, is there a business behind it?
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44994927
Also, the address search on OSMAnd used to be much worse than Organic Maps, but it has improved, and I actually prefer it over Organic Maps now.
FWIW I prefer Organic Maps for casual usage - I think OSMAnd is very featureful but the UI is less intuitive IMO.
It has two downsides not mentioned in the article: OSMAnd's maps are noticeably larger, and the renderer is much slower.
For example if I am out riding some trails and then I want to pop out of the wilderness to grab a bite only Google has been able to provide good information of whats nearby (reviews help a lot as well).
Other than that I've been switching between OsmAnd and Gaia GPS (and Garmin built in device maps).
Meanwhile in OSM, everything is much more detailed and kept up to date. I know, because I'm a mapper myself, and help keep it that way.
Google Maps seem like just another ad platform, for companies to pay if they want to be shown in higher zoom levels.
I have both OSMAnd and CoMaps installed and started with OSMand, but I see myself reaching for CoMaps exclusively now.
Both apps are very good.
[1] https://www.comaps.app/
Disclaimer: I don't know anything about this other than having seen the above link mentioned in a comment elsewhere as to why people should switch to CoMaps.
Since its FOSS you can presumably just compile it yourself if you wanted to bypass the paywall (the ethics of this are left as an exercise for the reader). However, Android Auto support is behind the paywall and Android Auto only works with apps downloaded from the play store.
OSMAnd definitely has more features (especially with the paid tiers) but, personally, I just wanted to get from A to B and I actually struggled to work out how to do that in OSMAnd which didn't give me a great impression of it.
I have both installed since I can imagine OSMAnd being better if I was planning a hike or something, but for day to day navigation CoMaps (Organic Maps fork with better governance)
You don't even have to do it yourself - F-Droid does it too. (Which is why it's called OSMand~, as a nod to OSMand+.)
As of OSMAnd, $40 might look like a steep price even for a lifetime unlimited license, but they regularly run sales where the same costs $25.
I think it can be fixed by configuring where to save these. But I find it interesting that one os change in the api can have a somewhat remote impact on feature use.