Are there any good google maps alternatives?
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I can never find anything on OSM based maps by themselves. My current method is to search via the Apple Maps web beta then use geoshare to copy the location to CoMaps for turn-by-turn. I have magic earth installed as a fallback if I have problems with comaps.
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Magic Earth is good but it's proprietary and some features require a subscription. I also vote for CoMaps.
I wonder how magic earth is doing the traffic information. Are they extracting it from Google maps?
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Paper map?
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Thanks for the recommendation for GMapsWV. I didn't know about that, and have always felt very uncomfortable when using Google Maps to find restaurants and such that aren't always listed in OSM.
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CoMaps, which uses OpenStreetMap. StreetComplete gamifies adding data to OpenStreetMap.
Sometimes Magic Earth.The only time i use google is when i want street view.
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I've tried several over the past few weeks. There aren't any that can even do the basic job of mapping from point a to b consistently for some reason. Mapquest came the closest, but 3 issues.
- It won't stay in landscape mode unless I put my tablet on Dex
- It often can't find addresses based on business names, and sometimes not at all.
- It doesn't have wide enough categories to find a good amount of places if you don't know the address or name of what you're wanting
I like the interface, it looks nice, but it's missing key map things, that should be the basics over things like a unicorn icon, which is cute, but useless.
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I can never find anything on OSM based maps by themselves. My current method is to search via the Apple Maps web beta then use geoshare to copy the location to CoMaps for turn-by-turn. I have magic earth installed as a fallback if I have problems with comaps.
Oh wow that's an excellent app, now I don't have to suffer when friends send me google links
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Cartes is probably the closest thing that I've found (besides Apple Maps or Bing Maps).
- You can share links with anyone, and they don't need a particular app to open it.
- The interface will be familiar to Google maps users.
- It supports leaving reviews for locations.
- It will pull up Wikipedia information and photos if any have been uploaded to Wikimedia or Panoramax.
- It's really good for public transit routing.
- It's okay for planning driving routes, but for turn by turn directions you'll want to use CoMaps (which Cartes has a link to open up the route there).
Looks great but the lack of mobile app is a deal breaker

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No. Most aren't able to do basic navigation to addresses of people. I'd like it to be different but for me CoMaps and the other ones aren't useful (yet)
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The foldable paper ones that you picked up at the gas station or tourist kiosk were the best and they were immune to name change updates.
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Thanks for the recommendation for GMapsWV. I didn't know about that, and have always felt very uncomfortable when using Google Maps to find restaurants and such that aren't always listed in OSM.
I had this talk with a friend the other week, but I can't recommend enough that if something OSM based isn't showing correctly, you can always add it in once you find the right answer. For example, if it doesn't have hours listed for a business, I'll go to their website and copy that data in, or if the address doesn't show up right, I'll edit the building with the correct address. I found the other day that the address for my apartment was listed over a garage up the street instead of my building and I just removed the one and added in the other.
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good or better then google maps, no, they're are a trillion $ company with major resoirces
I use OSMAnd+ its a little bit shit but ot gets me by. I also edit a little bit of Open Street maps in my area to help
This right here; if I can ever manage to get my transmission fixed, I can start recording my DoorDash trips, again. OSM is painfully lacking info in my city.
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for basic things openstreetmaps based ones (comaps organic maps), for anything else no.
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The foldable paper ones that you picked up at the gas station or tourist kiosk were the best and they were immune to name change updates.
They get outdated when names change, detours are required, anywhere they don't exist, lack public transit, don't have live traffic info, and don't even show you where you are.
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If you use live traffic re-checks, it pings google every few minutes, providing your updated position. And when it's off, I think it still sends Google your initial position and route? But I'm not sure that can be turned off completely.
Yeah, it pings Google for almost all of it. But for a quick "where is X store" and traffic if, for example, going to the airport and my wife made us late (it never happens, it's just an example
), I'm not too concerned. I have been using OSMAnd+ exclusively for a few years now, but this is something very useful for my needs.I'm guessing that, since I'm on GrapheneOS, there's not much, if anything at all, that they can tie to my person.

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They get outdated when names change, detours are required, anywhere they don't exist, lack public transit, don't have live traffic info, and don't even show you where you are.
Who cares? Most of that list is negligible and the rest is a specific real-time occurrence that may not even be updated in a timely manner on the tech side. The underlying geography and major routes don't change. Grab an old map and hit the road, you'll find it's mostly correct but you do need illumination if operating it in the dark.
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Contributing to OSM is the best way to give yourself and others freedom from Google. It's very easy to do through StreetComplete, which is a gamified system that updates the map as people complete quests.
My issue with OSM is that i need an account which may potentially contribute to leak my identity
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No. Most aren't able to do basic navigation to addresses of people. I'd like it to be different but for me CoMaps and the other ones aren't useful (yet)
Probably because the area youre in is not mapped out, however the routing engine is pretty much on par with the ones by Garmin and others
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