8mo ago

Google removed Organic Maps from the Play Store

fosstodon.org

Organic Maps (@organicmaps@fosstodon.org)

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/18747630

OpenStreetMap community @lemmy.ml

randomaccount43543 @lemmy.world

8mo ago

Google removed Organic Maps from the Play Store

fosstodon.org /@organicmaps/112976308191001762

62 comments

It was shared on the fediverse 2 days ago. Now, we get this. I don't want to assume malice, but something seems fishy.
Fortunately, it's still available on fdroid. This is one of the reasons you should get your apps from fdroid instead of play store.
- Absolutely. Fdroid is awesome.
  I hate the fact that there's no simple, free, ad-free note-taking app either inbuilt or on the app store. Just something simple and local to take a quick shopping list or a name or something like that. Fdroid has me covered for that.
  
  I use obsidian works very well very simple and can be very complicated depending on what you want to do
  
  Use one of the markdown apps
  
  I just checked a couple of the editors I use, and this has been the only one that's offline first and no tracking - Markor:
  https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.gsantner.markor
  I haven't used it a lot but it's been fast and easy to use.
  
  Google Keep?
  
  ? Google has Keep. It's whacky but it definitely has one and I think it comes pre-installed with base Android.
  Haven't looked into good FOSS alternatives on F-Droid yet.
- This is one of the reasons you should get your apps from fdroid instead of play store.
  yes, but getting updates weeks later isn't for everyone.
  
  There's sometimes third party repos that are updated faster. Or you can use obtainium and get updates straight from github.
  
  Yeah, updates can be a tad slow. For fast moving apps like newpipe its understandable. For regular apps it should be fine.

That just convinced me to download and try it lol
- I've been using it for a good while and it's solid! I just wish I could integrate traffic updates, somehow
  
  Possibly the app you are looking for is Magic Earth. It uses OSM map data, but includes optional live traffic
  
  Where are the advertised bike & hiking paths? I know OSM has layers of varying quality for that but I can't seem to find it in this app.
- Same, but lack of public transit support in my city is a dealbreaker. And although it's better for servers and privacy, needing to download the map for any city you would otherwise quickly browse the map of is annoying.
- I tried it and am very happy with it. Reminds me of map.me before it went to shit.
  
  Serious question: in what way did maps.me get shitty? I've been using it for years as a gps replacement and other than being closed source and having a paid tier found no issue with it ( or at least no extra issues compared to other OSM apps )

Dang I really called it
- Yeah this seems like the most likely scenario, sad gg. Break up the monopolies

I haven't heard of it before, but if Google bans it they must be doing something right.
I'll check it out.
- Same. Though I can't seem to find a way to show the advertised bike & hiking paths.

So, why is organic maps hidden with the default anti features of f-droid? Which of these that have allowed my other installs does organic maps not comply with?
None of these look like something I'd want to turn off!
- Non free network service. Organic maps uses the organic maps CDN to download maps. Which is not a free (free as in freedom) service.
  You can read more here: https://gitlab.com/fdroid/fdroiddata/-/blob/master/metadata/app.organicmaps.yml
  For more information on anti features read here: https://f-droid.org/en/docs/Anti-Features/
  
  Seems a bit silly. I think warning would work here.
  Most people don't care IMHO and it ain't high risk lol
  
  Thanks!
- Droid-ify showed it for me, which imo is the superior F-Droid client anyway.

Am I crazy? I'm not seeing "Organic Maps" on Fdroid at all. Do I need to add a specific repo?
Edit: Okay yes. I had to include 'other antifeatures' which it did warn me about. I hadn't adjusted that setting beyond the default and assumed I didn't need to go enable those things.
- I noticed the same thing. It might be hidden due to anti-features. I found it on NeoStore.
- You honestly to go into setting and turn on all anti features.
  It will show up
- It's there for me. I'm using Droid-ify but it's the official repo.
  
  It's the better F-Droid client anyway, imo.
- Why would F-Droid have such a drastic default?

I didn't know about Organic Maps so I installed it for the first time. I registered to openstreetmaps and added 5 places. This is great 😸
- Also check out StreetComplete! It's an app that gamifies adding information to OSM
  
  Thanks! Added it to Obtanium 😁
- It's addicting. I mapped my entire city
- Yeah, it's great to help contribute like that, I live in a really small town so the map was quite out of date, so I patched it up. OSM is slowly becoming a legitimate competitor with Google Maps and Apple Maps in terms of data quality and Google is cowering in fear that a libre, ad-free app will be far better than their closed-source, ad-infested, data-selling app.
  
  I'm fed up with Google (& other huge companies) so I'm totally with openstreetmaps! I'll add more info a little by little. Thanks for your contributions!
- Welcome aboard! What’s nice is that your changes are implemented quickly.

I recently started a trek to de-googleify it's going to be a long road.
I pulled down all the big free map contenders.
They'll all, without a doubt, will get me to the grocery store down the road.
They're all pretty decent at obeying one-way streets and u-turn limits.
More mixed results on business hours.
Most of them start having trouble on really long distance trips.
Many are missing creature comforts like multi-stop planning, I'm not sure which if any support dynamic remapping due to traffic.
The ones I were playing with did not provide me lane guidance on which lanes go left and right.
If Google maps and Waze stopped working tomorrow I could still use most of the free-ish street map variants, but I would miss a lot of features.
- That's a damn good review from my point of view, thanks!
- While you have to look elsewhere to do it, yelp or a browser answer the hours question.