2d ago

Need a replacement for Apple/Google Maps on your phone? Organic Maps is FOSS and the company behind it is Estonian

organicmaps.app Organic Maps: Offline Hike, Bike, Trails and Navigation

Fast detailed offline maps for travelers, tourists, drivers, hikers and cyclists created by MapsWithMe (Maps.Me) app founders.

Sadly there is no browser view, but they have selection of app stores on their page for the app (and IIRC they are working on a desktop version).

It has routing, searching, more map details (e.g. park benches, trash bins on the map), OSM editing, and pretty slick look in my opinion.

I recently switched to Organic Maps after learning about it here on Lemmy and haven't touched Google Maps as much. I know it is not a perfect 100% replacement, but while it lacks certain things (e.g. public transport, but I use local public transport app anyway for better accuracy), it has so many features google lacks:

hiking trail overlay that is more up-to-date
stores maps on your phone in vector format (offline use is so much nicer)
privacy focused

There is more to this than I know and write here, and probably many here already know about Organic Maps since there was the whole fiasco of google removing this app from play store awhile back, but thought it's cool that the company behind it is in Estonia (man I still remember Skype, thanks Estonia ❤️ I've spent so much time on skype before it was aquired by Microsoft).

Edit to add extra info from website: Company is based in Tallinn, Estonia - Organic Maps OÜ

44 comments

Best alternative is actually mapy.cz

The company is Estonian in that absolutely anyone can start an Estonian company if they really want to. We're like the Delaware of Europe.
The two owners are Russian and Byelorussian. They have close to no social media presence, even their LinkedIn and Github accounts are completely empty. According to public records, one lives in the UK and the other in Argentina.
There are 39 other companies registered in the same office space (not the building - the same exact office in that building) in downtown Tallinn. Total of 1424 companies registered in that building.
- Interesting, well at least the code is open-source and I've myself also skimmed through some of their code and didn't find anything suspicious. But didn't know that about Estonian laws allowing anyone to spin-up a company even if they are living outside of Estonia. Thanks for the info!
  Just to add my two cents about online presence: my online presence is also limited to lemmy, linkedin, and github. The only one with my real name and picture is linkedin.
  Github I only use for work and doesn't have any of my personal info and linkedin pretty much has one photo of me and works as my online CV.
  I also try to keep my own visibility online low and don't see problems with that. But these kind of mailbox companies are always bit suspicious...
  Nevertheless, thank you for looking into this and posting about it.

I use this for walking and cycling, but I don't like it for driving. I'm currently trying out HERE for that. Not FOSS, but it's Dutch and so far it seems decent, though it heavily relies on openstreetmaps for its data, so it can be quite outdated (my workplace's location is still where it was before it moved more than 5 years ago). It also needs a separate voice engine, so if anyone has a good replacement for Google's speech services, please let me know. I have yet to find a good one for the Dutch language.
- Hmm, don't know about Dutch speech in the engine but I recently saw a post about a speech engine that I haven't had an opportunity to try: maybe you could see if it is somewhat bearable?
  But yeah this is buy european so while I'm a foss enthusiast it's not the main point of this sub - proprietary products are welcome as long as they are European (continent, not just European Union/EEA/ETA). I already used Organic Maps and happened to notice it's Estonian and wanted to share here :)
  Thanks for sharing which apps you use! I've already been able to share some stuff elsewhere from this thread thanks to people sharing their personal preferences!
  
  a speech engine that I haven't had an opportunity to try
  Yeah, I tried SherpaTTS and eSpeak, but they're quite awful, at least for Dutch. Thanks though

It's a pitty they don't have public transport routes for my location.
IMHO, Google Maps, even though I really want to ditch it, simply has a better overall experience
- It is not a drop-in replacement for all google maps features, and it is totally okay to continue to use google (I still use it when I actually need something like streetview, pictures, reviews), but for e.g. nature paths (atleast in europe) organic maps has been better. And openstreetmap contributors are quite active in many places I frequent or visit so the information like opening hours are up-to-date mostly.
  For public transport I always use the local public transport app, simply because it is more accurate and notifies of issues and I get my tickets anyway via apps.
  But yeah I understand you and google maps is not going anywhere, just wanted to notify of an alternative map application :)
  
  All good ... and people should definitely be aware of alternatives.
  Except for maps, I don't use any Google services anymore. Ditched search for a selfhosted searxng, photos for selfhosted immich, and email is replaced by fastmail.
- Yeah it's hard to ditch maps. They also have way more businesses listed, and an actually good review function. Nowadays I discover 99% of places via google maps, and while I do use organic maps whenever possible, it's still more of a niche application. Offline navigation is probably the most common use case I got for them.

I prefer mapy.cz, a Czech and EU hosted map service. I have been using it for many years now and nothing can beat it for hiking maps, I can highly recommend it! Don't use it for car navigation and the like though
- I've occasionally used mapy.cz after a Czech colleague told me about it and I love it, really nice set of tools for web mapping and can also recommend it!

Just in case there are map nerds looking at this thread who might not know about a related app to fill OpenStreetMap attributes while having fun doing it: check out StreetComplete; PokemonGo but instead catch wrong / outdated / unmarked map information and get credited for it!
- StreetComplete is awesome. I've been using it for well over a year now and it's my go-to app for "playing outside". To do some of the tasks you probably need the "Street measure" app as well.
  https://streetcomplete.app/
  
  Ah dammit forgot to link it, thanks for the link! Also great recommendation with the Street measure; I was ignoring measurement update "quests" because I didn't have the means of checking them.
- Worth posting to !osm@feddit.uk
  
  Just crossposted a really good thread from 3 months ago to !osm@feddit.uk!
- Unfortunately, no iOS app.. looks cool though
  
  Yeah sadlt :( they have started working on an iOS app but it desperately needs more contributors.
  Let's hope they manage to find help.

What about reviews on places? Is Gmaps still the best option for that?
- Good question! Sadly Organic maps doesn't have any review system.
  Such system would take enormous amount of resources to not get flooded with bots, brigading, other issues so I don't think we'll be seeing such feature either unless someone spins up a separate service and allows organic maps to link to it (maybe like fediverse's bookwyrm?).

Til: I just learned the project is working on a desktop version.
Also join !organicmaps@sopuli.xyz to discuss the app!
We need 253 more subs to beat r/organicmaps counterpart!
- Yay! we'll get there, lemmy is growing, I've noticed that my procrastination moments with lemmy are no longer "scroll for 2 minutes and I've seen the whole of lemmyverse". I'm actually procrastinating now.
  I briefly tried the development version of their desktop version on Windows 11 using WSL and would not recommend it yet, but I can imagine it works better on Linux since it is a flatpak!
  (before I get butchered on lemmy: I daily drive linux at home, windows 11 is for work).

Not feature-complete enough to replace OsmAnd for me yet (and maybe it never will be). OsmAnd is a nested menu nightmare of bloat and maybe Organic Maps isn’t aiming for that.
- OsmAnd is also cool, but yeah I prefer the simplicity of Organic maps myself and haven't needed much more in my day-to-day life.
  Best part is: both are good replacements for google/apple (in the context of getting rid of big tech) and thankfully we can choose!

My main issue with Organic Maps is how bad the night mode map view is. They've effectively just turned the background black without adjusting street colors; so all the main orange/gold main roads have no contrast and disappear into the blackness. I'm sadly forced to keep it in Day mode just so it can be read and used, regardless of time of day. :-/
PSA: https://f-droid.org/en/packages/app.organicmaps/
- I don't even mind the street color, I hate that a lot of names are grey, which is barely brighter than the grey they use for the streets.
- Thanks for the link to F-droid! Appreciate it!
  And now: I have to admit I have the same problem. I love OM but I keep it in day mode for the same reason. Wish there was a way to turn the menus dark mode and keep the map colors...
  To be fair I don't like Google Maps' dark mode either. Otherwise it is dark mode for every piece of software I use.

Also recommend StreetComplete to help fill in OSM data. It's fun too :)
https://github.com/streetcomplete/streetcomplete
- This seems really cool! Also on fdroid.

I just wish they had some way to host photos as well. My main use of maps app has been to understand what a place looks like/whether I wanna go there, or myself add some photos so others can. However, I do fear this would require strong moderation and a lot of overhead on platform like Organic Maps, unless they utilized a rather small select community for contributions.
- I have hopes that in the future they will add such a service but not directly, but rather integrate another FOSS service for this (like their map information pane is often wiki text + link to the full wiki article).
  I've found some I've been meaning to look at whether they are truly FOSS but I've been too lazy. My latest bookmark from these kind of services is kartaview: https://github.com/kartaview

I'm sometimes using it and like how clean it is.

In giving this a checkout on my phone from Canada! Cheers and thanks for this.
- Hey no problem! Hope it fills your needs - it doesn't fully replace all map applications but I've been loving it and sticked to it in my last two trips abroad and it was enough (apart from local public transport app, which I always get on my trips because it's essential to me).

How does it compare to the fairly established Dutch HERE WeGo?
- From the frying pan in the cooker. This be proprietary software too.
  
  Yes, former Nokia Maps, now part of a conglomerate of car vendors like VW, BMW and Mercedes, so it falls under EU privacy law. Organic is the better solution from a privacy standpoint, but if you want some of the convenience from google, like traffic or public transport, here is a good alternative to muddy your profile. It also works well on android auto.
- Must admit I had never heard of that one before and don't have any experiences with it. Maybe someone who knows both could pitch in and give a review?
  I tried to find comparisons online but they all seemed rather vague and not really feature comparisons. Sorry :(
  
  I kinda like HereWeGo, but I still prefer Google Maps for now.
  -The estimated arrival time on google maps is a lot more accurate. But when arrival time is not important, I try using HereWeGo.
  -The map color on HereWeGo is less attractive for me personally, I'd love if they gave an option to customize that...
  -Google reviews is really good imo, don't think HereWeGo even has reviews. Finding businesses seems kinda the same? But haven't used it that much so I don't know how accurate the info on HereWeGo is...
  I do like that HereWeGo also has the option to give me the route for Public Transport, Bike, Hiking etc. Thats pretty cool. Haven't really used those yet tho, so don't know if they are at all accurate.
  I feel that if more people used HereWeGo it would naturally improve, so I try using it whenever possible.
  What are some better options out there?

44 comments