Title is editorialized because the original is, frankly, clickbait garbage
For those unaware, Organic Maps (uses OSM) is really good! It's good for 90% of all ur navigation needs. For the rest 10%, there's no good alternative to google maps unfortunately.
Like there's no open source project with commercial paid licence ?
Oh, wow. Osm has gotten a lot better for cycling since I last looked.
I'm unlikely to be on strange routes these days but that's still great. The maps are already much more useful that Google's.
Now I wish it also covered abrp functionality for chargers.
Traffic updates aren't exactly a problem for me as I travel everywhere using my bicycle/public transit.
The only problem I face is that I can't get public transit information on OSM. Now ideally the city should be the one making this information accessible. Unfortunately for me, I currently live in a shitty city (although not for long). Therefore, within a matter of months, Organic would meet almost 100% of my navigation needs.
Reviews most definitely. Hard to beat that
I'm glad I came back to this thread. Would never have heard of this!
Can you search for street addresses?
Yes, it does. I have used it successfully for months. My main issue is I need traffic data due to a new job and figuring which route to take. AFAIK, no other nav app has traffic data. That's the only real bummer.
HERE WeGo has traffic data but of course, as in Google Maps, it sources from other users of the same app.
If not many people use HERE, then the data is also not reliable.
I genuinely don't understand how anyone can believe this, I keep trying it over and over and over and it fails on the absolute most basic of business searches. And some of the directions it gives are just completely nonsensical, and it's voice guidance is absolutely terrible making it fairly easy to miss a Direction if you're not able to be looking at the screen
I hate giving my location to Google but at the end of the day they are still the only GPS navigation that doesn't suck at basic navigation
Do u live in some place less humans live? Like a village or something? OSM is mapped by volunteers, which means that less OSM enthusiasts around you = worse mapping. Perhaps you could start a little bit of mapping?
As for the voice navigation, well Organic doesn't have its own voice. It uses ur phone's native text to speech engine. If u have completely degoogled ur phone, then u probably would be using some other tts engine (which most probably sucks ass).
As for the searches, yeah, they need a better local search engine.
I don't just mean the voice, even just HOW it gives directions. Google maps gives you multiple warnings for a turn , one way before, one approaching, one right at. It also will often tell you which lane to take a turn in if multiple exist (use the second from the left lane to turn left) if your next turn is right after with little warning.
It's been a hot minute so i can try again to see if it's changed but directions were terrible with little extra warning and no taking the next direction into account.
The map was also just... Messy, little outlines for buildings everywhere a bunch of random green squares all over the map that I couldn't figure out how to turn off and wasn't even sure what they were meant to represent other than they seemed to roughly correspond with grassy or treed areas but for using it as a navigation app that is extremely annoying because it just makes the whole map of cluttered mess and makes it difficult to really tell what I'm looking at when I'm trying to drive and need to see my next Direction quickly and easily at a glance
Well change can only be done through voicing disapproval first, although Google will most definitely won't stop the data gathering in Maps.
Well It's understandable if a lot of people wouldn't switch over to OSM-based apps. I've tried OSMAnd, and I observe 3 drawbacks. Lengthy public transport calculation (fair since it's computing on the phone), no reviews in POI areas (really hard to catch up on), weird results in transportations
Most people (public and private) never go beyond disapproval, though.
You'll hear people complain about this and that, but never even looking for an alternative.
Absolutely agreed.
The problem for me is when someone sends me a location pin it is almost always a Google map link. I have the same issue with people in my community using whatsapp.
I guess you are right, for me I just try to avoid all Google links and products in the first place. I understand that you can tweak privacy controls and settings that allow you to manage how your data with Google is collected, I could also use a privacy browser or incognito, but my main issue is not giving any of these juggernaut corporations a chance to swing and cash in on my personal data.
Which GoogleMaps alternative has user reviews? I downloaded organic maps suggested here and there are no reviews. When I'm in a new town I need to know where I can and where I shouldn't eat, shop or stay. At least there are some icons on organic maps, but that's it.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.
Not when you're new in an unknown city. In my local city the ratings still make sense, I compared it with my own experience, so why would that change drastically elsewhere? It's often the only option you have, visiting every website individually is too time consuming and doesn't tell you anything about the service either. I bet even you look at reviews. It's easy to say their are faked but there is no non faked alternative.
Normal people: Gladly give google maps access to location data at all times and never think about it
Me: Instinctively worry that on the rare occasions I do use google maps it's somehow identifying me and keeping track of all the locations I look at, so I sometimes look at random places I'm not really interested in just to throw off the algorithms.
But most of the time I prefer osmand.
Me: can't install Google Maps because my phone doesn't have gapps. Awesome.
You have been free for a while then i suppose.
Oh, yeah, I do use the website sometimes to convert an address to GPS coordinates and load that into OSMAnd
Osmand is really cool and it's really capable but I understand that it isn't for people who don't want to tinker a bit to make things work just right for them.
For that Organic Maps is what I recommend.
I usually use OsmAND for my motorbike tours where I love the adaptable UI. But importing round trips is a big hit or miss, where most of the time it just skips all intermediary stops
And for daily "driving" (hehe) I do miss some traffic info :-(
Idk how the new user experience is now but back when I first downloaded it I wanted a hybrid of sat imagery when cell signal allowed, with an overlay of offline OSM data. This was for two reasons, hiking and to see if the mapping in that hike area needed any major land use edits.
Anyway I had to fiddle with the menus and settings for a while to get the overlays where I wanted it to be. Don't get me wrong I was able to figure it out but for users who want to install and go it can be understandably frustrating
Or have your phone location turned on and be super boring back and forth. When you deviate use a burner.
Normal people: Gladly give google maps access to location data at all times and never think about it
Yet also same normal people get utterly genuinely shock when they see a map of their past locations for the last 3 months.
You: thinking they weren't already tracking you by a zillion other means including wifi/bt and cellular triangulation
Me: google-free wifi-only phone with all radios/mic/camera physically disconnected unless I need something specific
Use fossdroid
Because we use OsmAnd
Giving it a try since I haven't heard of this.
It seems to have cool options, but for navigation it's just completely unusable.
Who in their right mind would charge a subscription fee to download and/or update maps?
Edit: I only found out about this after my father downloaded the app on his phone, and it said he only has 5 downloads remaining before downloading the map for my state. It's extremely dumb for a "privacy focused maps app"
Because development is not free
If you really want to you can just download them outside the app for free. I like that it provides a free option for those with more time than money and a paid option for those with more money than time.
Google saw neat idea, built cool software, users happy. Replace cars to generate map data with phones for utmost accuracy. Trends of maximizing profit from cool technology makes users sad and services suck like other popular sites. Host begs Google not to make maps suck next.
Every free tech service can be (notionally) graded on how much value it offers for how much of your data it sucks up and monetizes. Most of the time we see an initial high value that gradually decreases as the developer gets greedy.
Google maps has managed to become Google "best" service, but it's important to be aware of the scale of problem we'll see if they start squeezing it for increasing profits, since it sucks up so much of our data and manages to be so useful.
That's the bulk of it, but there were other points being made about solving for edge cases that seem less central to the point.
Google has a massive leg up in its technology and use cases so everyone uses it. The guy described it as a "1%" problem (as in the last percent of use cases that are hard to add to the app) and Google doesn't have as many of those.
I've been trying to use osmand but it doesnt have public transport capabilities or live updates which is just too much its missing out on to switch for 100% of tasks
It's fine to use it for 80% of tasks too and try to contribute to it becoming available for 100% of tasks.
What is the Anti Commercial-Al license and why do people keep adding it to their comments?
I can't use it for 80% I don't even have house numbers on streets Ive added a whole bunch tho so I guess I'm making it better for the future. Idk where to even start with adding live traffic/public transport to it what language does it even use?
"HERE we go" has that. Although i dont think its open source, its probably miles better than google.
I don't see any advantage over google unless its open source.
Most people into Privacy, either stumbled upon the niche or work(ed) in some IT or related field. Have tried talking to the family, they are in denial or do not care. Or think that using WhatsApp is a wise choice and/or they are immune to ads. Somehow. It's like talking to a goat who has more desire for habit over sense.
I remember playing with Google Now, thinking it 'neat' and then within seconds realizing that in order for it to work optimally meant giving Google everything. It got me to root my phone and removed Goople Play Services and/or different ROMs. Today, I do not use Google for anything or use front-ends with a VPN or if ever really needed, Tor.
Organic maps or OSMAnd. Plus, I find these two better for cycling and hiking, over Gmaps. If you must use Gmaps briefly, then GMaps WV from F-Droid.
What is the benefit of using GMaps WV over the web client in a browser?
what's a good alternative if one's using GMaps mainly for travelling instead of navigation (i.e. looking up nearby restaurants and getting reviews, public transport, attractions and their opening hours, etc.)?
Organic maps is what I use. Keep in mind OSM is built by the community so in places with lower tech literacy it will incomplete
Used to know someone who looked for cars around a restaurant, or long lines waiting to get into a tiny cafe, asked wait staff for interesting places they liked to go; went into non-chain stores where locals shopped (off the main streets); asked walkers and service station workers for directions. Always had wild stories about what happened, if you could get past their private nature. Weird fucker, unpredictable, never could get used to'm. Likeable enough, though.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
https://piped.video/watch?v=P2qOiKA56tI&list=WL&index=1
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.
@lemmy.ml
A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.
Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.
In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.
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@lemmy.ml
A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.
Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.
In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.
Some Rules
- Posting a link to a website containing tracking isn't great, if contents of the website are behind a paywall maybe copy them into the post
- Don't promote proprietary software
- Try to keep things on topic
- If you have a question, please try searching for previous discussions, maybe it has already been answered
- Reposts are fine, but should have at least a couple of weeks in between so that the post can reach a new audience
- Be nice :)
Related communities
much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)
go to feed...
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