I ask because I have tried both and neither consistently find destinations I need, and when they do, they don’t route me there in the fastest or most efficient way possible. My first experience with Organic Maps, for instance, tried to turn what was usually a 4 hour drive into a nearly 6 hour drive. I used Google Maps to get there instead.

Google Maps is still the best navigation I’ve used, followed closely by Magic Earth, which gets the job done but still isn’t all that great. I find myself resorting to Google Maps 9 times out of 10 because even Magic Earth will add 15-30 minutes to any trip. Even when I do use Magic Earth, I have to double-check it against Google’s navigation just to make sure I’m not wasting any extra time or gas money on the road.

Also, a little gripe with OSMAnd that probably isn’t too big of a deal, but OSMAnd can’t find anything unless I download my state map. It tells me “nothing found within 5 miles” and gives me the option to expand the radius. But at 10, 15, 20, all the way up to 50 miles, it won’t find I’m looking for. Like I said, not too big a deal since downloading the map of my state solves this issue, but it’s still inconvenient and kind of a waste of internal storage space given that other apps can navigate successfully using online maps.

I’m wondering how any of you get by using OSMAnd / Organic Maps as I’ve seen people post on Lemmy that they do. Am I just missing something? Or are these apps really as bad as I think they are?

Edit: I should specify that I use navigation mainly for driving and Olive in the US. Seems like people biking / hiking in the EU have a bit of an easier time with some of these apps

  • MasterBuilder
    5·
    1 year ago

    The reason you can’t find addresses is likely because the data is not added to the maps in your region. I have similar problems here, though my state got much detail from batch updates last year.

    I found a resource that merges addresses into osmand maps monthly, for north america and beyond. Even better, it does so in a way that normal address layout for north Americans can be used when searching.

    Here in north america, we search by typing “255 maple street, some town 01234”, while osmand expects something like " USA some town street 123".

    You can download merged maps from opensupermaps.com, and find almost any address you seek, then you can navigate. Osmand is pretty good with directions, but sometimes messes up. Magic Earth is better at navigation, and has similar features to Waze. OSMAnd has much greater map detail, where people have uploaded it.