I always use OSM while hiking. At least in Spain its coverage is much better than Google's. OSM shows the smallest trails where on Google Maps I'd be walking in a totally green screen. There's also a local alternative called WikiLoc but they're paid and they don't allow payments outside the play store sadly.
Of course nothing beats a paper map for reliability but I tend to refer to OSM unless it's not available somehow.
One beef of mine with Google’s offline maps is that they’re only driving maps, and not walking/transit/cycling maps. Obviously you can kinda figure out walking paths anyway, but since I’m sometimes travelling without roaming access, it’s unfortunate.
I wrote a mapping program that could display maps, my location on them, time estimates to a down-road position, etc.
"Why not Google Maps?"
Several reasons: Google Maps requires a cell connection. (They have offline maps now — they didn't at the time I built the tool — but my offline maps are far more controllable in what data I pull down. And if I need data I haven't got, and I have a cell signal, I can fetch it on the fly and add it to the offline cache.)
Google maps was much worse at the time about finding rest areas. They're better marginally better now, but it's still pretty tedious to do on mobile. (There's no general search for it; you can search rest areas and usually get rest areas + junk, but you also really want to also search at the same time for, e.g., Flying Js, Loves. Contextual knowledge about the road would be good too, in case I'm on a turnpike. Also, still waiting for it to realize that, if I'm looking for gas, food, etc. … I want it downroad.) Admittedly my own implementation could have been better here, but I also lack the nice datasets that Google has…
OSM's map data is, in my opinion, better.
The GPS device I have can acquire a signal pretty much instantly. The phone … cannot. Useful in situations where we needed a quick answer, b/c things are happening at 60mph.
Though, we did end up supplementing the program with the phone. (On-the-fly routing is better in Maps, b/c it's a really tough problem, and I didn't build an interface into OpenRoute or whatever its called.)
Another limitation of Google Maps is, it does not provide offline navigation which becomes very important in places where you don't have mobile data coverage.
Google Maps is great but Maps.me has tons of hiking trails that Google doesn't have.
I know Google Maps can download map sections ahead of time but I go to a lot of places with no mobile phone service and if I forgot to download maps ahead of time I don't worry about it. I just open up Maps.me and it has all the trails, roads, and usually the parking lots.
For many uses it is superior to Google Maps. I am glad I have both.
Google Maps is a great app, but the data is sometimes lacking. Open Street Maps is far more accurate at bicycle routes in and around Amsterdam, for example. Google regularly misses optimal routes.
Hiker/backpacker here. If you're doing anything more than a short walk in a city park, don't use Google Maps. Upgrade to either AllTrails or Gaia GPS and pay the subscription fee that allows you to download offline maps. (I use both.) Without going into a full review of each, I'll just say that I wouldn't dream of doing any kind of hike without them. The difference between Google Maps and a dedicated mapping app is like the difference between, say, Notepad and VSCode.
If you want to walk, as opposed to just get somewhere in a car, I have yet to find anything better than an OS map. Google Maps is hopeless for footpaths; OpenStreetMaps is a bit better but it depends a lot on whether somebody enthusiastic has put in the data for the area you're in. The OS map is always reliably comprehensive. Plus these days if you buy a paper map it includes a code so you can also download the digital version to a mobile app (or you can get an annual subscription to get access to the whole lot, but for me I find that uneconomical.)
For hiking and biking, I like Windy Maps. It shows terrain contours and highlights foot and bike trail relations, and has an easy-to-use GPS track recorder. You can also ask for future weather forecasts along a navigation route, which is pretty keen if you're traveling long distances. Windy Maps does have a driving navigation mode, but I find that the extra map details that are handy for outdoors activities crowd the map too much for easy reference when driving, especially in dense areas.
For general map browsing, I tend to use Organic Maps. It does a better job rendering urban environments, and even shows primitive 3D buildings when OSM has the data. It's decent as a driving GPS.
Debatably, the best OSM-powered mobile app is OsmAnd, which is a more powerful application with the downsides that come with that -- slow, lots of settings, crowded UI. The killer features IMO are: 1) it's the only one (best I know) that allows users to zoom extremely close, which is vital to see all POIs in dense areas and also helpful to see details of parks and trails 2) it's the only one (best I know) that can interface with Android Auto enabled vehicles. (There's an iOS version of OsmAnd but I've never used it since it requires a subscription for map updates.)
There are particular use cases (eg hiking) when one of these OSM-powered apps will be an adequate or even superior replacement for Google Maps. These use cases are the exception. Google Maps has its own two killer features: 1) realtime traffic for car navigation 2) sophisticated public transit routing, again with realtime data integration.
All 3 of the above apps will attempt public transit routing, but I'd never use them. They don't comprehend train schedules, much less realtime data. They don't handle bus directions at all, though this might be down to the state of the OSM data in the locations I've tried them -- bus route relations are difficult to create and maintain in OSM, and easy to break.
I'm an OSM fanatic myself, so it's saddening not to be able to wholeheartedly endorse any of the current slate of apps. The good news is that the available apps have never been better and continue to improve. Sometime soonish it might be merely a minor inconvenience to de-google your mapping life. (Apple Maps is also pretty good with realtime traffic and public transit routing, if that's an option.)
I got myself a Garmin device for exactly this purpose. Put your own OpenStreetMaps on it and you‘re good to go. Perfect GPS reception and much longer battery life included.
But note that it‘s not the same als Google Maps/Apple Maps. If you want to test it out first, use an OSM-based app for a while, like OSMand, and see if it fits your bill. You get better hiking maps, but you might miss the integration of business opening hours, Yelp, traffic, etc. But for me it‘s worth it, for GP‘s reasons.
People used to live without all these features before, after all.
organicmaps -> google maps Of course Google Maps has traffic prediction and restaurant ratings, there's no good open alternative yet. For standard foot, cycle, car navigation I fuond organicmaps enough. And it's open, free, offline, no tracking.
Mapy.cz is great and my go-to app for outdoors mapping and tracking hikes and bike rides. It's worse than Google Maps for search and listing, but that's fine.
I'd love if something could be done for open street maps to try and create a real Google-competitor for listings, reviews etc.
I have it too, but often forget to use it in favour of Google Maps, but Google Maps is terrible for anything not in a car or train, and OSM always has fantastic detail for hiking trails. Every vacation I find myself switching to Organic Maps.
This vacation it helped us find a trail to a really beautiful waterfall in Switzerland.
I was thinking that it would be cool to have some AR thing going (ala Pokemon Go - virtual arrow pointing toward the destination) But of course that fails if there is no direct route from where the traveler is.
To get directions working right. I think there needs to be a good open standard for road/pedestrian maps, but that will only be as good/reliable as the data source... Haven't looked into open street maps but I think that would be one to check out.
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