Offline mobile maps from Mapbox | Hacker News Reader

Offline mobile maps from Mapbox

mapbox.com

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I use maps.me on my phone.

[url: http://maps.me/en/home ]

Plus, it's open source. https://github.com/mapsme/omim

This is for developers, though.

There is also an open API for developers: http://maps.me/en/api

Ah, cool.

>A turn-by-turn app that pre-caches the route as soon as you ask for directions, ensuring that you’ll get to your destination even if you drive through an area without cell coverage.

That's not what I call "offline". HERE is offline, this is useless.

Hello! I work at Mapbox.

Pre-cached directions are just one use case for offline maps. Our SDK gives developers the control to download arbitrary bounding boxes for any purpose.

Hello! I was looking at it from a user's point of view though.

I like that this has topo maps. I'll have a look at it for that alone.

Also worth trying "Here" Maps for pre-download mapping. This is the old Nokia maps, now Microsoft. Its surprisingly good. I use it as my go-to for driving as the spoken directions seem to time better plus the interface is much cleaner and easy to read at a glance. Also they include speed limits + your GPS speed which are both useful. I still prefer Google Maps for looking up a business as they have better information.

They also have walking directions that work offline as well as transit schedules.(Also, MS never bought HERE, it's an independent company)

Minor correction: HERE Maps got spun out from Nokia and were bought by Audi/Daimler/BMW late last year:

http://www.digitaltrends.com/business/audi-bmw-and-daimler-h...

Great maps, they include much better gradient data than other map providers - lots of logistics companies use HERE Maps because accurate gradient data turns into significant fuel savings if you're planning routes for 20+ ton freight trucks.

Previous versions of the MapBox SDK had offline tile caching, for both Android and iOS. Worked really well if you could know which tiles you needed to download in advance.

This update is for the new version of their SDK, Mapbox GL. When they first announced it, there was no offline map support, so I couldn't bring my apps over to it.

For anyone who's interested, I used the offline maps in a trail/hiking app that needs to work in remote mountains, and for a "back seat driver" app for kids in the back of cars on road trips.

Why not just use OsmAnd~? Completely offline, including search, navigation, etc. Downloads are per-country.

because competition.

Get OsmAnd~ from Fdroid: https://f-droid.org/repository/browse/?fdid=net.osmand.plus

Do you know a good android app that uses OSM with offline mode ? I am actually using https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.skobbler.f... which is working perfectly but its last update was a year ago ...

Maps.me is pretty good. Does offline routing using OSM data, allowing for downloading entire regions (~60-200mb). Also, recently went open source.

Doesn't have terrain details yet, but they're apparently working on it.

I use Scout http://www.skobbler.com/apps on Android. No complaints.

OsmAnd~ can do full offline search, navigation with per-country downloads. The f-droid version is unlimited:

https://f-droid.org/repository/browse/?fdfilter=osmand&fdid=...

Osmand

I actually thought this would be the obvious answer, instead it's near the bottom of the thread. Odd for the best open source navigation app I've ever found.

Just downloaded OsmAnd after switching to maps.me 6 months ago. They've made a lot of changes (for the better). Thanks for the suggestion

Yeah, it went from super nerdy to quite user-friendly.

Switched to Osmand today after Scout stopped working on Marshmallow with External SD.

I like mapFactor Navigator [http://navigatorfree.mapfactor.com/en/download] on Android for car navigation. The most useful feature for me is that you can search via Google.

Looks interesting for hybrid apps in particular. I notice Mapbox have plugins for NativeScript and Cordova. There's an experimental plug-in for React Native.

If anyone from Mapbox is looking, do you know if a JavaScript offline version is in the works, or being considered?

Hi, Mapbox developer here. We've gotten a few requests for offline for mapbox-gl-js[0], but haven't put a priority on it yet. We need to do some investigation to see if this is something that's feasible to build with Web APIs such as IndexedDB.

[0]: https://github.com/mapbox/mapbox-gl-js

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