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Comment by andridk | Hacker News Reader

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andridk

As a consumer, I was just looking for mobile apps. I couldn't find any on this page.

Are there any?

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Osmand for Android is pretty good, they should promote it.

Is there anything that renders the mapps prettier? The difference between osmand and Google maps is jarring.

What do you find ugly about them? I actually prefer them to google maps! Also, the naming of the streets is often clearer (in google maps, there are too many streets without name, even if you zoom on them). The overall user interface, however, is often much clearer in the google app.

There's no hierarchy in the coloring. Everything is big and bold and it takes more effort to find the parts I care about.

The POI icons are huge. The text for obvious things ("New York City" when I'm staring at just Manhattan) is huge and unnecessary. There are too many shown at the street level. Every block has restaurants and bus stops. They're not labeled, just taking up a huge amount of space.

It feels like an old linux desktop, before they got usable.

The map is covered in visual clutter that takes too much effort to visually process.

I agree that Google Maps needs more street names, but that's my only complaint about the map. That's an easy fix.

It looks like a satnav from the early '00s... No subtlety in the colors at all.

Mapbox Streets is an example of good map design: https://www.mapbox.com/maps/streets/

Mapbox is built on OSM data and has pretty nice styling. Gaia GPS is one app that provides (among many other things) Mapbox layers on iOS and Android.

Hehe, I had just edited my comment to mention Mapbox, then I noticed your reply. :)

> Mapbox Streets is an example of good map design: https://www.mapbox.com/maps/streets/

Hmm, doesn't show forests and doesn't show built-up areas, either, which are precisely the things I really dislike about Google's map design, too.

Looks like a cheap old satnav!

I like this aesthetics. The google colors for maps look sad and bland to me.

I quite like OSMand's look: much more information, and quite easy to pick features apart. But you can also switch the map style inside the app itself.

Navigation is modal in OSMand (you can define your own modes, as well as use the predefined ones), so you can for instance have a hiking mode with a topographic view, or a car mode that hides finer details like trees and cycleways.

You can change the map style if you want to. Settings, configure map, map style. You even can create your own style xml i think.

Prettier? They are much more clear, detailed and readable than Google maps.

Maps.me looks better, faster but don't have as much features

I've been using OsmAnd+ on F-droid (Android). It's great and has many options. Everything works offline. It takes a bit of time to get used to it coming from Google Maps but it's worth a try.

Search has been improving recently but still lacks behind Google. Public transport and reviews are missing too.

Maps.me is a good alternative to Osmand. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mapswithme...

It's the other way around :) osmand is a good alternative for maps.me because maps.me doesn't care about your privacy and has 20 privacy tracker dependencies installed(check out the exodus privacy app). osmand has zero

As mentioned elsewhere, F-Droid hosts a version of Maps.me that is ad- and tracker-free.

There are many. I guess the switch2org authors didn't want to copy https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Software/Mobile

https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Comparison_of_iOS_applic...

https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Android_ap...

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