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Comment by cassianoleal | Hacker News Reader

In London I find Apple Maps superior to Google Maps in almost every way.

Apple's cycling routing is miles ahead of Google's.

Apple Maps tends to be better in English speaking countries, or otherwise where there's a lot of iPhones. Google Maps is almost universally better anywhere else.

I was very happy when Apple "finally" added cycling directions in London. That was the only reason why I used Google Maps.

Apple does give me some funky directions through Victoria Park, though I'm always surprised when any map service can route through parks somewhat well.

Why did you switch?

> I was very happy when Apple "finally" added cycling directions in London. That was the only reason why I used Google Maps.

Yes: I absolutely understood the catalyst, but not the reason. I will rephrase my question: why did you want to switch? Is that less confusing? The person I am responding to seemed eager to leave Google Maps, but couldn't because of one critical feature; once that critical feature was there, removing the reason they had not to switch... but, there still had to be some remaining reason why the person switched: a reason that had caused them to be waiting to switch this whole time (and while I have some ideas as to what that reason might be, it isn't at all obvious which one and I didn't want to bias the answer by suggesting any). Is this really such a strange concept? :(

Personally I prefer using Apple Maps when possible because the app is a lot more fluid, it has a dark mode, and it feels better about privacy.

> seemed eager to leave Google Maps, but couldn't because of one critical feature

I never wanted to use Google Maps, but had to due to the feature. Using "Apple Maps" was the default preferred position.

I think Apple Maps looks better and is easier to use than Google Maps. I especially dislike the Google Maps turn by turn directions interface.

Good for you one mega-city in Europe* got proper apple treatment after 10 years lets wait 20 more years for other monster cities, and then they can maybe add some cities under a 10 million population :D

What’s the other option? Google is the only internet map ever? Or no other internet map can ever release anything until they have perfect global coverage?

How about OSM?

Love osm and osmand, but if I'm travelling in town then I go to Google map for real time traffic and public transit.

What is a good iOS app for turn-by-turn directions (driving, biking, walking, public transit) that uses OpenStreetMap data?

Organic Maps is IMHO the most usable OSM app for Android. It's available also for iOS, no idea if it's 1-to-1 but worth giving it a try.

It’s in the store. It touts working offline, do you have save map data for an area first or can you use it the same way as other map apps?

I’ve used Google Maps’ offline saving feature when traveling internationally and where cell service is poor or absent.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/organic-maps/id1567437057

It works only offline. You download the area before you can zoom in; there's no online tile-on-demand.

OM is ok, but the contours are coarse and in meters. I use Gaia, which has far more capability and also works offline. But, note that Gaia has been bought recently by Outside. I’m concerned about maintaining privacy, based on the email they sent.

I should mention that Apple Maps, being vector based, can be pre-downloaded using the hotel wifi when you are in a roaming area and will work for many blocks around the hotel without using the radios. Google won’t.

The Google Maps app will let you explicitly download quite large areas for use offline.

> It touts working offline, do you have save map data for an area first or can you use it the same way as other map apps?

You download a region before being there, then you can use the app completely offline. The 'completely offline' modus only works for the downloaded data, obviously.

I'm using it quite a bit abroad, since roaming data outside of Switzerland is really expensive :)

Organic Maps is amazing. For hiking and climbing it has routes that Google and Apple do not put on their maps. For offline mode you can download entire US states or countries and the search is instant once you've downloaded the data to your phone. I still use Google/Apple Maps for navigation, but mostly because I've never give Organic Maps navigation a try.

For car navigation I've used https://www.magicearth.com/, which I've found to be really good.

https://cycle.travel/ is (in my opinion) unbeatable for bike-navigation, but I use it more for planning a ride (and exporting the GPX file to my Garmin Edge) than for 'on-the-go' routing.

I don’t think Apple needs perfect coverage, just more than “parts of the USA and 10 major cities worldwide”.

Sell iPhones cheaper in countries that have reduced features.

Same in Dublin, Ireland. Here, the quality of Apple Maps improved significantly about a year ago.

Their shop/restaurant opening times are still totally useless though. I live in Stoneybatter (next effectively 15 min walk from the city centre for those not from Dublin) and I’d estimate that at least 1/3rd of the correct waypoints, opening times, and associated data in the area is from me slowly correcting stuff over the last few years.

For restaurants, etc, I usually start with Yelp, which uses Apple Maps for navigation. I get the rest of the details from Yelp. (I’m in the US)

It is, though one thing apple could improve is the feedback on errors- it’s routing thinks some major streets are one way here and that others aren’t which seems hard to fix.

For cycling in London, in my experience:

CityMapper >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Apple Maps >>>>> Google Maps

Are you able to plot multiple routes yet?

> In London I find Apple Maps superior to Google Maps in almost every way

Google Maps is good in a backwater town in some country you've never heard of.

You mean like Karachi, Pakistan? Is that a backwater town to you?

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