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Comment by tonymet | Hacker News Reader

I wish we could get app developers to stop going online for every piece of content. Even my Tesla GPS map refuses to cache tiles it already has, so when connectivity goes down, my maps are blank.

Or streaming media apps (like Peacock & Kanopy) reloading the previous screen from the server instead of keeping the rendered media list object resident.

95% of the content is already on the device, let's please encourage it's use.

Dirty writes can be handled easily just mark the UI dirty until the write succeeds.

My point is that we could easily fix 95% of the offline challenges with no major changes to the app design -- just better habits.

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We solved a ton of issues by ensuring Cache-Control was being correctly used on API responses and that our application network layer respected them. The advantage is we can change our mind about cache lifetimes on the server side and no app update is required to start using them.

I love hearing about easy wins like this. very true on Android and iOS the Data Access Objects will handle content invalidation quite magically when used properly.

> no major changes to the app design

I'm pretty convinced they just want more data.

for example, apple allows offline maps, but they expire the data because they want you dependent on them.

I'm pretty sure the tesla (google) tile data has hidden motives.

I've also wondered. Having worked on similar apps, I think it's usually due to a bug where data is inconsistent , someone important complains, so the devs just invalidate all data to prevent the bug ever happening again. Inconsistent/stale data is more evident during testing than the caching issues (testers are usually using stable office wifi)

It doesn’t even have to be a bug. Having some rule like “invalidate all data older than 6 months” makes it easier to reason about and test for backwards compatibility.

I’m sure the data format of Apple Maps is constantly changing to support new features and optimizations.

apple maps data expires after 30 days.

if you create offline maps for some vacation away from reliable cellphone service, when 30 days passes the (gigabytes of) maps just disappear. Unusable even if you are in a remote village.

Google maps (on my Android) actually has offline maps for a while now but you have to manually select the region. And you can cache multiple regions at once. I've used it in the past when driving to national parks and remote areas with no phone network in some spots.

I can recommend organic maps: https://organicmaps.app

The quality of the maps depends on the region, though. But for me it is typically good enough. I not only like the local maps, but also that I can save waypoints locally. And I can contribute things like points of interest to Open Street Map directly via the app. In my opinion, the biggest disadvantage is that there is no traffic information.

Might be better to switch to the CoMaps fork:

https://www.comaps.app/news/2025-07-03/Announcing-Navigate-w...

Interestingly, f-droid doesn't initially show CoMaps but does show Organic Maps because apparently CoMaps doesn't pass an antifeature filter for depending on a tethered service on codeberg. I don't quite understand why this is an issue; they both need to download their maps from somewhere, don't they?

Thanks for recommending. I was not aware that a fork of Organic Maps had been created, or that longtime contributors to OM had concerns about the project.

Another vote for Organic Maps. I use it as a lightweight maps app for backcountry or traveling in foreign countries where I don’t have a sim card. You can also record tracks in the app, or import .gpx files. In airplane mode it has low impact on battery consumption.

I was also pleasantly surprised to find out iOS Star Chart app (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/star-chart/id345542655) functions entirely offline. Recently used it while camping, and it just needed a GPS coordinates fix to adjust sky map to location.

I do appreciate this feature. I wish more apps provided & tested online access.

I have also tested Gaia & All Trails maps online features, and have had mixed results with those.

I just don't think app developers take the time to test their apps in offline or poor connectivity conditions. They are used to testing procedures while using office wifi

As a frequent traveller I can say Google Maps (offline mode) sucks!

If you are fully offline, then it works as intended.

However, if you have even a tiny bit of connection, even if your connection is spotty or very slow, Google Maps refuses to use its offline data, crippling the experience and making it unusable.

I agree with the sibling comment. When I travel, I usually use 3 apps and download the offline maps of the regions I visit: Apple Maps (for iOS apps and embedded features), Google Maps, and thank god: Organic Maps.

This is the big reason why I prefer OSM apps. They all download the maps, and your map will work regardless of connectivity.

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