cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/23834340
Apk Link: https://cdn.organicmaps.app/apk/OrganicMaps-24081605-GooglePlay.apk
Note: If you don’t want to deal with stuff like this, I recommend you download and use it from F-Droid client or Accrescent AppStore.
Update: The app returned to the App Store.
It sounds neat. Offline maps. If Google hadn’t banned it I would have never heard of it. It’s on F-droid too for those who don’t want to download and install an apk.
Get StreetComplete while you’re at it and help improve the maps in a Pokemon-Go style mobile game.
Offline maps are the way to go. I made a habit of having all of the US always stored in my phone just in case something bad happened. Only takes 12GB or so. Cell service can be spotty in large parts of the country so you can’t depend on Internet maps.
Then it paid off. Plane lost an engine mid-flight, had to emergency land 850 miles from where I needed to be, and off I went by rental car with map in hand…er…cupholder.
This is so weird because I installed OrganicMaps literally 2 days ago as part of a house-wide “fuck Google”. I’ve purged all machines of chrome, switched to duckduckgo, and changed my maps app. The “do no evil” has been cordycepys’d into a money fuelled corpo shitstain and deserves to collapse.
Fuck google.
Organic Maps is fantastic. I particularly use it for hiking, and it’s fantastic. It finds some amazing trails that I would otherwise never have gone to. Sometimes they can be challenging or overgrown, so you have to know what you’re doing and be prepared to turn back if necessary, but I owe a lot of truly incredible experiences to this app.
It originates as a fork of Maps.me, from when Maps.me changed to closed source. Since then Organic Maps has grown to become a lot better than the project it originates from, at least according to my preferences.
Sometimes they can be challenging or overgrown, so you have to know what you’re doing and be prepared to turn back if necessary, but I owe a lot of truly incredible experiences to this app.
Since it uses OpenStreetMap you should consider updating it for others later. Don’t think you can do it in Organic, but it can be as simple as in a browser adding a note to a trail about what state it is in.
Sometimes it seems to know that the paths are not the best, and I really force it to take the path I choose instead of more convenient ones. So it only suggests the rugged paths when I insist it goes “there, but via there there and there”. Generally I can make it through, and how overgrown a path is can change by the season, so it’s a bit tricky. At one point in Italy though I ended up at a Via Ferrata, at which point I obviously had to turn back.
I have Street Complete installed, so I’ve started leaving notes using that whenever I notice any issues. And to make contributions now and then, of course. :)
It’s the best. I started using it because it let me pre download as many regions as I wanted unlike OSMand. Having android auto integration is nice even if it’s very rough around the edges. Unfortunately google blocks android auto on non-play store versions because google.
Interesting detail: note how it does not mention or even try to explain what would be allegedly violating the families program eligibility. This is likely part of Google’s procedures to tire the devs down.
If the dev is smart they should be capitalising on that nice, nice Streisand effect. “Google uses its monopoly over app store to remove competitor Organic Maps”. Remember - against Google you don’t need to pull your punches, you can go all out.
I also hope that the dev uses the opportunity to advertise F-Droid. BTW I’m installing this right now.
Honestly, this whole thing is probably because some underpaid and under-trained reviewer just made a bad call, because this doesn’t really make sense. I’m sure it’ll be restored in a day or two.
It’s back up in the play store
