> What makes Organic Maps better?
> I’m not sure I would believe that base map correctness or POIs could ever be better though.
You'll be surprised. I cannot speak for Organic Maps, but I can speak for OSMand tested for years in Germany and Japan. Same OSM data at the end of the day. Even today, OSMand distinguishes better between building blocks. I see subdivisions of address numbers, which Google Maps hides with it's minimalist grey for the whole apartment block design.
Further more, I often see small walkways and paths simply not represented in Google Maps, whereas they are in Google Maps. And for some reason, here in Japan Google Maps often suggests too-clever for its own good detours, which end up being way slower, whereas OSMand with it's simpler(?) navigation algorithm sticks to more consistent routes along bigger roads.
If address and POI search could be further improved, I wouldn't see a reason to use Google Maps ever again.
Google (and Apple) maps are very car-centric, so they are on the same level as OSM in that regard, but OSM knows about every foot/cycle path and even has different levels of "quality" for them.
What I miss in Organic Maps compared to OSMAnd is being able to choose a category of POIs which are then shown even when zoomed further out - useful if you are looking for e.g. restaurants nearby.
Either this doesn't do what you want, or you just haven't discovered it yet, but in case it's the latter: I can e.g. search for "restaurant" in Organic Maps, then tap the Floating Action Button with the map icon, and then it will show all search results on the map, even when zoomed out.
Actually that's exactly what I wanted, thanks for the hint! I just wasn't expecting to find it under the "search" function - I have mostly used OSMAnd until now, and I only learned of Organic Maps through HN and installed it a few weeks ago, same as the author of the blog post. Even better, the search function also has a "categories" tab where you can select "places to eat", "sights", "transport", "petrol", "parking", "ATM" etc. Looks like they put a lot of thought into "streamlining" the UI, and the individual functions are more versatile than you might expect...
but the quality of OSM maps is way above Google in terms of details.
For some data in some part parts of the world. In rural (and even suburban) Sweden for example half the buildings are missing, many roads aren't named and search is straight up broken. What it will give you over Google is that every hiking trail and bike path is included.
I experience the same in Bulgaria - many street names or street numbers are missing or even wrong (e.g. I search for a street and Maps.ME finds a feet track inside a park 2-3km away of the real street)
True, but it is also one of the most commonly used functions for mobile map apps, and without that feature working reliably your app can never become someones primary map app. At best you can become a backup app for those times Google/Apple Maps doesn't work.
> If address and POI search could be further improved, I wouldn't see a reason to use Google Maps ever again.
For my part this works well enough on OSMand/Organic maps but what they lack is traffic information.
On my main route there can be anywhere from 0 to 1h of traffic, and Google maps seems to be very accurate at estimating it.
Anytime I don't need traffic info, I use another map application because Google maps had all kinds of errors and missing information, but no other app has reliable traffic information (I realise Google has it because people use Google maps, but I wish it was different).
You'll be surprised. I cannot speak for Organic Maps, but I can speak for OSMand tested for years in Germany and Japan. Same OSM data at the end of the day. Even today, OSMand distinguishes better between building blocks. I see subdivisions of address numbers, which Google Maps hides with it's minimalist grey for the whole apartment block design.
Further more, I often see small walkways and paths simply not represented in Google Maps, whereas they are in Google Maps. And for some reason, here in Japan Google Maps often suggests too-clever for its own good detours, which end up being way slower, whereas OSMand with it's simpler(?) navigation algorithm sticks to more consistent routes along bigger roads.
If address and POI search could be further improved, I wouldn't see a reason to use Google Maps ever again.