Tried to use OSMAnd last week to navigate around on vacation. For some reason it seems to be incapable of searching for house numbers, which is an instant dealbreaker. I’m very confused as to how or why this is a thing on such a mature product.
I was able to share a location from GMaps WV over to it to get navigation working, and from there the navigation was awesome!
Currently also testing Magic Earth and Organic Maps but I’m very interested to hear from those with more experience.
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I use Organic Maps. OsmAnd is also pretty good.
Organic Maps and Magic Earth are awesome. The best I’ve had so far. Magic Earth is more optimized for driving, though if that is what you’re looking for.
I love Organic Maps, it is clean, simple, and works for 95% of my needs. The rest of the times I resort to OsmAnd, which is heavier and more complicated but has many more options.
The house number search can be tricky with OpenStreetMap based apps, unfortunatey, but still better than using Google, in my opinion.
I used Magic Earth in the past, but it has some wrong information in my city (an important road is marked as closed and it calculates long detours) which is not coming from OpenStreetMap, so I personally don’t trust it.
The house number search can be tricky
Is it? Or does it just not work?
Depends on if someone uploaded the data for the target area, and the lookup is not intuitive for North Americans.
As I said 4 other times in this thread, the data exists.
I saw that as I continued reading other comments.
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I don’t think the data is there for most house numbers. Everywhere I go, Street Complete is asking me for house numbers.
They are there. If I zoom in I can see them. If I search in the other apps I can see them.
What is Street Complete?
With Street complete you can contribute to openstreetmaps by entering data for things in your proximity like house numbers, pavement types, directions of lanes, height of buildings and what not.
Oh cool!
It probably varies by location. I live in a pretty small town, and StreetComplete hasn’t asked me for house numbers yet at all.
I think it depends on whether the buildings have been added. I don’t get asked for house numbers, but when I looked on the OSM website, most of the buildings themselves are missing.
On the bright side, I’ve got plenty of things to do :)
Yeah, now that I look I see there are a lot of buildings not shown at all
OSMAnd uses Open Street Maps data for it’s map, so the product can be mature but the data is not for the area you were navigating.
I’ve been on a crusade to fill the holes in the data for the places I go, including house and business numbers using OpenStreetMap. If everyone were to do this for the places they go, we’d have all the addresses filled in and more!
Yes, Im aware of that. Hence the title. The data is there. I can zoom in and see it. It just doesn’t appear in the search.
Ohh! Yeah, the search is awful. I use a separate address to coordinate search, but it’s online, so I need to do it before I go off into the countryside.
The only thing I’ve seen work on occasion is to put the house number after the street, like “river drive 123”
If the numbers were added less than a month ago that may cause this. I added an address number and uploaded it, but it would not show in search until a full map update a month later. Not even the daily updates would show it.
My favorite app ever, not just mapping apps is Locus.
It justbdoes everything I need when I am outside.
Doesn’t look like I can get that one without Google Play…
It’s on F-Droid
Link?
Locus is a commercial application from a small czech company (around 10 employees). Pricing is overall fair and they work hard to get wishes from the users in the app. But I can understand when one wants to prevent using apps which are using google services.
An open source app which goes in a similar direction is Osmand+ which is on fdroid for sure https://f-droid.org/packages/net.osmand.plus/
Yes I mentioned in my original post that OSMAnd isn’t working for me
Ahh weird. I just tested it and Osmand showed me the correct house just fine when I searched with a number. Tested for two houses. I had to download the map though, otherwise no results.
Yes, as I said, I can see the properties on the map but it will not find them when I search for them.
TIL there are multiple open street map apps (obvious that there would be now I think about it!)
Clearly I have nothing to add, but thanks for asking the question, I’ll be saving the post and trying out all the answers!
I used Magic Earth only two times but it worked really great and the Speed Camera indicator is a plus
The name is cringeworthy, but Magic Earth is a very good piece of software.
seems to have trouble with navigating for bicycles, but otherwise it’s good.
Specifically for motorcycles, I’ve come to very much appreciate Go Ride that’s made by TomTom, I believe.
OSMAnd has a UI made in hell, so i understand why you would be looking for an alternative.
That’s what I’ve been using lately, thanks!
Well, if OpenStreetMap doesnt have the house or building number at all you will need to add them. If the numbers are their then try searching by (city streetname building number). Example would look like “Atlanta Amber Road Northwest 3733”. If the building number doesnt exist in the OSM database try gps-coordinates.net and enter the address. Once you get the coordinates plug those into OsmAnd (i think it will only take the first 5 numbers after the “.” So 32.12345678 would have to be entered as 32.12345
Well, if OpenStreetMap doesnt have the house or building number at all you will need to add them.
You’re the 4th person to say this. So for the 4th time, they ARE in OSM.
This dev in the link gathers address data and inserts it into map obf files. You download each one you need then you put the obf file in osmands android data directory where your map files usually go. There’s also an app called addresstogps that allows you to lookup an address and it converts it into gps coordinates and allows you to open it in any map app. However addresstogps uses Google as a back end. Ive found that dev in the links address lookup to be so robust, there’s almost never a time when I need to use a different address lookup.
I don’t understand what you’re saying
The app addresstogps is a separate thing. Its an app in the play store.
What are you having trouble understanding specifically?
Things I don’t understand
- “dev in the link”
- “obf files”
- Android data directory
Also I can use GW maps to get locations and share them over but why not just use an app that works instead?
I meant the developer in the link I posted. Obf files are just the file type that the maps are in. Android directory is when you go into your android file manager, there is a list of folders like android or downloads. When you choose the android folder, the next folders are data, media,and obb.
Why not just use an app? Thats what addresstogps does pretty much. Its very easy. But for some people its a deal breaker that it uses Google as a back end for data. The other thing is it requires data to work.
So addresstogps is way easier but it requires data to work. If you’re going hiking or camping and cant get cell service for example, addresstogps wouldnt work but, those map files preloaded with address data would. They don’t require data. Which are the obf map files.
The link I posted, the dev has inserted address data into the map file for every state in the us plus some other countries. You download the obf file for each state you need. Then in android data subdirectory in your filemanager where osm puts its own map obf files you’ll replace there’s with these. You’ll have to either use a third party file manager app or a computer will work. If your maps are on the SD card, then it’ll be in the same directory but under the SD card.
My guy you posted like 74 comments so maybe I missed the one with the link in it.
I see no reason to go through the trouble of dealing with these workarounds when it’s simply not a problem for other apps and when I can already find the data with GW Maps.
But thanks anyway.
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OsmAnd is a favorite of mine. If you live in one of the covered areas (North America for sure) OpenSuperMaps merges a US style address search and most street addresses into the maps.
OsmAnd search goes by town, street, number while these maps work with “25 oak street Chicago Illinois”. Also, the open street maps rely on croud sharing for map details, so many areas have very little detail, while others put Google Maps to shame.
For navigation, I like Magic Earth. It includes similar search ability and has Waze-like features. The only problem is a lack of critical mass of users to get good traffic and hazard warnings. You can be one more user to supply such info.
@MasterBuilder @HughJanus
+1 for OsmAnd, although for routing, I find Organic Maps to be a little snappier on the UI and feels more like ordinary routing apps.
