Organic Maps or OSMAnd+
On the journey to degoogle my life and wanted to ask if the community prefers OSMAnd+ or Organic Maps for driving navigation. I got OSMAnd+ but now started to hear some really good things about organic Maps. Was wondering if I should consider switching.
19 replies
Thanks, I just did a quick test and it seems that organic Maps is still not available for Android auto. So will probably stick with OSMAnd+ until I can get rid of my Android auto dependency. I looked at GitHub and it seems that they are working on Android auto support so hopefully it will be ready soon. Keeping fingers crossed 🤞
Does OSMand+ have Android Auto support?
Yes, OSMAnd pro version supports Android Auto.
Tried it earlier and couldn't get it to work. Is it a special version from the Play Store or their website that includes the Android Auto support or something?
You have to enable developer mode in Android auto, add OSNAnd and then disable Android Auto to have it appear as an option. The instructions are on OSMAnd website. I followed those instructions and it worked. I have the FDroid version so not sure if it's different for the Google Play store version.
I'll check that out thanks.
Organic Maps has a more simple approach and is more like Google Maps. OSMAnd~ has a much broader feature set.
Organic maps ftw! It never disappointed me as a walker and is super convenient to use
Organic Maps have a much better rendering algorithm - meaning really fast, there is no lag when you scroll the map. OSMAnd has a really huge feature set. Almost anything you image from a map app. But it's soooo slow. I switched to Organic because I couldn't take the slowness.
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It seems that the new Opengl rendering option has finally made it into the Play store version (earlier this year I think?). For me panning the map is now so much smoother. Do you still experience choppiness?
I prefer Organic Maps honestly.
Didn't know about Organic Maps! I always used OSMAnd for navigation.
Depends.
For simple routes Organic Maps is perfect. But if you want to plan complex route (like many waypoints, road avoidance), the OSMAnd+ is better.
Unfortunately both are tricky on complex highway exits.
I just downloaded both yesterday. Do these use the same maps/databases or what's the difference?
I noticed OM gives more detailed control about downloading smaller map bits.
I didn't use any for driving, but I can tell you that I switched to OrganicMaps from osmand+ for all other navigation. The main reasons are speed (OM feels a lost smoother and snappier), and functionality (it's minimal, but just works very well). I had no real use for all the bells and wistles of osmand+, so OM made sense for me.