Organic Maps travelers app

The exact knowledge of his location gives a person confidence. Less time goes to clarify “where I” and “where to go”. Time is a valuable resource. A person can spend him on something more useful than wandering along the dark nooks of a stranger. A caring navigator will protect from getting into a dangerous place. You will always know where the bus or taxi is taking you, in which direction the station or metro station is. If you liked it somewhere, whether it is a pleasant cafe, a curious monument or a cozy square, you can put a mark on a virtual map and return again. Today we will talk about the application for smartphones called Organic Maps , relatively fresh fork of the famous Maps.me.

Who needs Organic Maps

People often perceive navigation as something purely car. The ability not to get confused in cards and go around traffic jams is without a doubt useful. For this, separate devices have been created - automobile navigators. There are also applications for smartphones and tablets, specially “sharpened” for orientation behind the wheel, such as Yandex.Trans . Organic Maps is not devoid of the functions of a car navigator, but this is not its profile. For example, there is no traffic jam.

First of all, Organic Maps is intended for active travelers. If you are a fan of wandering on foot, traveling on a bicycle, skiing - it’s good to have a smartphone with Organic Maps in your pocket. The application will be useful for business trips, mushroom pickers, hunters , fans of fishing, orienters, orienters, players in geocashting and just fans of eating barbecue in the nearest suburban forest.

Why exactly Organic Maps

The application is simple, free, with an intuitive interface and open code. It requires a rather modest and reasonable list of permits during installation and does not torment you with advertising.

Organic Maps works with offline cards. That is, connected to the network, downloaded the necessary card, and no more the Internet is needed. Download the maps “in the field” for a long time and, most importantly, expensive. Especially in roaming somewhere abroad, say, in Paris. Try it - and end your fascinating journey in the tent of Kloshar on the embankment of Bersi. “ SIMS for travelers ” type DRIMSIM - so -so solution for cartography. And in the world there is a lot of places where there is no cellular connection or it is bad. Those who traveled to the Russian regions do not need to be explained.

Organic Maps uses very decent free OpenStreetMap data. Maps are loaded with one click, you do not need to look for them somewhere on sites on the network.

Of course, there are other cartographic applications. For example, a wonderful OSMAND (you may get caught by a paid version of plus, but there is a free version). Or my lovedly beloved functionality and frequent Locus Map updates. Organic Maps is not so stuffed with options, but easier, easier and solves most of my needs for cartography and navigation (in the end, you can put two or even three navigation applications on the smartphone).

But what about Maps.me?

The Maps.me service was created in 2010 by Belarusian programmers. Four years later, they sold their promising brainchild Russian holding Mail.ru Group. Under the wing of the new owner, the service in 2015 turned into an open code project. But the cartographic service did not fit into the family of Mail.ru products, and at the end of 2020, Mail.ru Group sold Maps.me Daegu Limited, which was engaged in money transfers. The first update of Maps.me caused considerable disputes and doubts .

In the summer of 2021, programmers who stood at the source of the project announced the creation of an fork . They promised that there would be no advertisement and cryptocurns in the application. According to them, 12 tracks were removed from the application, collecting user data. The number of lines of code has seriously decreased.

Where to get Organic Maps

The official website of the application.

You can download and install the application from here (Android) and from here (iOS).

Organic Maps interface

Turn on the GPS smartphone, start the application. Wait when a blue arrow on the screen will indicate your location (and direction of movement, if you are on the way).

On the right side you see two screens -scale buttons (plus and minus). The third button a little below allows you to centrize the card for the current location at any time. It also makes it possible to switch the orientation of the card. Most will probably be more convenient to keep the card in the direction of movement. Old school guidelines (like me) are more familiar with the Open "North from above".

In the upper left corner you can switch layers. For example, remove horizontal (height lines). The valuable function for those who like to get out of nature: the relief is visible, it is easy to understand where the ravine is, and where the hill is, which slope has cooler. Those who prefer walking around the city will appreciate the ability of Organic Maps to show a map of the lines and metro stations, not only Moscow and St. Petersburg.

At the bottom of the screen you can see a navigation panel with basic functions.

Loading maps

You can download a map for further use of offline in two simple ways.

First: being in the usual map mode, twist the screen in the direction of the area (country) that you need. When the cursor falls on Terra Incognita, there will be a proposal to download the corresponding card. Here you need the Internet, but you don’t need to wander around any sites: the card is downloaded and connected directly from the application.

Second: go to the settings (three stripes or, as it is also called, the “sandwich icon”, the “load cards” item, select the country (region).

The better the area has been studied, the higher the density and detailed objects, the more details and more voluminous the map. Desert Saudi Arabia in area 70 times larger than Belgium, but Belgium map is 4.5 times “heavier” by Saudi Arabia. The smallest maps “weigh” 1-2 megabytes, the largest are a few gigabytes.

Navigation on the route and tags

In the lower navigation panel, select the first item. Four methods of movement are available: car, on foot, metro, bicycle. The built route is easy to change, for example, add the intermediate points “where to call”. On the command, a classic navigator with warnings about turns, a kilometer meter, speed and pleasant vocal accompaniment is turned on.

You can add your tags to the map. It will come in handy if you want to remember some interesting and important place. The export of marks from Maps.me to Organic Maps was smooth and fast. The possibilities of editing the marks are basic: name, description, badge and group in which the label is preserved.

There is an opportunity to share with someone your whereabouts. Useful, for example, when you need to show a friend where you are waiting for him. The corresponding button in Organic Maps forms links for opening in the application and in a regular browser. If your friend is confused in landmarks, the words “latitude” and “longitude” sound for him like spells, and the phrase “one hundred meters to the northeast” drives into a stupor, nothing to worry about. It is enough for him to click the link you sent to see you on the map.

Search for interesting and useful places

Finally, what a navigation system without any useful points like gas stations and shops. Sometimes they are called POI - Points of Interest. In Organic Maps, they are and are laid out into categories. You can use the usual search (history is preserved, you can clean with one click). The Google Voice Search is also available.

In the Organic Maps database, all grocery stores near my house, a dog site, a kiosk "RSPRETOTI" were found, there was no only a small pharmacy and a ZOOTOVAR store. Not bad. The paths in the city forest park were discharged with great care. Even “secondary”, difficult to distinguishable in the grass and completely unlimited in winter.

In my opinion, to have an application on a smartphone, which allows you to navigate in an unfamiliar area, to inform your exact location, to see where the path in the park leads or how to get to the nearest metro or hospital station is useful.