Maps alternatives?

Applications
#1

Switched from a Jolla to a Sony XA2 (great device/experience, btw). Now as per subject I noticed that the (Here) Maps app is not here… This is rather important so I’m not sure what to do now?

  • it seems that Maps a) is not available for license reason and b) some people take the app over from the former device. Question, how would I do that? Or - if this cannot be discussed here - where do I find this info?

  • another approach would be to look out for a replacement app. Didn’t find something obvious in the store. I’m fine with using an Android app. Offline content would be even better. Any recomendations?

Thank you.

#2

Jolla was/is recomenting the android here maps app. However you can use Puremaps which is native. You have to get it from openrepos though.

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#3

Thank you for the fast reply.

What would you recommend? And - if you have a sense about it - what do you think most people with Sailfish phones are using?

I hoped to avoid openrepos (in order to keep it ‘dump simple’) but if necessary, I’ll go that way and spend the time to learn about it :face_with_monocle:. In the Aptoid store I didn’t find an obvious ‘Here map’ candidate/app. On the other hand a duck search gave an ‘Here apk’ [1] which didn’t look bad at first sight.

[1] https://here.en.softonic.com/android

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#4

Definitely PureMaps from OpenRepos!

Not much to learn about:
either download RPMs (PureMaps, OSMScoutServer,Mimic from rinigus site.

Or download latest StoreMan and activate rinigus repository.

1 Like
#5

If you want Android map apps :

  • Here WeGo (the new name of here maps)
  • Magic Earth (uses OSM maps and have good navigation in car and claims to respect privacy)
  • OsmAnd (uses OSM maps and is open source)

There is others map apps that use OSM but many are filled with trackers and ads (such as Maps Me). You can check here for exodus privacy reports for apps you like if that’s a criteria : https://reports.exodus-privacy.eu.org/

I usually install multiple map apps and use according to what I’m doing.
Pure map is good enough for quick search but wasn’t satisfying for me in car navigation.
Here WeGo is probably the best in maps and car navigation.
Magic Earth is a second best for me if you wish to use OSM maps and tracking/ad-free.

4 Likes
#6

Furthermore:

Personally I stay away from softonic!

2 Likes
#7

I installed sailfish-maps on my XA2 with use my J1.
Look at this thread:

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#8

Download HereWeGo from the Android Store that is included with the Android support in Sailfish.

Pure Maps is very good but I prefer HereWeGo

#9

In addition to OsmAnd over Android abstraction layer and Pure Maps+OSM Scout Server from OpenRepos I can suggest also OSM Scout from standard Jolla Store (if you like offline navigation with downloaded maps).

#10

To all the people that find Pure Maps lacking in certain areas and “prefer” other apps. Could you write a thing or two about it. Where is it lacking. Constructive criticism is always useful.

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#11

Probably we should start a new thread about this, but ability to read and|or save GPX file from|to your private server is a feature that is not available in OsmAnd, Pure Maps+OSM Scout Server and OSM Scout. And all these 3 are already excellent (OsmAnd actually has already too many features and I often prefer the last two).

Typical use case - you go traveling with a team and prepare a GPX file with the places that you will visit and load it to phones of everyone. But then you would like to add, remove or change items in this file. Currently the only way is to update all phones manually. But imagine that you could change the file at your private server and it gets updated by everyone in some time (one way sync).

And then imagine that there is multiway-sync, where everyone can add, update, remove items to the same file (or dataset). Of course this looks more like cvs management, needs serverside software and is be too complex to implement.

The oneway sync probably covers over 50% of use-cases and is a lot simpler to implement.

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#12

Out of curiosity: Does the genuine here rpm which was supplied with the jolla phone install (and work) on newer phones?

#13

Would be interesting to here what is missing in Pure Maps, indeed. @ApB, thanks for moving discussion in this direction. Same goes for constructive feedback for other map client that is actively developed by @Karry - OSM Scout.

In respect to sync, I have followed a bit Nextcloud Maps with this view. Now, we don’t have access to accounts in SFOS from the apps (feel free to vote for corresponding API at API Priority poll, take II). Ideally, when users would define Nextcloud account, we could sync Favorites (bookmarks) and maybe few other data on the cloud.

Don’t know how would you imagine such sync. If GPX, would it be for points or routes? How to make it compatible with Android/iOS apps? I presume the team would have one SFOS user and others on mainstream devices. Do you know any apps implementing such sync? Ideally, using some open standard. I am not aware of any, but I could have missed this functionality.

PS: When wishing to reach the developers, don’t forget to file issues in the projects.

4 Likes
#14

OsmAnd has a feature My Places: Favourites and OSM Scout has Collections. Into both you load a prepared gpx file and use it when traveling. In my case gpx file is prepared in text editor and includes points (you know: museum, castle, beach, hotel, etc). I haven’t used tracks, since they are compiled in real-time (take me from current position to museum that you pick from prepared favourite points).

Nextcloud of course would be a solution, but I even imagined that simple url to read-only file without any private information like https://somesite.net/mystuff/bigtour/ourplans.gpx would cover a lot of use cases. You would update the file by whatever means you have set up for your own server (webdav, ssh, etc) or use some cloud service (xxxBox, yyyDrive, etc whatever can publish an url to a file). Of course, if you have private information in the file, then most users would require authentication and then need for integration with Sailfish Accounts is important.

#15

Those look to be more one-way imports and not supporting sync as such, if I read it correctly. It surely possible to have an import for favorites (bookmarks in Pure Maps), question is more in how to organize export. I will have to check whether GPX can be used to keep bookmarks as a storage format. Then such sync would be automatically supported

#16

Hi all. Some kind of cloud storage is on my TODO list for OSM Scout for long time (see this github issue). I do trip planning on the computer, then carry just phone on hike. On the trip I usually track the route (for georeferencing photos and measurements) and creating new waypoints for fixing OSM data later on the computer… For this routine, I need to transfer gpx files and import / export them manually, it would be great to have it automatic. But you know, time is limited.

As a transfer format may be used standard gpx file - it supports waypoints (wpt tag) routes and tracks. As a cloud storage, Owncloud / Nextcloud may be used, there exists plugins able to modify gpx files (but in alpha quality) directly in browser.

5 Likes
#17

@karry: for many practical sync tasks, I have been using syncthing for a while now. that includes syncing folders between PCs, PC-phone (sailfish and works on android devices as well). Which, from maps app perspective, allows you to limit such sync to a folder on device. The rest is done by syncthing for you. As it doesn’t really need any accounts and is working on share-based approach, it skips this issue with accounts access on SFOS.

So, it boils down to be able to load GPX (or some other standard format) into the application and save changes into that as well from/to some folder.

PS: In practice, to avoid battery impact, I am running syncthing on phone only when I want to sync something with it. So, as soon as sync action is done, I stop it.

PPS: But maybe this discussion should be moved away from “Maps not available”. As I disagree with such subject, they are available on SFOS.

#19

Recent news are that Here Wego allegedly shares ‘location intelligence’ with the DHS and NSA: Here maps no longer preferable (somebody's opinion) . Just so you know.

#20

Indeed. I mentioned this before in this forum (‘Someone’s opinion’) and as a comment in Jolla’s app store.
This is the reason that I have quit Here and that I now use MagicEarth. Others suggest Pure Maps, but that’s a bit complicated to my taste.

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#21

For the skeptics: the information is from Here itself.

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