Furthermore:
Personally I stay away from softonic!
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I installed sailfish-maps on my XA2 with use my J1.
Look at this thread:
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Download HereWeGo from the Android Store that is included with the Android support in Sailfish.
Pure Maps is very good but I prefer HereWeGo
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).
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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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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Out of curiosity: Does the genuine here rpm which was supplied with the jolla phone install (and work) on newer phones?
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.
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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.
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
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.
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@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.
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.
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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For the skeptics: the information is from Here itself.
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For now I went with Magic Earth. Main reasons: runs well enough and laziness, i.e. just download from the Aptoide store without thinking and done… 
. The native Pure Maps would in principle be preferable. Plan to come back in future. Many thanks for all information (and the map-work)!
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I think the api that was missing is included in SFOS 4 so i believe at some point PureMaps will be available in the store. I hope at least.
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[Update] PureMaps works well and is now in the store.
MagicEarth worked also well but I like the UI a little less than PureMaps. This said as I was looking for .gpx route support I switched to OsmAnd~ (downloaded from F-Droid store). A bit complicated in parts but a very nice and as it seems popular app. Will donate.
(As has been mentioned, the title really is not appropriate: there are very useful map apps available for Sailfish (w/Android emulator) phones! Thanks again for all the helpful comments.)
Hi Rinigus,
Conscious I’m late to the party, I’ll offer my view on what’s missing in Pure Maps, structuring that by my own user cases.
Find where I am
Pure Map is excellent, even if there is no connectivity I have the OSM maps stored on the server. The compass is much better now, and there is nothing I can complain about.
Provide directions
- With pre-loaded gpx
Pure Map is imho the best choice for hiking or cyclotouring, enabling me to load any gpx I preloaded on the phone. There may be an easier way to load and save these gpx files (ie in a dedicated in-app library) but it’s already very good.
- Searching from scratch
If I want to reach a point with a car, a bike, or my legs, Pure Maps is still one of the the best apps I know. My only criticism would be that when you select a point on the map as a destination, Pure Maps will calculate a route using the previous setting used (walk/cycle/car/whatever) without making it obvious. It would be neater if the choice was asked just before calculation.
However, if I want to use other means such as public transports or city bikes, unfortunately Pure Maps is useless to me. I can select ‘Public transport’ in the itinerary types, but I’ve never managed to make it work, it keeps saying ‘routing failure’. This is where I miss the old Here Maps app, as I need to juggle with other maps such as National Rail, MultiModal or BikeMe when I’m in London to scratch the itch.
I hope that helps.
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My only criticism would be that when you select a point on the map as a destination, Pure Maps will calculate a route using the previous setting used (walk/cycle/car/whatever) without making it obvious. It would be neater if the choice was asked just before calculation.
Re route mode indicator: we used to have asking the mode before, but it was always on the way and resulted in extra clicks that you would have to do. Ideally, it should work in a streamlined manner as now, but would be clear to the user regarding the mode and how to change it. If you have an idea on how to implement UX, please file an issue at Github and let’s discuss it there.
However, if I want to use other means such as public transports or city bikes, unfortunately Pure Maps is useless to me. I can select ‘Public transport’ in the itinerary types, but I’ve never managed to make it work, it keeps saying ‘routing failure’.
Main problem is availability of public transport data. We used to have it for offline maps, but I couldn’t download it anymore when I tried last time. HERE maps support is planned, but so far nobody worked on it. It is issue #275 for Pure Maps.
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