Re:CoMaps: New OSM based navigation app
by gedankenstuecke on Thursday July 03, 2025 @09:52AM
(#44455106)
> That said, if you're just looking for a simple maps app, I suppose OsmAnd could be quite overwhelming and this would probably be a lot better.
That's the main draw of CoMaps to me. I also have OsmAnd installed and it's useful for more complex uses, but for a quick lookup CoMaps works a lot better for me. OsmAnd is more the swiss army knife of navigation tools, with all the complexity that means.
Organic maps is my go to for those reasons.
I feel the same. I just installed it and there are almost no features besides the map of course. I am super happy with osmand.
Are there any sources that open source apps can use to get traffic information?
There are government databases and various public-private partnerships, but the most common method of traffic information is by collecting users' information while driving. There are companies that resell access to that data too: https://www.mapbox.com/traffic-data
OpenStreetMap doesn't even seem interested in things like "this street is closed next week Tuesday", but maybe there's another open project that collects this information for maps apps. I don't know any, though.
> OpenStreetMap doesn't even seem interested in things like "this street is closed next week Tuesday"
OpenStreetMap data consumers can have much longer update cycles than "next week", so it makes sense to have such information outside of the map data if you are implementing a router.
That said, if you're just looking for a simple maps app, I suppose OsmAnd could be quite overwhelming and this would probably be a lot better.
I never really got what the Organic Maps drama was about, but as long as the two can peacefully coexist I hope they'll work together to make their apps as good as they can be.