Maps application

One more problem is :
most of these apps are using Google TTS (Text To Speech)

Result: Your app will stay silent, you won’t get any vocals

ok… Is it the same thing with magic Earth ?

Which app are you using yourself?

Report for Maps.me, 16 trackers :face_with_hand_over_mouth:

Report for Magic Earth, 0 tracker :blush:

For myself, i would like Sygic interface, with Maps.me efficiency, with Magic Earth trackers :joy:

Magic Earth interface is :face_vomiting: , too many menu on the main screen, and you need several clicks to get your way

For now i’m using Maps.me

The choice doesn’t seem to be easy ! I’m gonna try Magic earth and see how I feel with it :slight_smile:

Thanks for helping me :slight_smile:

Interesting how different people see different things. For me the Magic Earth interface is good, but could be better, but the maps.me interface is bad. One thing I have noticed is Magic Earth uses much less battery power than Google Maps or Waze. I haven’t compared to maps.me as maps.me cannot find the address I want to go to in >90% of cases, so I don’t use it much. Here wego is nice but it does not seem to offer live traffic re-routing and is a big data user.

perhaps because they have more functions, such as vehicular traffic information

Yeah totally.
Makes sense
Saving battery :+1: :joy:

Actually Magic Earth has both traffic information and traffic based rerouting. It seems to work more smoothly than waze. I have only been using Magic Earth for a month or so but so far it seems to do everything I need.

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My experience is that M.E. never reported queues or accidents to me, it never warned me (I’ve been using it since September). Instead, every time I closed it and opened Waze, this gave me the report (by different colours on road). So I started using Waze on routes/times where I know there could be long queues. If M.E. is installed by 1/2 million people and Waze 100 million you can understand why in fact, Magic Earth has no traffic information even if it can potentially manage them… the fact that you can manage them does not mean that it will provide you with them.

If there was no re-routing, there would be no navigation app either. There is no navigation system without rerouting…

Since we are talking about cartography and gis, in addition to the number of total installations is important the density / diffusion.

Clearly with 100 million Waze installations, it’s easier that someone is connected and ahead of me on the route and has reported queue/incident. That’s why Waze is actually much more useful than M.E.

Waze is also much more up to date on road signs than Magic Earth. Try using it in a metropolitan city and you’ll see clearly.

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Agreed that Waze should have the best traffic information, it does not seem to make good use of it at least where I live, directing me into a traffic jam at least once a week. What impresses me about M.E. is it seems to have very good learning algorithms. For the first week I used it it took me on all sorts of odd routes, but since then it has (mostly) been working well. I have not been using it long enough to see how it does with a gridlock situation.

Agree the coloured road style is nice, but I could never see this well enough on Waze to use it while driving. Google is much better at this. I also like Googles time difference on alternatives when coming up to a decision point.

As for map accuracy M.E. uses Open Street Maps (with enhancements from somewhere). The only errors I have seen is one road name had a typing error but being open street maps I was able to correct that issue, and a few of the speed limits are incorrect. Waze has multiple errors near where I live, and Google has some big errors.

my experience is that on the same path beginning and end, in 3 different times in 3 weeks M.E., always told me to enter in the opposite direction of a one-way street… If someone wants to try… for me he doesn’t learn anything. The fourth time I used Waze, no mistake (but different route). But surely an error can happen. Of course, M.E. didn’t give me the impression of learning anything.

at first, M.E. seemed perfect to me. But you have to test it in complex situations. A metropolitan city or even better, e.g. in Italy, Venice… Venice, for foot navigation, probabily is the real final test, at least in Italy… :joy:

In my experience, for long distances, M.E. seems to me to have a routing algorithm better than Google Maps, smarter. In situations of complexity of the road network, Waze is better than M.E.

I use both (M.E. and Waze). I would say that having more than one navigation system and understanding its strengths and weaknesses allows us to choose the best one in every situation.

I’m not using Magic Earth because :

  • speed limits are often wrong
  • it is often giving me slower itineraries
  • interface needs so many click just to get one way

yes i agree, by the way Perhaps Google is also using in a better way trafic informations, to get a huge amount of data is useless if you’re not using it in a smart way.

Still, i sincerely hope that Magic Earth will quickly improve :sunny:

Waze == Google. Not really what /e/ is about.

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@Vaughan yes.
Good point here!:joy:

Magic Earth = ? (i don’t know, if someone knows what data M.E. collects through the unique identifier of the device…thank you). If an app is free, sometimes (often) you are the product.

An example of /e/ compliant navigation system: https://www.tomtom.com/en_gb/sat-nav/car-sat-nav/products/go-basic-5-inch/ :wink:

I haven’t found a navigation app doesn’t transmit some of my data and has the characteristics of at least M.E., better if as Waze. Otherwise I don’t need it, it doesn’t help me to reach a place.
If someone knows it… thank you!

Hey all,

i’m looking for a GPS app which is not sending my location.
Could you give me any advices ?

:grimacing:

@Superman I suggest you OsmAnd, the premium version is officialy available for free on F-Droid. It’s a little complicated to handle but after a couple of hours it should be alright.

It works offline so no issue with your location being sent.

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I agree Magic Earth = ? What we do know is that Google will aggregate data about you from as many sources as it possibly can. Therefore it is probably sensible, if you are using an online navigation app, to use one which is not known to be owned by Google. My personal preference is for OsmAnd using offline maps only. YMMV.

Thank you, but of course don’t have the information on traffic, traffic accidents, closed roads.

it was a kind of joke :wink:
I wanna say that it’s impossible to get an efficient GPS app without sending bunch of data… :smile_cat:
(because of traffic jam, closed roads and so on)

For now, i’m using Maps.me
I’m using OsmAnd too but clearly i prefer maps.me’s interface :cowboy_hat_face:

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