Well, the “app” in this case is just a thin webview wrapper over the real app, which is Google Maps itself. Google Maps can’t be the alternative to itself, and wrapping it in a browser window doesn’t turn it into not-Google Maps.
Turns out making a third party client for a hostile proprietary service is very difficult, so some people like to think they can just shove the proprietary webapp into a webview or Electron “app” and have a “FOSS alternative” that way. Unfortunately, wrapping a proprietary app in a FOSS wrapper doesn’t change the non-freeness of the real app code. I don’t know of any actual FOSS clients for Google Maps, so the only other real alternatives would be OSM apps.
I’ll ditch OrgMaps; it’s just that it got me through sooooooooooooooooooooo many trips across the US.
The other problem is so many of these apps say they were made for older Andr Versions. It all most makes me want to go back to buying crap phones so I can use all the apps on F-Droid.
I’ve been using OSM/OsmAnd on my Linux PC and Android-alternative (grapheneos) phone & never heard of Organic or comaps before now. That’s odd since I made a bunch of searches about a year ago to get OSM to play nicely on my phone.
I was using an interesting app as an alternative to Google Maps lately until it started sending me on incomprehensible detours on the road. I was using Here WeGo because OSMAnd was too jerky. Actually, I’d like to know what you use as an alternative to Google Maps and the problems you’ve had to overcome to end up with an interesting app that truly serves as an alternative.
A wonderful application at first glance. Unlike others, it immediately found all the addresses I searched for. The interface is very beautiful, simple, and fluid. I’m going to install it and use it as my main “map app” for a few weeks to try it out. Moreover, there seems to be an opportunity to take part in this project, either by developing for it or financing it. Thanks for the information!
BTW, if any addresses are missing in CoMaps you can add them via https://www.openstreetmap.org—this is a community project from which CoMaps pulls data every couple of weeks or so. Map editing is very straightforward (I do it myself from time to time) and your contributions are very welcome.
But that’s about WiFi and network cells scanning right?
CoMaps runs fine without that when you got good GPS signal.
On the other hand it’s less accurate without that. On the third hand: enabling that doesn’t improve anything when I’m on the middle of first floor of 5 level concrete building, so it’s up to you if you want faster and better accuracy in exchange for your data.
I had a very bad experience with the Tuta team. I paid for a “Legend” subscription and never received the service. I tried to reach them in every possible way and never got any response from them. I find this to be a despicable team that does not deserve a place in the free software world.
