MAPS.ME

MAPS.ME
Author:	MapsWithMe GmbH
License:	closed source and older versions available at Apache v2.0 on GitHub (in-app purchases)
Platforms:	iOS and Android
Version:	? (Android); ? (iOS) (2023-05-19)
Languages:	English, Arabic, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Slovak, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Traditional Chinese, Turkish, Ukrainian, and Vietnamese
Website:	https://maps.me
Install:	Huawei AppGallery Google Play App Store
Source code:	closed source, older versions available at mapsme/omim GitHub
Programming language:	C++
Offline maps of all countries, fast renderer, offline search, whole planet fits to 27Gb

MAPS.ME (formerly known as MapsWithMe) is a proprietary mobile app for iOS and Android. Since the developers reduced app quality many users and OSM community members recommend Organic Maps as a replacement of MAPS.ME. Problems include pushing their subscription model by moving more and more features of the app behind the pay wall (charging for access for OSM-based maps), abandoning open source, removal of functionality and other issues.

As Organic Maps is a fork / spin-off of MAPS.ME, the look, feel and functionality of both is very similar. Most notably the map style is almost the same. Unlike the proprietary MAPS.ME, however, Organic Maps is open source software. Moreover Organic Maps has no trackers, requires far less invasive permissions, has no invasive ads and allows some simple edits from within the app.

Features

MAPS.ME provides offline maps of the entire world based on OpenStreetMap data. The basic functionality of the app can be used for free. But to access all features and to download more than 10 map regions, a subscription is required.

• Routing — receive offline map directions to a specific location. Note that bicycle routing offers invalid routes, violating tagged turn restrictions, what generates routes unsafe and illegal to follow.
• download maps for offline usage
• Possibility to determine user’s location through the use of GPS
• Offline search (by name, address, category and coordinates)
• Adding bookmarks
• Auto-follow mode
• Possibility to share location and bookmarks with friends
• Import of bookmarks and tracks in KML format
• Switching between different map styles
• Record GPS track in Dat format (GPX convertor). The track will be removed automatically from the map after the time interval will expire (1 hour by default).

GPX Track recording

You need use "Recent track" option (app's settings – Map – Recent track) and set 1 day instead 1 hour. Recent track stores in gps_track.dat file. Located at "MapsWithMe" folder. To convert .dat file to .gpx you need use convertors 1, 2.

Pricing

The subscription, called Maps.me Pro, costs 3.79€/month or 35.99€/year (March 2024). With Maps.me Pro users can download more than 10 map regions.

Privacy

The app does send activity (including used locations) and phone detail data to maps.me and external parties, including tracking services, even when having the map data downloaded before (offline map). This is not what users of an OSM offline app may expect. For a review of the iOS version, see the SotM 2019 talk Is your OSM App spying on you? (@ 8:57–15:18 min). Regarding the Android version see two discussions [1] and [2] about axet's version of the MAPS.ME app (this fork removed many, but – in the past – not always all trackers). However, the fork is no longer maintained and not accessible on the F-Droid store anymore. A contemporary tracker free fork of Maps.me is Organic Maps.

Editing

Maps.me offers a simple build in editor with limited functionality that only allows adding new POIs to OSM. Editing or deleting existing POIs or publishing notes is not possible. Users can, however, upload changes to POIs they added themselves. Moreover the app offers the option to "delete" such POIs. This option, however, doesn't delete the POI, but creates a Note asking more experienced mappers for help.

A major problem, recently introduced, is, that users can not see all existing POIs, as POIs are only displayed if there is enough space on the map for feature icons and labels to not overlap. This means, that users e.g. add a duplicate supermarket, just because they can not see the supermarket already mapped in OSM as it is e.g. hidden by an ATM. The only conclusion that can be drawn from this is: Don't use Maps.me for editing OpenStreetMap data.

Note that the editing functionality was changed in 2023, before that editing existing POIs and adding Notes was possible. If you want to edit existing POIs, use Organic Maps.

Questionable edits

Main article: MAPS.ME/Questionable OSM Edits

Some users within the community have expressed concern regarding the quality of many MAPS.ME contributions. MAPS.ME provides a low entry barrier for OSM editing, causing an influx of users unaware of rules, guidelines, and conventions (many of which, presumably, never visited this Wiki) and which in many cases aren't even aware that they are contributing to a crowdsourced mapping project separate from Maps.me.

Low-quality edits are made more likely by the app's design. For instance, the scope of the edits appears to be unclear for many users, and some assume they are editing their own personal map. Another problem is the limited selection of POI presets, with no ability to map anything which isn't predefined. This causes new mappers to use the wrong tags. For example, tourism=guest_house or tourism=attraction are quite often used as generic markers to tag anything that doesn't fit any predefined preset.

It is not uncommon to see Maps.me contributions that can only be assumed to be personal "bookmarks".

The vast majority of Maps.me contributions are language-specific (using name:<lang> instead of name), requiring correction by experienced contributors in order to show up on maps not specific to the language used (if the object previously had no name tag). This behaviour prevents inexperienced tourists from unwittingly overwriting native names, but of course places a bit of a workload on "normal mappers". Experienced contributors can edit the name tag directly by tapping Add a language and selecting the Native for each country option.

Situation is made worse by MAPS.ME developers generally ignoring bug reports.

History

Main article: MAPS.ME/History

Small international company MapsWithMe with headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland, and engineering office in Minsk, Belarus, was founded in 2010.

In 2012 MapsWithMe became first on Startup Monthly — startup competition in Vilnius, Lithuania. The team won a nine-week traineeship in the Silicon Valley, USA, as a prize.

Beside MAPS.ME app, the company develops offline travel guides GuideWithMe based on WikiVoyage data and MAPS.ME API.

In 2013 developers of YotaPhone, a Russian smartphone with two displays, asked MapsWithMe to develop a version of the app especially for the e-ink display of the device. MapsWithMe released a special version of the app optimized for both color and e-ink screens of the smartphone. The main screen allows users to see maps of all world countries, drop pins on the map and find their location. Then it is possible to move the maps to the e-ink display to use the map in the energy-saving mode.

In 2014 Maps.Me, was included in the list of top-15 startups according to Belarusian web-portal IT.TUT.BY.

In November 2014, Maps.Me was bought by Mail.Ru Group, a Russian internet company, and the whole team relocated to Moscow. In 2017, the team consists of roughly 25 people, developers and marketing.

In April 2016 the build in OpenStreetMap editor was published. See History of the Editor for further details.

On November 2020, Mail.ru Group sold Maps.me to Daegu Ltd.

The new version 11.0.0 for iOS released in December 2020 changed the app significantly and removed what made this app interesting and worth using. E.g. the map style is completely different, there are no house numbers, no street names, no adding and editing POIs. During this change the project was forked, with the fork named Organic Maps. However, as of version 12 many of the offending changes seem to have been undone, with MAPS.ME and Organic Maps' product appearing quite similar. MAPS.ME requests much more permissions - such as contacts, biometric hardware and recording audio. It also continued to focus on monetization with local guides, tourism and commerce which may be either useful features - or an obnoxious clutter.

In June 2021, the Maps.Me fork Organic Maps launched in the Play Store and App Store

In summer 2023 the developers limited the number of map regions that can be downloaded for free to 10, resulting in user complaints. A few months later the limite appeares to have been removed. As of spring 2024 the limitation is back in place. Additionally the number of bookmarks that can be saved was limited.

In summer 2024 the build in editor was shut down for a few months.

History of the Editor

The Maps.me editor was introduced in April 2016. It focused on being simple and easy to use as it targeted users without OSM experience. It was designed as a POI editor with limited functionality and therefore only allowed editing and adding POIs. So adding or changing the geometry of e.g. roads or buildings is not supported. The app offers the options Edit place and Add a place as well as the option Report a problem to create a Note. The "delete" option of the editor was designed to not delete the POI, but create a Note asking more experienced mappers for help.

Monthly contributor count of Maps.me and Organic Maps

With a low barrier of entry and a Maps.me user base of, back then, 7 million, the release of the editor had a visible impact in the OSM user statistics. The number of new contributors per month doubled in the first months after the release. There was, however, no significant impact on the edit count per month as most most Maps.me editors only created few contributions. After reaching its peak of 19 thousand users per month in August 2016, the number of users gradually decreased in the following years. Starting in 2021 the editor is also used in Organic Maps, a Maps.me fork.

Problems with the Editor

Bugs in the editor caused a large number of bad edits and notes. While some bugs are fixed in newer Maps.me versions, others were never solved, resulting in complaints about Maps.me ignoring bug reports.

Most prominent unresolved problems with the editor include:

• The design of the editor is prone to generating duplicates because offline map data is used as a base for edits. Back in 2015 the map data was updated once a month.
• The limited number of possible categories results in unrelated categories being used when the actual category was not available. tourism=attraction is a prominent example for this.
• Some users don't realize that they are contributing to OSM.
• The scope of edits is unclear to some users, resulting in personal bookmarks being uploaded as POIs or notes.

Resolved problems include:

• The initial version of the Maps.me editor allowed editing the name tag without indicating that local names should be used. This was fixed by introducing multilingual names.

Reception

Within the OSM community, the introduction of the Maps.me editor resulted in mixed reception. While it was welcomed as a way to bring in new contributors and expand OSM’s reach it was also criticised for causing a large number of bad edits and notes. The editor put a lot of workload on OSMers that checked and corrected Maps.me edits. It is debatable to which extend this workload was caused by bugs in the editor and to which extend by the increase in the number of new users.

Competitors

The closest competitor of MAPS.ME is Organic Maps. As Organic Maps is a fort / spin-off of MAPS.ME the map style, bookmarks and other functionalities are very similar. Besides that, MAPS.ME competes with other mobile apps that provide offline maps like Guru Maps, OsmAnd, City Maps 2Go, 2Gis. Fast rendering and offline search are among benefits of MAPS.ME.

Data Source and Technologies

All map data for MAPS.ME are taken from OpenStreetMap. The app uses a proprietary data compression method developed by the company’s engineers that ensures fast operation and low memory usage.

Technologies used in the app: C++, Objective C, Java, Android NDK, Qt, OpenGL ES

API

MAPS.ME provides a free API for app developers for both commercial and personal use.

External links

• Official website
• Old, stale Github page
• MAPS.ME on Apple Store
• MAPS.ME on Google Play
• MAPS.ME on Amazon App Store
• MAPS.ME on Samsung Store