None of these offer the same feature set you get with Google Maps. As sad as it is, Google’s advanced traffic detection and point-of-interest data are only possible when you have an install base counting in the millions. However, if all you need to do is get from point A to B, other apps can do the job… and maybe you are trying not to share all your data with Google.
All the apps mentioned are based on OpenStreetMap data for the good reason that OSM is probably the widest used open source mapping tool on the Internet. You can fix and improve mapping yourself for your own area. In some ways these apps offer more customisation that Google Maps does (plugins, avoiding roads, curated travel guides, driving routes get rebuilt whenever you deviate from them, etc).
Free and open-source software (FOSS) has a number of advantages, but to most people, the main benefit is privacy. All the code is out in the open, so anyone with programming knowledge can go through it and see exactly what an app is doing. Proprietary apps can sometimes feel like black boxes, where you don’t really know what’s going on behind the scenes. That’s rarely the case with FOSS.
#opensource #navigation #android
#^The best free and open-source alternatives to Google Maps on Android
We’ve already covered the best open-source alternatives to Gmail and Google Calendar, but there’s still plenty of ground to cover as we head into 2020.