Maps.me / Magic Earth

June 15, 2015 Maps

I have long admired maps.me, offline maps based on OpenStreetMap. These maps are especially useful on trips where there is no cellular network or roaming is expensive. The developers have a site describing the main features: http://maps.me.

The app has bookmarks, which are very convenient when planning a route. For example, here is our recent trip through Serbia.

The best thing is routes. All in offline mode.

I would not say it builds perfect routes around Petersburg, but they are still usable.

And here is another interesting thing about airplanes. If you hold a tablet or phone by the window, by the way, on Apple devices you do not have to leave airplane mode, and if you manage to catch satellites, you can see where your plane is flying, at what altitude and speed.

Recently we went to Karelia, to Lake Yastrebinoye, and ran into this too. Compare how informative the maps from Google, Yandex, and OpenStreetMap are.

Google Maps

Yandex Maps

OpenStreetMap

At the moment Maps.me cannot build a route from one arbitrary point to another, only from the current location, but the developers promise to implement this in the next version.

July 31, 2017. Track Recording

Routes from any point are now available. They also added track recording.

OpenStreetMap

OpenStreetMap

January 20, 2021. “The Death of MAPS.ME?”

I personally noticed all this when I found that maps had disappeared from CarPlay. Then I found a post on Habr: https://habr.com/ru/post/534242/

List of other disappeared/broken features:

  1. Offline mode works poorly, background downloading does not work;
  2. No landscape mode;
  3. All subscriptions disappeared, including ad removal and guides;
  4. Tracks I imported from KML disappeared;
  5. The OSM editor disappeared;
  6. You can no longer leave a review for a place, and all my reviews disappeared;
  7. I cannot restore my bookmarks from backup;
  8. The metro map disappeared;
  9. Metro navigation disappeared;
  10. Recording and display of the recently traveled track disappeared;
  11. No more CarPlay;
  12. The app noticeably lags, and on my old iPhone SE it has become basically unusable.

It is not very clear what to do with the bookmarks. Over several years I accumulated several hundred of them, they are dear to me in their own way, and now it is unclear what to do with them.

maps me favourites

With CarPlay, on the other hand, everything is simpler: I had long had Magic Earth installed. After all these years it has changed and looks great.

A beautiful 3D map:

A view of the Neva as if from an airplane:

They even show the Milky Way:

Excellent offline lane navigation:

Map plus conversation mode: