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PaperclipPerfector  5d ago (text post)   2761 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for August 23, 2026

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

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Getting really sick of the enshittification of Google Maps. Any good alternatives that don't autistically warn me to "stay on the current highway in 0.5 miles" and then decline to mention that my exit ramp is 200ft futher on?

Or provide useful and accurate information about which lane I should be in?

OsmAnd, which uses OpenStreetMap data, is the main alternative. The free version only lets you download or update maps 7 times (you are supposed to have at least one map and update it monthly) before you have to upgrade to the paid version, but if you download F-Droid (a third-party app store for Android) then you can install the paid version for free.

I prefer CoMaps for most OpenStreetmaps tasks. Less features, but much cleaner UX and much faster map rendering engine.

I also prefer its navigation capabilities, but if we're honest, it (and all OSM apps) suffers from the same problems GMaps has: sometimes, direction priories are not ideal. Yes, my freeway merges into another freeway in 200 meters. That's unavoidable, don't even show me that. What I really care about is where I'll have to go directly after that.

I manage mostly by looking at the map itself instead of the directions.

That makes me think, it would be really nice to have a fine grained settings page for navigation. I practically never want to be told a streetname, to leave a roundabout or to merge. But I always want to know the next city I driving towards.

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