Magic Earth is an alternative to Waze and Google Maps with crowdsourced traffic and road hazard information
As part of a #BigTechDiet, I’ve been hoping to find an alternative to #Waze and #Google Maps - a navigation app that can tell me about slowdowns, hazards, and speed traps based on reports from other users. Today, I learned about Magic Earth.
It’s proprietary, but not from FAANG or a company subject to the government of China, Russia, or Five Eyes countries. It collects minimal user data and has a good privacy policy. There are versions for both Android and iOS, and the Android version works without Google services.
#navigation #maps #Android #IOS #AndroidApp #IOSApp @technology
I tried it for one 15 min drive, and for me it did not work well. I mean if you strickly do not want to use gmaos, Waze, or Here, magic earth could be an option. But if you are quality first - magic map is unlikely a good choice.
But, everything depends on personal needs, of course.
@gelberhut I have yet to give it a rigorous test. Every navigation tool I’ve used heavily has had a few bad drives so I wouldn’t dismiss it based on such a small sample.
For me this was enough: from graphic to speed with which it followed my drive (delayed) it was not a good tool for me. Most probably, usable, but way less usable than Google maps and Waze.
It seems to be way more feature-rich for bike navigation than Google Maps. I can set what kind of bike I’m riding, how much I hate hills, and when it sets a route you can see how much is on particular types of road surface, how much of the route is at different gradients, etc. Google is really lacking when it comes to bike features, so I may try this one on my next ride (if I can get the gpx upload feature to work)
Good point! Thanks for adding it.
An intriguing idea, but they seem a little vague about where they’re actually getting their traffic data from, just a “third party”. For crowd-sourced traffic data to be at all useful it needs to be coming from software that a lot of drivers happen to have on their phones, so I wouldn’t be surprised if Google or Apple aren’t to be found somewhere in the pipeline.
@theplanlessman It may not be suitable for people who consider anything Google has ever touched tainted, but my big tech diet isn’t that strict. I’m moving off direct use of big tech products where it isn’t a large burden to do so.
I’m from the US and I looked on the iOS App Store. It says that it is not available in my region.
@vittoria666 That’s surprising since it does report feature availability in the USA and Canada. It doesn’t seem to have a regional restriction on Google Play so maybe there’s a delay on Apple’s side.
I hope American iOS users won’t have to wait until the EU forces Apple to allow sideloading.
I would say just buy TomTom Go, only 20 euros a year and no Google BS. Or if you really don’t want to pay use Amigo, it’s also from TomTom with the same life traffic etc.
Not available in Canada
Just use OSMAnd for navigation. It’s open source and has tons of features.
@nodsocket I’ve used it. Organic Maps as well.They’re great apps and I really appreciate their ability to work entirely offline.
They don’t have real-time traffic information, road hazards, and speed traps. It’s nice having an option that does without being from FAANG.
Gonna give it a shot, but I’m sure i already tried some time ago. So desperate to get away from Google Maps.
