Organic Maps got removed from Google Play Store.
Organic Maps got removed from Google Play Store.
Apk Link: https://cdn.organicmaps.app/apk/OrganicMaps-24081605-GooglePlay.apk
Note: If you don't want to deal with stuff like this, I recommend you download and use it from F-Droid client or Accrescent AppStore.
Update: The app returned to the App Store.
It's Google.
I'm certain that "Common violations" = "competes with our own products".
It's highly unlikely that this app even comes up on the radar insofar as competing with Google Maps.
The answer is probably more mundane - an automated system made an incorrect call. It keeps happening when it comes to these Play Store app reviews.
Indeed. "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity"—or, in this case, an unaudited automated process. Now, I'm sure the fact that it competes with one of their products meant that they were in no particular hurry to address the issue, but I'm sure the original failure was process related, not anti-competitive practices.
Or maybe an automated system flagged it and an underpaid and overworked employee in a third world country reviewed it.
Does Google do that? Apple absolutely does it, but has Google ever done that?
Hmm.
Never really looked into it before.
Now I downloaded it.
Google's strategy seems to have backfired, in my case.
Streisand effect
technically true but the original Streisand effect was about an image that had been downloaded six times before the lawsuit; Organic Maps is definitely a lot less obscure than that
Strategy? You are assuming there was any intent behind it. The reviewers in third world countries are probably spending 30 seconds per app and are bound to make mistakes. Which in this case was reverted.
The reviewers in the 3rd world country are the ones who have to deal with the appeal. I guarantee you that the removal was some form of automated system. No human review is required for deletion from the playstore. The idea behind ithat is that legitimate app developers will appeal in cases where the automated system fucks up whereas the conmen will not.
Same. I've been using magicearth but I keep my eyes open for any alternative to a popular google app , just so I have a backup if something goes wonky.
The amount of corporate control that has slowly and insidiously crept into our lives will never cease to amaze me.
Capitalism baby. Gotta cannibalize, monopolize, and enshittifize for maximum profits.
giggles in F-Droid
"Ooh rah"
Google is corrupt
If this story blows up, organic maps is going to get so many more downloads and hopefully contributions.
I have been eyeing this crowd sourced map thing for a week or two. When I read this headline today I learned there was a centralized app for it. I immediately downloaded it.
It's called OpenStreetMap and there are many apps for it! Organic Maps is a good one and I like it for when I go abroad and want to preload an entire country instead of downloading maps on my paltry 33 or whatever gigs of roaming allowance (that also only works in the EU - if I want to visit the US, I get to pay out the ass for 250 MB or 1 GB at a time)
Yet another reminder that Google is an unreliable company. Install Fdroid tonavoid Google's mistakes.
@ModerateImprovement @istanbullu F-Droid is the only way out.
Hopium question: Can Google be sued for this as anti-competitive behavior and fined for "lost revenue"?
In theory yes. In practice or will require enormous resources to build a case against the army of layers that Google and the other giants can afford. I believe only the government now is big enough to do it, with the antitrust law.
The answer to "can X be sued for Y?" is always yes, you can sue anyone for anything, this doesn't say anything about whether you'll succeed.
You can install any apk on your phone (even unrooted) and there's alternative stores such as f-droid, so why?
Thank you, Google. Now I'm using it and contributing to OpenStreetMap :D
Thanks again google. I had never heard of this app until you banned it. Now I'm running it on my phone. Top notch advertising for your competition.
Same, downloaded it and gee it's so much better
When listing an app on the app store, there is a footgun to watch out for. One of the questions it asks is "Is this app made for children" or "is this app intended for children" or something like that. If you say "yes" to this then that triggers extra stringent evaluation criteria. Many people will accidentally choose yes for their app because it's a general purpose app which anyone can use (no porn, violence, etc) but that is a mistake. The intent of that question is to find apps that are ONLY for children to use and to evaluate them differently in order to keep children safe.
Yeah, I was looking into this recently, and even games like Roblox are labelled Teen (even though I think it's obvious they target younger children).
Roblox would never pass a child review. There's literal gambling on that shit.
This is insane. What on earth could possibly constitute adult content on a navigation app? Are they going to start age-gating points of interest, like, if the destination address is a strip club in Virginia you have verify?
Edit: looks like it was added back. maybe just a mistake? https://fosstodon.org/@organicmaps/112982935184446753
This app is great. If it offered some sort of traffic aware navigation routing I would use it as my daily driver. I live in the city and traffic conditions can make a huge difference. Unfortunately, I don't think it has this capability. Hopefully someday.
The problem with live traffic awareness is, that it needs a lot of data to be collected all the time, something only Google or Apple with their monopolistic and privacy invasive ppwer can do. How it works (simplified) is that Google can detect if a lot of phones are on the same street and therefore assumes traffic. This data is, however, proprietary to Google. A FOSS App has the following problems:
- Too small of a userbase, to reliably track something
- Privacy conscious userbase, not wanting to be tracked
- If it had auch a feature, it would be opt-in, as FOSS does (usually) not try to be as evil as Google&Co.
- Usually limited server capacity to calculate if an aggregation is traffic
Solutions would be:
- Google is forced to make the data publicly available per API as part of some anti-monopolistic ruling
- A thrid party (e.g. cities) have their own monitoring of traffic and give public access to it.
So sadly similar dunctionality will not come in the near future in any FOSS app.
I'd be willing to share anonymized data as part of a collective traffic data alternative to Google. I imagine there would still be data fees associated with this data collection. We just really need to get an open source alternative to gmaps going. Gmaps is only getting worse. Like, what if something like Street Complete was also able to collect traffic data and feed it into a sharable database?
Alternatively, I wonder if they could buy traffic data from a third party like Garmin or something. I'd be willing to pay a small monthly fee to get away from Google.
Magic Earth has traffic. That’s the reason why I use it instead of Organic Maps.
I have looked at the routing on routes I regularly drive and it seems like Magic Earth has a better routing algorithm than Organic Maps. At least it doesn't try to send me through the middle of a town when there is a route around the town using the highway as Organic Maps often tries to do.
Thx for.the post. Just installed via fdroid. Awesome app.
I keep forgetting to update OM. Thanks for the reminder lol
Google can suck a tailpipe. Fdroid ftw
Haven't heard of Organic Maps before but I just installed from the apple app store for solidarity 🫡
This is the way.
Mmhmm 😁
So, what about OSMand. Or Magic Earth. Or any other map app?
They're not "good enough" - they dont provide the same comfy UI/UX that google maps and organic maps does. And organic maps is offline, so literally no data harvesting.
I prefer the UI of Magic Earth than Organic Maps. And ME also has offline maps/navigation, given that it also uses OSM.
Osmand is the best but it's complicated and has too many features for a casual maps user. It's UI is not that bad as others suggest. I have both installed cause organic maps doesn't support saving routes/tracks.
I think OpenTracks could be a good lightweight alternative for simply saving tracks.
No opinion on OSMand but Magic Earth is proprietary which is a deal breaker for me.
Support your favorite Map App: Donate!
Huh, payments not ging through the play store? Google can't have that.
Somebody tell the EU. Could be a case for the Digital Markets Act.
For everyone without financial capabilities: there are many ways to be supportive
STOP THE WAR ON COMFY SOFTWARE!!!!!
TIL, I never knew this existed. Currently downloading it. Any other suggestions for someone in iOS (openmaps related)?
Go Map!! for editing the map
I'll look into it
I don't think this was malicious, these app reviews are being done by an overworked and underpaid employee in some third world country. Mistakes are made all the time.
It was, and was corrected.
But what is everyone supposed to do with all these pitchforks and torches now?
Long shot, but does anyone know of any mapping app where you can easily project a bearing/azimuth line, or a point a given bearing and distance from another point?
The only app I've found so far that can come close to what I need is Backcountry Navigator, which has a terrible UI. Everything else seems to be focused entirely on GPS navigation from where you are now to a known destination; I have yet to find one that allows even basic triangulation, to be able to identify the location of an observed object.
ATAK-Civ originally developed by the U.S. Military for tactical use on Android phones. It was open-sourced and released on the Play Store several years ago.
Wow.
That's... Awesome.
Edit: That has pretty much every major feature I've been looking for.
Also a thread here.
I have been happily using OsmAnd while traveling outside my coverage area. Anybody have pros or cons of each of these? I just downloaded this one and didn't really like that it automatically began downloading 250 megabytes of my localish region. In some places that would eat up my entire data package. I would rather it asked.
You can download maps for offline use just like in OsmAnd. I used OsmAnd before but the UI has become sooo sluggish I switched over to OM
Probably the map has 18+ places and no decent way to stop children from seeing them?
That would mean EVERY map app would be in violation since those places exist and are indexed by all of them. Including Google Maps.
You really trust a company(google) who warns users about malware from apks(non-google).. and then hosts plenty of unchecked malware in their own store. Im sick of this shit. I have my own friends distrusting me because of what google is telling them.
I don't know if Google has some API to indicate when the app runs from a child/family link managed account?
If so, then I suppose the Organic Maps dev could block some building categories from showing up (ex: Bars, Stripclub)?
wtf, I just downloaded it 3 days ago
Hmmmm. Just when I posted about Organic Maps on Lemmy. Coincidence?
Yes.
Alright
Not showing up in my f-droid either
Same for me, I had to enable Other-antifeatures in F-droid settings.
Thanks, enabling anti-fearures worked.
Check again.
Thanks, I had to allow other anti features.
There goes another useful tool that has been made inaccessible for most of the common users.
I can install it at this moment, so I think it was already fixed
I installed it from fdroid, is there a difference between play store and fdroid version?
I think there is no android auto due no play services
Organic Maps is pretty great. I install it via F-Droid, so whatever weird stuff Google does, I just don't care.
Use Obtainium, Add App, paste this URL... https://github.com/organicmaps/organicmaps
No Play store or Fdroid BS.
I like f droid and currently using droidify. On f-droid you have to enable "anti-features" and it's not a bad feature in my opinion. It discloses if it's using non free services.
Yes but three is no android auto with this way
Thanks, uninstalled from app store and did this instead.
there's [email protected] but it's pretty much dead
EEE
actually normal business for Google Play and smaller apps
Problem is the FDroid version doesn't work with Android Auto iirc
Maybe it was a mix up? I just checked their website and clicked on the link they had for playstore and then downloaded it from there.
I just checked again and I can confirm the same.
I will edit the post to reflect this.
Probably because of NSFW geographic locations, like https://omaps.app/U4yUt5ZjzL/Püssi
Organic Maps should be 18+.
That place exists in Google Maps too.
It exists in real life too
Google Maps are such hippocrates! 😆
Really? I heard that's the most kid friendly place on earth.
What a crap app. It shows NOTHING in Vietnam. Totally ridiculous to expect people to use this garbled mess.
@SurpriZe It most definitely does show something in Vietnam. I know, because I added them to the map. Btw Grab is contributing to openstreetmaps and you can too. What did you find that was missing on the map? Your local cafe? Just put it there.
This is not the fault of the app. It use’s openstreetmap. So if you find stuff is missing, go ahead and contribute. Only this way it can improve.