I have found this app to be absolutely worthless when it comes to finding anything. It does a great job of showing where you are. I really wanted this app to work and it has potential. But until you can type a physical address and get a location, the app has no real utility.
this post was submitted on 24 Nov 2024
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OpenStreetMap + App = OsmAnd!
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OsmAnd is a great open source Maps mobile app that uses OpenStreetMap!
founded 5 years ago
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If you want to find something add it by yourself.
Weird answer... But it works. Kinda.
Try typing the number after the street name.
In your example: 4th Street 123
You can add missing data by yourself. Start with StreetComplete app for address numbers and https://www.onosm.org/ for businesses. If you want to go deeper check https://learnosm.org/en/
If it can't find it, it's because it's probably not in OpenStreetMap. Same thing for businesses. It's our collective responsibility to fill those gaps as a community!
So start editing your local map on OpenStreetMap.org, you can also join local communities that will help you out on your doubts.
Two things I've recently discovered:
- The data simply isn't there. One of the reasons you can't find address is because nobody has entered them to OpenStreetMap.
- OsmAnd search isn't good or intuitive. For the few places that do have addresses, you'll have to search for them in a very specific format:
$CITY $STREET $NUMBER
If you want to contribute addresses you know to OpenStreetMap create an account here: https://www.openstreetmap.org/
Once you create an account, you'll be able to use editors to update the map.
Editors include:
- https://www.openstreetmap.org/ (the edit button on the webpage, this editor is called iD)
- https://rapideditor.org/ (made by facebook... very similar to iD)
- https://streetcomplete.app/ (for your phone, easier to enter small bits of info)
- https://josm.openstreetmap.de/ (full fledged, industrial desktop editor)
After you update the map, you'll have to wait somewhere between 1 hour to 1 month for updates to propagate to different apps. OsmAnd has a pro tier that gets hourly map updates... although... I'm not sure if address data is included in those map updates or just other things like buildings...
You can add to the map at openstreetmap.org or with apps like Street Complete. There's a great community behind OSM too 🙂
So its basically useless if I don't know where something is in gps coords. There's got to be a better way than osmand users manually putting in addresses.
The capability you’re after is “geocoding”, which (IIRC) is the conversion from street address to coordinates. It’s built into nav apps like OSMand, but only functions if the addresses are in the db. I live in a well mapped area that has most addresses. But exceptionally, sometimes I zoom in on a map and there are buildings that have no numbers assigned to them. In those cases, the address is unsearchable in the app.
If you know where the building is, then as @tippon said you can add it using an editing app. If you don’t know, then you need to find another source. Apart from google and apple maps, you could perhaps pick up a cheap old TomTom from a flea market. I recently saw a box of them.. 2 TomToms for $1.
I often use this tool for geocoding:
https://nominatim.openstreetmap.org/ui/search.html
But I suppose that won’t help since the source data is also OSM.
If it’s a business you cannot find, be sure to complain to the business that they are not in OpenStreetMaps. It helps to raise awareness. They have a business interest to being included in the OSM dataset.