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StreetComplete on iOS is now in public beta

74 points Snowly 1 hour ago 12 comments

JBiserkov 49 minutes ago | parent

From the README:

StreetComplete is an easy to use editor of OpenStreetMap data available for Android. It can be used without any OpenStreetMap-specific knowledge. It asks simple questions, with answers directly used to edit and improve OpenStreetMap data. The app is aimed at users who do not know anything about OSM tagging schemes but still want to contribute to OpenStreetMap.

StreetComplete automatically looks for nearby places where a survey is needed and shows them as quest markers on its map. Each of these quests can then be solved on site by answering a simple question. For example, tapping on a marker may show the question "What is the name of this road?", with a text field to answer it. More examples are shown in the screenshots below.

The user's answer is automatically processed and uploaded directly into the OSM database. Edits are done in meaningful changesets using the user's OSM account. Since the app is meant to be used on a survey, it can be used offline and is economic with data usage.

amenghra 38 minutes ago | parent

This is great! I wish more knowledge bases realized their barrier to entry. Eg even Wikipedia can be scary to edit the first time, if you want to present things like citations the right way.

PetitPrince 45 minutes ago | parent

StreetComplete is regularly cited whenever OpenStreetMap is mentioned on HN, and with excellent reason (this is a really good introduction to mapping with OSM). Congratulations to the team for the beta!

elaus 44 minutes ago | parent

It's a great app, been using it on Android for years. It has a really low barrier of entry (except maybe OSM account creation) and makes improving OpenStreetMap really easy even for people that have no experience with map editing. There's simple questions, e.g. about road surface or accessibility, with illustrated multiple-choice answers.

intrasight 40 minutes ago | parent

I'd like to hear more about people's experiences with Kotlin Multiplatform

anotherpaul 37 minutes ago | parent

StreetComplete is great. For me it made Openstreetmap much more approachable and now thanks to me there are a few more public toilets and one small road in osm. Especially with the road it was really interesting to see how quickly Google maps also took in this path. But they still also have the old road in the app. So it's linked but not 100%

greggsy 36 minutes ago | parent

Link to the actual TestFlight beta invite, since it wasn’t easily found on the linked page:

https://testflight.apple.com/join/K1u3eUU5

conartist6 33 minutes ago | parent

Can you use OpenStreetMap like Google Maps?

I tried to use it to list restaurants but the UI reacted like nobody had ever tried that before

unfocso 6 minutes ago | parent

Partly, with Organic Maps or CoMaps.

However, in my opinion TomTom (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tomtom.spe... or https://apps.apple.com/us/app/tomtom-maps-traffic/id14381065...) is still the best way to use OpenStreetMap for navigation since it combines OSM data with their own real time traffic information without dark patterns or asking for an account like Waze or Maps do.

flexagoon 5 minutes ago | parent

OpenStreetMap is a database, not a map application. The map on the official openstreetmap website is more of a demo to show some of the data. There are many different map apps that use OpenStreetMap data though.

Poudlardo 30 minutes ago | parent

OH long overdue, glad it finally came out

thrownawaysz 4 minutes ago | parent

>Known caveats (we are working on it):

>forms can only be canceled with the back gesture rather than clicking anywhere on the map

Well for me not even the back gesture works, I just have to force close the app if I don't want to answer a survey lol