Just a super quick question about helping to update the map locations.
Between StreetComplete and Organic Maps, which is faster for submitting recommended changes to the OSM team in regards to things like business hours, etc…
You don’t “submit changes to the osm team”, you are actually editing the live map. Reviewers can revert changes, but there isn’t some process a change must go through, everything is live. Most apps don’t use the live data, but regular snapshots of it, that’s why it seems like there is some processing behind the scenes, but it’s up to the renderers and apps, not by osm.
Answering your question: OM is an app for navigation, and using the map, functionality for contributing data is very minimal and limited. SC is an app for contributing, nothing else, e.g. you can’t plan a route there. If you want to contribute, use SC. If you just navigating with OM and notice something is missing, use OM, if it’s quicker than opening another app.
Some more details on the update frequency of services and maps I use:
- After you upload something, it changes the database instantly.
- Things getting data directly from there should also update near instantly, like when you download in JOSM.
- The update delay of the raster map on openstreetmap.org depends on the zoom level. More zoomed in tiles update near instantly, lower zoom levels are updated weekly, monthly. Coastine is a special element, it doesn’t update with others, as it’s really resource intensive. https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Coastline
- Queries on Overpass-turbo.eu have a delay of 6-10 minutes.
- Afaik StreetCompete quests are near instant, at the time you download them, but the base map updates only monthly, I read this in some forum, not sure.
- Organic maps usually monthly. Map updates are tied to app updates, so sometimes they miss some month.
- Magic Earth usually monthly, but sometimes they skip one or two. It’s annoying for me, because I use this for car navigation usually. The streets I use frequently are perfect now, but once I made a typo accidentally on a destination sign, and I fixed it some days later as I noticed while driving there, but ME didn’t updated its map for like 3 months after that, and I was always reminded to my typo I already fixed, ahhh…
- Osmand defaults to monthly updates, but if you pay for it or download the foss version or you are a frequent osm contributor you can get live updates up to hourly frequency: https://osmand.net/docs/user/personal/maps-resources#osmand-live
I wrote this from memory, so it may be not 100% up to date, please correct me if I’m wrong
If you want to be the absolute most efficient for POIs, check out everydoor. It’s not very user friendly but it’s pretty much peek efficiency, and it has support for saving info that other apps don’t offer you.
App available on iOS and Android (PlayStore | F-Droid):
https://every-door.app/
Editing with Organic Maps can lead to duplicates since it update maps once a month. StreetComplete shows the current database so you are sure you won’t upload duplicate POIs.
StreetComplete, definitely. OrganicMaps is better for navigating. But you can also just try them both out :)
SC redownloads map data if it is over 12 hours old on your device, so you’re likely seeing up to date information. And you can always download manually in an area to see the absolute freshest data, if you think that’s necessary.
Organic Maps doesn’t update the data nearly as often, as it’s not really meant for editing. That being said, unless you are in a busy area, the chances of a fellow mapper already having submitted that data since the last update in OM is slim.
At the end of the day, you should just do what is convenient for you and allows you to contribute easier.
