Here Maps
 

What a totally underestimated app. I recently used this in Germany with its cached maps, and it blows Google Maps out of the water. I had tried an early very a year or so ago, but this is miles ahead of where they were then.

Highly recommended, and I assume it is also available for iOS:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/d....here.app.maps

Absolutely agree. Even with an unlimited global data plan I find myself using Nokia more and more when overseas. The only real catch with using it without a data connection is that their offline searching is good but not great - whilst online search is almost as good as Google.

That said, their "Maps For Life" tagline may be in for a change in the near future - Nokia Looks to Sell Its HERE Mapping Unit

Really good - also use this. The iOS one only came back to the store recently, as someone coming from WP this was something I missed.

Downloading the full country is so much better than caching the route on google.

Definitely the best I have found on iOS for free.

Negatives - not so good for finding businesses/shops/etc as google - assume data points are less dense...

Another fan here. I went from Windows Phone to iOS about 6 months ago and like the last poster, I really missed Here Maps. Was stoked to see it appear in the store recently.

Actually this is one of the things I wish they would fix. For most countries, the map granularity is the entire country, not at a state level. So for example, if you're going to Australia you need to download the entire country (~750MB) even if you're only interested in one state. Not a major problem if you remember to do it before you leave home, but frequently a challenge if you're trying to download via airport/lounge/hotel/etc Wifi.

A few countries have state-level (US, UK, France, etc) but not most of them.

As I mentioned above, online searching is much better than it's fixed/offline POI database. If you don't have a data plan then try doing the search when you're on Wifi - it'll remember your selected results even when you're offline again.

Agree, this is a great app.
I've been using it on an iphone and it's good so far (2 weeks of driving around my home city to see how it performs). As it uses open-street maps it does has limitations when used in off-line mode, especially in looking up POIs and street numbers. The OSM app I use on my android tablet (Osmand) seems to have a bigger off-line POI database.
Re-routing on Here works well, which is great when driving.
The only thing I didn't like was the requirement to create an account and sign on to download maps.

No, it does not use OSM. Nokia bought NAVTEQ in 2007 - it uses their maps.

The offline capability looks interesting.

Useful for offline navigation, I'll still keep Google as my "go-to"

Oh, thanks for that, I didn't realise.
I'll compare it with OSM when I'm walking around Stockholm in a couple of months. Let's see which one gets me un-lost the quickest.:)

I installed the app yesterday. It's humongous.

I downloaded two sets of maps - California (~500 MB) for testing and Spain (~700 MB) for an upcoming trip - and one voice navigation language packet (~60 MB). With the app itself the total is 1.26 GB.

Wow!

No other app on my phone even comes close.

That's why maps are usually served up piecemeal rather than downloaded.

I have built-in satnav in the car, but one benefit of Here is that it also does pretty good public transport and walking routes as well.

That got me from a park and ride to the gate of a Cambridge college without any drama recently.

I downloaded HERE and NJ maps yesterday and used it today. It is very good.

Downloading only the four regional maps that I need for my Spain trip would have taken even more space than the whole country's map. I was not presented with a piecemeal option for California.

Nokia reportedly targeting Apple to buy its HERE Maps division
 

http://www.idownloadblog.com/2015/04...maps-division/

Looks like they want out of the business, at quite a loss too, a $5 billion discount from what they paid.

Just think of the (roaming) data you'll save.

And no, the APP isn't humungous - the maps are, as are the detailed TTS voices.

When you get new maps for your car, they'll come on 1 or 2 DVD's, and even an update for my Garmin unit is often 4GB or more.

Used Here maps with the Cuba map for the past 3 weeks for offline navigation (or showing where I was). Wasn't too bad but there are database inaccuracies (must use the same database at MS does for the Map app in WP 8.1)

It does not. Microsoft uses Bing Maps for their apps and services.

Which both use Here as their source for maps, so yes - they do use the same mapping database. It is even right there in the bottom right: (C) Nokia.

Bing maps has been being Navteq/Nokia maps for many years.

Easiest way to confirm is to go to maps.bing.com and look at the copyright logo in the bottom right corner - (C) Nokia (C) Microsoft Corporation

you can go to maps.here.com and set up routes/destinations also.

I use it a bit for work trips so I have back up of where i need to be/go.

Anyone using Here that has also used Navigator Free? I just came back from ten days in Ireland and found Nav Free better than the Garmin 205 that I bought several years ago for the UK/Ireland that has lifetime maps. After this trip, I'll just leave the Garmin at home and use my phone, because Nav Free was both more accurate and relatively useful without requiring a data connection. I'm not married to Nav Free though, and if Here looks like a better app, I'm happy to switch.

I've downloaded it to try it out, but any useful comparisons would be appreciated because I'll only want to keep one of the two apps given the storage requirements for each.

I have used both Nav Free (or what ever its now called) and Here maps on holiday in the USA and found Here to be slightly better.

Here maps seem great, but there seems to be some notable exceptions under the downloadable maps for Asia. Namely, I can't find China, Korea, or Japan. Is this normal, or am I missing something?

Thanks. I've been playing around with Here for the last 24 hours and can make some initial observations--with the caveat that I've used the app on roads with which I'm very familiar while my most recent Nav Free experience in Ireland was on some roads that I've never been on in five previous trips. I figure withdrawing the threat of truly getting lost along with the somewhat higher degree of difficulty on Irish roads (default in the US: if you're on a road, you can mostly count on that road not changing names; default in Ireland: if you're on a road, you can count on that road changing names, perhaps multiple times in several miles) means I'm probably comparing oranges to tangerines.

Since I am so familiar with the roads I used Here on in the last 24 hours, I made it a point to ignore directions every so often to see how the app would handle it. I was very impressed with how quickly Here generally rerouted me. At one point, in fact, Here suggested a rerouting that essentially amounted to a U-turn by going off the street I was on and going through a parking lot in the business park where I work--a valid routing that I've never seen any other app suggest.

I also appreciated that Here does not seem to nag as much as Nav Free--more than once on my Irish trip, Nav Free would tell me, almost in one continuous direction, "in a quarter-mile, carry on straight ahead, carry on straight ahead, in a half-mile, carry on straight ahead." Here seems to presume you don't need as many oral directions.

The visual display and hi-fi voices are also a pleasure. Here packs a lot of information into the bottom of the screen, including warnings that you're exceeding the speed limit. Nav Free does this as well (as does my Garmin), but it seems easier to understand the information Here presents. I've never gotten that information from Google Maps.

Another advantage of Here and Nav Free over Google Maps, as discussed in this thread, is the ability to search when off line. The Here app again seemed simpler to use in comparison with Nav Free.

I wish I had seen this thread during my trip to Ireland because I would have tried Here while there, but I'm happy with my early experience. Both Nav Free and Here render my old Garmin unit obsolete for my trips to the UK and Ireland.

China is in my Asia download list, but Korea and Japan are not.

Odd, mine jumps straight from Brunei to India on iOS.

Mine's the Android version. This is odd because iOS and Android both use the SQLite database manager, so I would have thought the two versions would use the same database files.

Comparison to MAPS.ME?
 

On my Android phone I have MAPS.ME, which uses free open-source maps and is said to provide routing (although I haven't tried that aspect). Is there a comparison between MAPS.ME and Here?

Anything new here? I'm interested in using maps in an area with inconsistent/nonexistent cell coverage in South Africa, Japan, and southeast Asia.

The last post was almost 2 years ago...

Google Maps now has the ability to offline areas for offline navigation.

Agree - that works for me, though not used it outside of Europe or North America for downloads.

I used Here/IOS driving from Chiang Rai to Chiang Mai (Thailand) last month. Data turned off - using GPS only.

Google Maps does not support offline maps for Thailand.