Motivation
Author: Ondřej Sojka
Original: https://telegra.ph/What-happened-to-the-old-MAPSME-12-20
TL;DR: MAPS.ME got bought by a payments company and completely rewritten, I want it back. I will rebuild the original app and bring it back.
On December 20th, 2020, version 2.0 of the MAPS.ME app got pushed to the Apple App Store. It is expected to land on Android in the coming days.
This is due to the app being sold off to a South Korean payments company.
Compare these two images:
Original MAPS.ME we know and love
Same street, new version They made another Google Maps.
Gone: bookmarks, park benches, water fountains, post boxes, garbage cans
I loved this app because it showed me every detail, every little space I can walk through, every water fountain, I even used it to find trashcans in foreign cities. The ability to edit the map and contribute back to the lovely OpenStreetMap community is also nowhere to be found.
Why did they do this? The new Wallet tab shows that they want to exploit the acquired MAPS.ME user base to push their future payments product. Clearly, a map that highlights businesses makes more money than a map that is useful.
Thankfully, the original Belarusian engineers made the source code free. It is up to the community to pick up development of this app. Let's make sure that the MAPS.ME we know and love stays alive.