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We rely too heavily on links to convey and discuss locations and it is not universally interoperable. If it wasn't for Google's obvious monopoly we would have solved this already.
I've been using LineageOS for about a year now with very few complaints. I actually installed LineageOS , then GrapheneOS, then LineagOS and then LineageOS again on the same phone as I figured out how to get an OS that meets my needs (and also figure out what I actually *need* vs just think I need).
This is not about my OS, this about sharing locations on a smart phone that doesn't have Google maps. I use google maps in my browser, I can't avoid it. I still receive location web links from my contacts and many websites link their location using google maps. I don't have the app however, so for me to send someone a location the experience is not integrated. Mostly I search for the location in the Google maps web app and then share the link that it generates but sometimes I want to share a location from OSMAnd (this is my Google maps replacement android app using Open Street Maps). So in this second scenario I first have to copy the location coordinates from OSMAnd and paste them into the Google maps web app and then copy the share link that it generates. The opposite is also true: when I want to use OSMAnd to navigate to a Google maps link location I first have to open the link then copy the coordinates (luckily Google makes copying the Open Location Code easy) to OSMAnd to then start navigating.
My issues is, less that because I chose to not use Google I have to take a few extra steps to send and receive Google maps links but more, that Google has become the de-facto world map. So now when my friends ask if I want to join them for lunch and I ask them where and they send this: https://maps.app.goo.gl/5wNvzWtfTieDjXf49 I've put myself in an awkward situation.
Here are my options:
Abandon my anti-Google principle and just click the link to find out where to go like everyone else on the group chat and later lament over how Google has become an unstoppable monster (spoiler - I do this about 95% of the time)
Pretend I'm an idiot and politely ask for the address (I never do this)
Passively ask something to try and figure out where the location is without letting on that I don't know where to go. For example ask if they have street parking in the hopes that someone says: "just park next to the aquarium and cross the street they always have parking" and now I know to that we are going to a restaurant opposite the aquarium. (this sounds ridiculous but sometimes it makes sense for casual meetings)
>In any case there is no escaping the fact that for most people a "map" means a "Google map" or "directions" mean "Google directions" etc.
In the past I used to share actual GPS coordinates. This was especially useful for sharing locations when hiking or camping where you want a precise meeting point that is not linked to a road or building. At the same time my hiking buddies are far more likely to understand a GPS location than anyone else and the inconvenience of not sending an actual clickable link is accepted in this context. The only issue I had with directly sending GPS coordinates was that there is more than one way to represent the same coordinate. Depending on the app I sometimes was required to convert from one to the other before I could use the coordinate. (I had an old app that would do this for me but it is also something you can do manually with any normal calculator).
These are all the same 👍
-18.93333 47.51667
18.93333° S, 47.51667° E
18°56.000′ S, 47°31.000′ E
Open Location Codes to the rescue! I used this before it was launched into Google maps (initially the search bar would accept them as input but you had to generate them elsewhere). Now they seem to be well integrated and are somewhat interchangeable with GPS coordinates in most apps.
Why isn't there some neutral standard to make this work better? Wait! What? There is!? There is an agreed URI (similar to a URL) especially for geographic locations. This is supposed to work the same way that you might see mailto:friend@funkymail.com but instead now you can use geo:11.22,33.44 in a message and hopefuly either the messaging app or the system OS will recognize this as a link and redirect you to your default app (or pop up and ask you what to do). As I understand it this URI is basically hardly implemented across different software and operating systems as to make it niche rather than universal (unlike mailto: that seems to work everywhere!).
I also don't like how the links are probably made the way they are so that we can be tracked whenever they are clicked. I also don't like that if at any time in the future I want to look back and get the address of a place that I visited then who knows were that link will point to? Do I have a reason to complain about this or am I the only idiot walking up the down escalator?
2023-12-15 · 5 months ago · 👍 murdock, november, yvonne, some_random_person, leoperbo, Half_Elf_Monk
Thanks for the detailed post :)
I don't think there is any tracking associated with the maps URLs. From what I can find they are a simple "link shortener" type of service.
Unfortunately that means that to extract the info you have to at least do a HTTP request and dump the redirect destination to get the long form URL. I did find some guides to decoding that, at least.
Still pretty annoying to do on the phone. I guess you could set up a website with a similar name that does the "fetch redirect" and then the decode and then redirects you somewhere else ... then you'd just manually edit the URL to point to your version. Best I can think of...
I send to friends "geo:xxxxx,yyyyy" and they treat me as a weirdo. Which I am sort of. And I live with it.
Glad to hear somone somewhere is try to spread the geo:xx.xxx,yy.yyy love! I also went down that rabit hole to see how Google is shortening the links and to maybe try and make an app (or more likely a script) that unwraps it automatically. I then found out that for actual places (like restaurants or train stations) Google is asigning them a unique code so even after you follow the link the actual location is in the end with Google and not in the link itself.
Honesty is the best principle
Respond to a Google Maps link with hey, I don’t use Google Maps. Can you send me coordinates/address/something else?
Apologies for being off-topic, but I read the title here and heard: "no sun, no moon, No proper time of day" from Art of Noise - Opus 4. Which is based on the poem November by Thomas Hood.
It'd be great to have a FOSS app that could take a link, access google/apple maps API, and output the geo/physical (user configurable) address to my maps program. Wouldn't have to be manual, and it could run through a proxy/orbot. I don't know of one that exists, but if someone makes it please lmk.
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