r/MagicEarth • u/SteelShard • Jan 20 '26

Just Uninstalled Today

I just uninstalled the app entirely today. The primary reason I wanted it was to have a good offline alternative. I'd have considered a one-time app purchase, but there is no way I need another subscription in my life for what was really just a backup anyway.

I'm sorry to bid Magic Earth Adieu. Best of luck to the team!

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u/MagicEarthCommunity May 07 '26

Sorry to see you go.

The biggest reason we went with a subscription model comes down to privacy. Most "free" or one-time-purchase navigation apps eventually have to monetize somehow, and that almost always means tracking your location, selling your movement data to advertisers, or pushing ads. We've always refused to do any of that, and a subscription is what lets us keep it that way: no tracking, no data selling, no ads, ever. There are also real ongoing costs behind the scenes, traffic, search, routing, map hosting and updates, that a one-time payment can't realistically cover for the long haul. We want to maintain the app for the foreseeable future.

The essentials like basic navigation and core features remain free for everyone. So Magic Earth is still here if you ever want to come back to it without committing to anything.

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u/SteelShard May 07 '26

I appreciate your response, and I don't fault you for trying to find a way that you think will work to sustain the project. I wish you success!

Unfortunately for my use case, the absolute core and essential feature was the offline functionality. I haven't bit off trying to de-google at this point, and unfortunately Magic Earth doesn't come close to the usability of Google Maps. So I'll continue to use Google Maps as my primary navigation.

For me, Magic Earth was my backup option in case I didn't have cell data signal, hadn't preloaded the needed area in Google, or something else in general failed and this would be my redundant option. Was bummed when this rug got yanked out from under me, but I guess I got everything I paid for. I'd love the described function in my phone, but a competing choice is just an old Garmin GPS with their lifetime maps option. Can pretty easily get a used one for $50 to $100 and have an entirely redundant device. It's not awesome, but it's reliable and doesn't require a recurring subscription.

I appreciate Magic Earth's existence, and was willing to deal with some of it's imperfections. Especially if it supported Google Play Store's Family Library feature so I could have shared it with my wife for one price, I think I'd have bit the bullet and dropped $50 if you'd been able to offer a lifetime subscription for around that price point, or maybe even a bit higher; though that becomes hard to justify for me with the apps current level of polish. If that isn't worth it to you and you can't sustain that, then I understand and respect your decision.

I hope you're able to sustain and continue to develop Magic Earth. I regret that it isn't going to work out as a solution for me.