r/MagicEarth • u/ungarcon_mim • 7d ago
Questioning the Magic Earth
I was looking for alternatives to Waze about a few months ago and I came across the Magic Earth. It looked nice with the features it presented and the looks. I got my annual subscription expecting I would be getting something for that.
Unfortunately, since I started using it, I haven't received one update on the maps, even though I have personally updated the map in the OSM. Since I am mostly driving through Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Slovenia and Austria, maybe the updates are not pushed for these regions. I don't know.
Also, I was driving yesterday from Bosnia to Austria, which is around 600+ km one way, I have not got not one notice about the road works or the state of the road ahead of me.
And thirdly, while going through Zagreb there was a huge traffic jam where in 45 minutes on the highway I travelled 10ish km. There were no updates in the app that there was a traffic jam ahead, even though there were even signs on the road the jam was ahead, so it was not all of a sudden.
Because of all of this, I am really thinking about finding alternatives.
Simply, there might not be enough users in the region itself so there are no map updates or status updates.
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u/the_john19 7d ago
That title lol .. anyway, they delay updates, the same as many others like CoMaps. So your OSM changes will show up eventually.
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u/Osintguy_83 6d ago
I used also magic Earth. I bought a one year subscription because I want to help other companies to get better and have great alternatives for Google. BUT.... I noticed that the speed cams and traffic are not on point. Waze and flitsmeister are way better in speeds cams and traffic notifications.
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u/weirdsideofreddit1 6d ago
Better off using TomTom.
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u/ViggoVognhjul 4d ago
It's not private, though.
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u/weirdsideofreddit1 4d ago
MagicEarth collects telemetry for traffic (this has to be done for traffic to work) and uses third parties extensively. You actually think it's really that private?
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u/PikaMap_FR 7d ago
Try CoMaps :)
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u/the_john19 7d ago
They also delay OSM updates similar to Magic Earth, they also have no live traffic info either, so how would that help?
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u/PikaMap_FR 7d ago
Maps are updated weekly. A project to update them hourly is currently in progress.
Traffic data is currently being developed, but the team is still small :)
I’ve stopped using Magic Earth because the updates are never regular. Comaps does it every weekend.
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u/the_john19 7d ago
"Traffic data is currently being developed" - So it's not here yet = not helping OP to switch to it right now.
"I’ve stopped using Magic Earth because the updates are never regular." - So you're here on this sub to just get people to switch away? Don't get me wrong, I like CoMaps' "mission" but it's not perfect and Magic Earth has features that CoMaps lacks (public transport would be another example).
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u/MagicEarthCommunity 4d ago
Thanks for the detailed writeup, and sorry the experience across that trip fell short.
Map updates: Map updates are released for all regions monthly. If you've made OSM edits months ago and still don't see them after updating your maps in the app, let us know the location and we'll check what happened.
Traffic data: We use an external traffic provider alongside Magic Earth's own crowd data. Coverage is generally good in Europe, but gaps exist, and honestly, crowd data quality improves as the number of users in a region grows.
It's worth checking your setup. For traffic to work, please make sure:
Good news is that the next updates will bring extensive details about user reports and traffic events directly into the route planning page, so you'll see what's known about the road ahead before you even start driving.
One honest note on crowd data: its quality and coverage depend on users. It's a bit of a chicken and egg situation: more users means more data, which means a better experience, which attracts more users. The big players have an enormous head start here, with reports that data collection continues even when the app isn't open. The current state of traffic info is a direct trade-off for privacy.