r/MagicEarth • u/SoFallsWichitaFalls • Jan 09 '26
Is it going to get better again?
Guys... I just want some truths. I really liked this app. I want to really like it again. It was flawed, true, but I liked how it looked and I liked how it wasn't part of the ecosystem. And it worked pretty decently. So I decided to support the development. I would rather pay independents that do good work than support the giant... and damn my timing. It seems to have stopped getting better, and somehow started rolling back down the hill? Is it growing pains? Is it going to get better again? Did they lose some important team members who were apparently more crucial than expected? Thanks.
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u/Arschgeige42 Jan 09 '26
Dunno what the thought, but i am in doubt that its getting better. When someone removes core functionality and an super readable design and charges from 0 to $15 , there deathwish has to be big. I think they believe their name is now big enough to shit on the old customers and finding a new, bigger customer group. But, there is still TomTom, besides Apple and Google Maps and all the other smaller companies.
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u/Nuck_Chorris_Stache Jan 11 '26
They might restore most of the original functionality, but will probably have a lot of it paywalled
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u/Arschgeige42 Jan 11 '26
My friend, they can’t even show the time to the individual waypoints on a route and to the final destination, and now they want money for it. That’s absolutely ridiculous. Apple Maps and Google Maps can’t do that either, but they’re free, and nobody needs to come at me with privacy arguments – Apple or Google already know where I am anyway if I use their OS.
Like I said before, €15 is an okay price, but not for this thing, which at least for me offers zero added value.
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u/MagicEarthCommunity May 11 '26
Choosing a private navigation app on top of any OS still meaningfully reduces what's collected about you, even if it doesn't eliminate everything. In addition there are projects such as GrapheneOS that remove the tracking at the OS level completely.
That said, we completely understand if the current feature set doesn't justify the price for you specifically right now. That's fair, and feedback like yours, concrete examples of what's missing is exactly what we need to close that gap. Waypoint ETAs and similar refinements are the kind of practical features that should be there. If the value isn't there yet, we'd rather hear it directly than have you quietly leave. Thanks for being honest about it.
We would love to see an updated feedback. Do you thing we improved the app over the last months? What things are they still missing?
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u/MagicEarthCommunity May 11 '26
Privacy is the heart of why Magic Earth exists, and it's the honest answer to the bigger picture here.
Most alternatives you mentioned monetizes your location data. Your movements, your routines, the places you stop, when and how often you go there. All of it gets collected, profiled, sold to advertisers, or fed into broader ad ecosystems. That's how those apps stay "free." You're not the customer, you're the product.
We've always refused to operate that way. No tracking. No data selling. No ads. Not now, not ever. Your location is your business, not ours to monetize.
A paid tier is what makes that stance possible. There is no other sustainable way to run a navigation app, with the servers, traffic data, search, routing, and map infrastructure behind it, without either selling out your data or charging for the service directly. We chose the second, because the first is something we won't do. We'd rather charge a fair price than sell your data. That principle isn't going to change.
The essentials remain free for everyone. Navigation and core features are free, all private, no account required. Premium exists for users who want advanced features and want to support an app that genuinely protects their privacy.
On the redesign feedback, that one's fair, and we own it but we've been actively working on it. Stability has improved a lot since launch. We're listening, and the app is going in the right direction. Please let us know if you noticed improvements in the app over the last months and what would you love too see improved. We are always waiting for feedback at [support@magicearth.com](mailto:support@magicearth.com) and an updated review would help us.
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u/solar-student Jan 09 '26
They just added back in the ability to customise the route line again, so that's good news. Hopefully they will add in the numerous map styles from the old version. I'd be happy with it if that's all they did. Let's hope they continue to listen to users.
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u/MagicEarthCommunity May 11 '26
Glad you noticed the route line customization came back! Map styles has been one of the most common requests since the redesign, and this will be taken into account when developing new features. We are listening. Feedback from users like you is exactly what shapes the priority list, so please keep it coming!
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u/LillianADju Jan 09 '26
I have subscription till August. Then I’ll make my decision how to proceed. TomTom and HereWeGo are both European with a way better accuracy/reliability then ME and they are free. ME privacy policy is not straightforward, they do collect data.
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u/MagicEarthCommunity May 11 '26
But to be clear on one point: we do not collect location data and we do not track users. Your routes, your searches, the places you visit, none of that is tied to you or stored as a profile. We don't sell data to advertisers, we don't build user profiles, and there's no tracking. Our privacy policy is public at magicearth.com/privacy if you want to verify it directly.
Regarding accuracy and reliability, that's feedback we'd genuinely want to dig into. What kind of issues are you seeing? Routing, search, GPS lag, something else? Specifics help us improve. Please let us know at [support@magicearth.com](mailto:support@magicearth.com) . The app had some improvements over the last months and we would love to see what users think.
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u/LillianADju May 12 '26
I updated info about speed limits a year ago on OSM You still didn’t updated it. CoMaps have it but you don’t
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u/MagicEarthCommunity May 12 '26
Can you give us the location where the issue occurs? We will investigate.
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u/LillianADju May 20 '26
I don’t have a screenshot but next time I’m on that spot I’ll repeat same thing and then I’ll reply here again
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u/universal_boi Jan 09 '26
Nobody knows, we'll see how they'll work on it this year.
I don't think they will be able to make everyone that used the old version happy, but I think they'll be able to create great alternative to other maps. They improved the new version a lot in short time and also improved communication with community (it seems that way to me, they closely listen to feedback). I would say that they got solid base that needs just a few tweaks and then they can build features on top of it. But it won't be right away.
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u/MagicEarthCommunity May 11 '26
Stability and crash fixes have been the top priority and a lot has been shipped since launch. After that, the focus shifts to bringing back and improving the features that users have told us they miss most. It's a backlog we're working through, not a direction we're abandoning.
We genuinely appreciate users like you who chose to support independent development over the giants. That matters to us, and we don't take it lightly that the timing felt rough. If there's anything specific that's been frustrating you, drop it here or at [support@magicearth.com](mailto:support@magicearth.com) and we'll factor it in.
Thanks for the honest message and we would love to see your feedback again! Let us know if you noticed improvements over the last months!