In part 3 on my series on OpenStreeMap let's have a closer look at Openstreemap for Android, or OSMAND for short. OSMAND is open source and hosted over at Github. Apart from the great navigation system it has been for me over the years (see point 8 here) it also serves me pretty well when searching for 'points of interest' (POI) such as supermarkets, nearby restaurants, etc. when I'm traveling.
What I didn't notice so far, however, is that POIs can also be shown in the map instead of just being searched for. The first screenshot on the left shows the default map, the second shows how the map looks like when all types of POIs are displayed and the third screenshot shows the left 'swipe-in' menu from which the display of POIs can be enabled. In my examples all types of POIs are shown but the menu also offers a list from which a subset can be selected, e.g. only restaurants and supermarkets. When touching one of the orange POIs, additional information is presented such as the name of the restaurant and, if available, other information such as opening hours, URL of the web site, phone number, etc. All very useful.
For those of you who would like to add, modify or delete POIs that are no longer there, OSMAND offers the option to do just that while one is on site. To add additional information to a POI, a long press brings up an edit menu. Editing POIs requires an Openstreetmap account and to configure the log-in credentials in the OSMAND settings on the device. The only quirck is that changes are not immediately visible on the map as it is an offline copy. Changes are uploaded immediately, however, and can be seen after a few minutes on the main OSM web site. It takes a couple of days for them to appear in the next update for the downloadable maps, however. Still, very useful, too.