ISRO and MapmyIndia Offer Alternative to Google Maps: Important Features of the App

ISRO and MapmyIndia have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to offer an alternative to Google Maps called MapmyIndia Move, which can be downloaded from App store, Google Play or from the web. The organisations will jointly identify and build holistic geospatial solutions utilizing the Earth Observation Datasets, NavIC, Web Services and APIs available in MapmyIndia, Bhuvan, VEDAS and MOSDAC Geoportals.

The app has already achieved 1.6 million downloads, and has been reviewed over 2 million times says the official website. “A very nice start, which has huge potential. It still needs lots of tweaks to be as competitive. But as they say, "Rome wasn't built in a day." I would recommend, if the auto-suggestions feed would automatically sort itself in the nearest first order, it would be helpful as it is what makes more sense. It shows what I am searching for but keeps it at the bottom, which is sometimes irksome. All I can say at the end is, keep improving,” says a user Nisarg Bhavsar on Google Play.

Important Features Being Offered by the Move App by ISRO and MapmyIndia

MapmyIndia Move offers all the features that Google Maps has to offer such as maps, navigation, tracking and information about local markets. Some of the features being offered by the app are as follows:

• Exact house addresses can be found, and voice navigation can be used to achieve the same.
• Step-by-step voice-guided directions will be provided to the destination with live traffic-updates and expected travel arrival along the route.
• Hyper-local updates such as dangerous zones, traffic jams, potholes, and other such situations will be provided to users.
• Six character location code will be generated for a complex address.
• Banks, ATMs, restaurants, and shops will be displayed through smart augmented reality in 3D using phone camera overlayed on maps.
• Move Gadgets enables users to track their car and family in real-time.