Popular Places

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Overview

⚠️ Android only

This feature is currently not available for the iOS version of the OsmAnd app.

The Popular Places tool in OsmAnd provides a curated selection of globally notable locations, helping users explore famous landmarks and points of interest. This feature is entirely powered by Wikidata and Wikipedia, which are structured open knowledge bases containing data about millions of geographic objects — including articles, coordinates, images, and multilingual descriptions.

Each place listed in the Popular Places tool is linked to a Wikidata ID, enabling OsmAnd to display detailed information and relevant images for the selected location. The presence of a Wikidata ID is essential for accurate identification and visualization of each place.

Currently, the tool features a focused subset of approximately 50,000 to 150,000 top-rated locations, selected from around 1 million Wikidata objects that also exist in OpenStreetMap. Although Wikidata includes over 10 million geotagged objects globally, OsmAnd highlights only the most prominent ones—resulting in a small but high-quality selection.

This is the first iteration of the Popular Places tool in OsmAnd. We welcome your feedback on any issues or missing locations.

You can continue reading this guide to learn how to use the feature, or submit feedback on GitHub.

How to Use

⚠️ Android only

This feature is currently not available for the iOS version of the OsmAnd app.

The Popular Places feature — which includes POIs on the map and a curated list of notable locations — can be accessed from two different sections of the app:

• Free version
  Via Search:
  Go to Android: Search → Explore → Popular places nearby to explore nearby landmarks and attractions.

• Paid versions (Maps+ and OsmAnd Pro)
  Via Configure Map:
  Enable the overlay via Android: Menu → Configure map → Popular places (Wikipedia) → Points of interest will appear on the map, including thumbnail images from Wikidata (if available).
  You can switch between offline Wikipedia data and online data by adjusting the POI Source in the Popular Places menu.

Explore in Search

Android: Search → Explore → Popular places nearby

The Popular places nearby section displays the most popular tourist destinations nearby. You can scroll left or right to browse highlighted locations around you, or tap the Show all button to open the full list of popular places.

Each item includes an image, a short description, a POI category tag, as well as the distance and direction to the location.

At the top of the list, you’ll find the Show on map button, which displays all listed POIs directly on the map.

Tapping any location opens the POI context menu on the map, where you can access the Online Photos section and view the linked Wikipedia article for the selected place.

tip

This feature works online only in the free version.
To use it offline, you need to purchase a Maps+ or OsmAnd Pro subscription and download the Wikipedia maps for your selected region.

Enable Layer

Android: Menu → Configure map → Popular places (Wikipedia)

The Popular places (Wikipedia) feature is available under the Configure Map menu. It offers extended settings for displaying Wikipedia-based content on the map using Wikidata images.

Before using this feature, ensure the Wikipedia Plugin is enabled. Then, download the required Wikipedia map for your selected region if you want to use it offline.

This feature overlays Wikipedia POIs on the map, often with associated images from Wikidata.

Key options in this menu include:

• Popular places (Wikipedia) – Toggle the visibility of POIs with Wikipedia content on the map.
• Language – Choose the language for Wikipedia articles and POI descriptions.
• POI Source – Choose between:
  • Offline mode (requires downloaded Wikipedia articles), or
  • Online only mode (no article download required).
    In Online mode, POIs and their images are displayed dynamically — similar to the Explore Mode by Search.
• Show image previews – Enable this to show thumbnail previews of images for POIs directly on the map.

Tapping any image-based POI on the map opens the POI context menu, where you can access the Online Photos section and open the linked Wikipedia article for the selected place.

Online Photos

Android

iOS

Map Context menu → Online photos

This is a section within the POI context menu that displays a photo preview of the selected Popular Place (Wikipedia). You can scroll horizontally to browse through the available photos, or tap any image to open it in full screen mode.

Learn more about additional options in the Actions section and Gallery.

Data Sources

The image data in Popular Places comes from Wikidata, a collaboratively edited, multilingual knowledge graph.
As noted in the Overview, each location featured in the Popular Places tool is linked to a Wikidata ID, which allows OsmAnd to display detailed descriptions and relevant images.

In the Map Context Menu, each Popular Place includes a clickable Wikidata tag.
Tapping this tag opens the corresponding object's page on the Wikidata website.

Actions

In the Map Context menu How to access:

• Tap the Show All (Android) / View All (iOS) button to open the gallery in full screen mode, where you can swipe through all available photos for the selected location.

• Tap any photo to view it in full screen and access the available actions:
  Share, Details, Open in browser, and Download.

Gallery

Android

iOS

The Gallery Menu can display up to 100 images related to the selected point of interest. You can swipe through all available photos. Tapping a photo briefly opens a detailed view showing: Name, Date added, Author, License

You can also perform the following actions on each photo:

• Share
  Share the selected image using any compatible app installed on your device (e.g., messaging, email, or social media). The shared content includes the image and its source link (if available).

• Details
  Open a detailed view showing metadata about the image, including: Name, Date added, Author, License, Source, and Direct link

• Open in browser
  Launch the image’s source page (usually on Wikimedia Commons) in your default browser. This allows you to view the full image, licensing information, and related content.

• Download
  Save the image to your device’s storage. The downloaded image can be found in your device’s default Downloads folder and accessed offline.

Android

The Android version does not include an additional menu for photo actions.

iOS

On iOS, long-pressing a photo opens a context menu with additional actions:

• Details
• Open in browser
• Download

Buttons:

• The Share button lets you quickly share the selected image.
• The three-dot menu provides access to extra actions, including viewing details, opening the source in a browser, or downloading the image.

Android

iOS

The Details screen provides full metadata for the selected photo, including: Name, Date added, Author, License, Source, and Direct link