Kite Maps

Kite Maps is private turn-by-turn navigation for iPhone, bringing the open-source Android maps app Vela Maps to iOS. The map itself is OpenStreetMap open data drawn with MapLibre. When you search for a place or ask for directions, your phone asks Google's public web pages directly — no login, no API key, no server in between. And if you don't want Google involved at all, one switch in settings moves search and routing entirely to open data sources.

Driving is where it shines: big buttons, a huge turn banner, voice-guided navigation, automatic rerouting, plus the Waze-style driving aids — lane arrows, roundabout exit diagrams, road signs, speed limits, and speed and number-plate camera alerts from OpenStreetMap. With live Waze reports (beta) you can see police, crashes, hazards, and road closures; transit gets live departure boards and delays, and UK users get miles and yards, postcode search, and local road signs. Home, work, parked-car spots, and history all stay on your phone — no account, no tracking.

The project has 17 stars on GitHub, 26 commits, and just shipped v0.7.8 — its twentieth release, with updates coming steadily from late October into early November. The author is upfront about not being a programmer: he describes what he wants, Claude writes the code, sets up the build, and even wrote this project page, while he tests each build on his own iPhone while driving around the UK. He's equally direct that the code hasn't been reviewed by an experienced iOS developer, so treat it as a beta.

The limits are worth knowing upfront: it's not on the App Store, so you sideload it yourself with AltStore or Sideloadly, and a free Apple ID needs refreshing every 7 days. There's an Android version too, through its own F-Droid repo. And the features fit UK driving best — traffic and transit coverage elsewhere depends on how good the open data is there.