MapSwipe

MapSwipe. Best app that seems like a game but isn’t. SCROLL REAL MAPS IN REAL DISASTER AREAS. HELP FIND HOUSES TO SAVE LIVES. Many rural settlements aren't well-mapped. it matters: Local agencies and teams are coordinating search, evacuation, and aid delivery in real time. By volunteering just a few minutes swiping through tiles, you help build the settlement location data that lets responders target relief where it's actually needed — turning imagery into life-saving logistics. Join any of the Red Cross groups to help rescue teams. Indonesia earthquake. Botswana, Columbia. Many parts aren’t well documented. You can help.

I love being able to use my phone for something that helps other people instead of just social media, BUT using this app is an exercise in frustration due to bugs. By far the most frustrating is that when you’re in the middle of a mapping task, the app will randomly white out the screen and then flash the MapSwipe logo at you while saying “loading groups” and a button that says something like “if this takes too long, tap here to go back to the home screen.” I’ve waited several minutes, and it never finishes “loading the groups.” And the only way to leave that screen is to go back to home or to close the app. Either way, you lose your entire mapping task progress. I tried joining a random group to see if it would stop trying to “load groups,” but it still happened. It’s incredibly discouraging, and I have to restrain myself from rushing through a task because I’m afraid that the groups thing is going to appear and make all the time I spent be wasted. I find myself avoiding the projects that make you do large numbers of swipes in one task because I know that increases the likelihood of encountering the issue before I can finish them. Less prevalent but no less annoying is that when you try to sign in with OpenStreetMap instead of creating a dedicated MapSwipe account from scratch, this app just hangs. It’ll open OSM in the browser, OSM will ask if you’r like to authorize MapSwipe, you click “authorize”, and then it opens MapSwipe and just… flashes the logo at you, over and over. I like the color-coded tapping system and the project system. When the app works, it feels incredibly rewarding and also even relaxing, but it currently doesn’t work consistently at all.