# StreetComplete: an Android OpenStreetMap editor that asks questions instead of teaching tagging > StreetComplete turns a walk through your neighbourhood into OpenStreetMap edits by showing quest markers on a map and asking one simple question per marker. It is built for contributors who know nothing about OSM tagging, and it is Android-only today, with iOS work funded but unfinished. **streetcomplete/StreetComplete** — Easy to use OpenStreetMap editor for Android - Repository: https://github.com/streetcomplete/StreetComplete - Website: https://streetcomplete.app - Stars: 4,807 · Forks: 454 - Language: Kotlin - License: GPL-3.0 - Published: 2026-09-23 · Updated: 2026-09-23 · Language: en - Canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/streetcomplete-streetcomplete ## The problem StreetComplete solves: survey data without tagging knowledge OpenStreetMap accepts edits from anyone, but the barrier is not the editor. It is the vocabulary. A mapper standing in front of a shop needs to know which key describes the shop, which value describes its type, and whether the answer belongs on the node or the building way. StreetComplete removes that step. The README states the app "can be used without any OpenStreetMap-specific knowledge" and is "aimed at users who do not know anything about OSM tagging schemes but still want to contribute". The audience is therefore narrow and specific: a person with a phone, on foot, in a place that has not been surveyed recently. The app "automatically looks for nearby places where a survey is needed and shows them as quest markers on its map", and each marker is solved "on site by answering a simple question". The README's own example is a marker that asks "What is the name of this road?" with a text field for the answer. Nothing in that flow requires the user to see a tag. The design constraint follows from the audience. The README says quests "are limited to those answerable by asking simple questions". That is a deliberate ceiling on what the app can collect, and it is the reason the app stays usable for someone who has never opened the OSM wiki. ## How the quest mechanism and upload flow work The mechanism is a three-stage loop: find, ask, upload. Stage one is discovery. The app scans the map data around the user and produces quest markers for places where a survey is needed. Stage two is the question. Tapping a marker opens one question with a constrained answer format, such as a text field for a road name. Stage three is submission. The README states that "the user's answer is automatically processed and uploaded directly into the OSM database" and that "edits are done in meaningful changesets using the user's OSM account". That last clause matters more than it looks. StreetComplete does not maintain a separate data store or a staging area that a maintainer later merges. The user's own OSM account is the author of the changeset, which means the normal OSM review, revert and discussion tools apply to the result. There is no StreetComplete-specific moderation layer described in the README. The README also states the app "can be used offline and is economic with data usage", which fits the survey use case: walking a street does not require a live connection for every marker. Two further details are visible outside the README. The repository carries QUEST_GUIDELINES.md and CONTRIBUTING_A_NEW_QUEST.md at the top level, so the question set is treated as an extension point with its own rules rather than a fixed list. And the README points to a "community-managed list of all quests in the OSM wiki", which means the exact set of questions is documented outside the repository. ## Installing StreetComplete and solving your first quest The README gives three distribution channels: Google Play, F-Droid, and an APK attached to the latest GitHub release. The package name on both stores is de.westnordost.streetcomplete. If you want the APK directly, the release page is the source, and the README links to the latest release rather than to a fixed version. There are no build-from-source instructions in the README. The repository is a Gradle project with a gradlew wrapper and settings.gradle.kts at the top level, but the README does not document a build command, so anyone compiling it is reading the build files rather than following published steps. For normal use, install from a store. After installing, the first real task is signing in, because edits are attributed to your OSM account. The app itself is the interface here; there is no config file to edit. Once signed in, open the map and wait for quest markers to appear around your position. ```bash # No shell commands are needed for normal use. # Install from Google Play or F-Droid, or sideload the APK # from https://github.com/streetcomplete/StreetComplete/releases/latest # Package name: de.westnordost.streetcomplete ``` What you should see after launch is a map with markers for nearby surveyable places. Tap one marker, answer the single question it shows (for example, typing a road name into the text field), and confirm. The README states the answer is then processed and uploaded to the OSM database as a changeset under your account. If you want to check the result, look up your own edit history on openstreetmap.org rather than inside the app, since the README describes the upload destination, not an in-app history view. ## Where StreetComplete is the wrong tool The README is explicit that quests are "limited to those answerable by asking simple questions". Read that as a hard boundary. If your task requires tracing building outlines from imagery, fixing a broken multipolygon relation, retagging a whole category of objects, or importing a dataset, StreetComplete offers no path to it. It is a field survey tool, not a general editor. The offline claim also deserves care. The README says the app "can be used offline", which describes the survey flow, not the whole application. The background map is a network service: the README credits JawgMaps with providing "their vector map tiles service to StreetComplete for free, i.e. the background map displayed in the app". A free third-party tile service is a dependency, and the README does not describe a fallback if it is unavailable. The platform limit is the third boundary. The README describes StreetComplete as "available for Android". The repository contains an iosApp/ directory, and the README states that a 2025 NLnet grant "will allow Tobias Zwick to finish migrating the app to a multiplatform, so that it runs also on iOS", linking to ticket #5421. Funded work in progress is not a shipped iOS app, and the README does not claim otherwise. If you are on an iPhone today, this is not your tool yet. Finally, quest coverage is not uniform. Because the quest list lives in the OSM wiki and is community-managed, what the app can ask about in your area depends on which quests exist and are enabled. A sparse rural area and a dense city will not produce the same experience, and the README does not promise a baseline. ## StreetComplete against JOSM and iD The obvious comparison is JOSM, the desktop Java editor, and iD, the browser editor on openstreetmap.org. The difference is not feature count, it is the direction of the workflow. JOSM and iD are general-purpose editors: you load data, choose an object, and set tags yourself. They assume you know or are willing to look up the tagging scheme. StreetComplete inverts that. It decides what needs surveying, asks you a question phrased in plain language, and derives the tags from your answer. That inversion is why StreetComplete can be used by someone with no OSM knowledge and why it cannot replace JOSM for anyone doing serious data repair. A JOSM user can fix a relation, run a validation pass, and work from aerial imagery at a desk. A StreetComplete user answers a question about a road name while standing on that road. The tools overlap only in the sense that both write to the same database. The practical split is armchair versus field. If the information is already visible in imagery or in another dataset, StreetComplete is the wrong instrument, because its entire value is that the answer comes from being there. If the information can only be obtained by looking at the real world, StreetComplete is often the fastest route to recording it, and the resulting changeset is attributed to your account just as a JOSM upload would be. ## Licence, maintenance and what upgrading costs you StreetComplete is released under the GNU General Public License v3.0 only. The README links to the GPL v3 text and the repository carries a LICENSE file at the top level. For a user installing the app from a store, the licence changes nothing about daily use. For anyone reusing the code, GPL-3.0-only is a copyleft licence, and the practical consequence is that derivative distributions must comply with its terms. That is a statement about the licence text, not legal advice, and a project embedding this code should read the licence itself. Maintenance is straightforward to judge from the repository facts. The repository is not archived, and the last push was on 2026-09-22. Recent releases include v63.4 and v63.3 on 2026-07-28, and v61.0-alpha1 on 2026-09-18. Development is ongoing, and the README states plainly that "this is an active open-source project". Upgrade cost for a user is close to zero: the app updates through Google Play or F-Droid, and the README does not document any migration step between versions. The cost sits on the contributor side. Because quests are defined by guidelines (QUEST_GUIDELINES.md, CONTRIBUTING_A_NEW_QUEST.md) and the canonical quest list lives in the OSM wiki, adding or changing a quest means working against both the repository's rules and a community-managed page. That is a coordination cost, not a technical one, and it is the reason the quest set changes slowly. ## Conclusion Adopt StreetComplete if you want to contribute survey data to OpenStreetMap without learning tagging schemes, and you carry an Android phone: install it from Google Play or F-Droid, log in with your OSM account, and treat the quest list as the product surface you are judging. Do not adopt it as a general-purpose OSM editor. It deliberately limits itself to questions answerable on the spot, so armchair mapping, bulk imports and complex geometry work belong in desktop editors such as JOSM or iD. The iosApp/ directory and the 2025 NLnet grant point at an iOS version, but the README presents the app as Android, so verify the current state of that ticket before promising an iPhone workflow to anyone. Check the OSM wiki quest list for the quest types you care about, because that list is community-managed and the app's usefulness in your area depends on which quests are enabled there. ## FAQ ### Does StreetComplete work on iOS or iPhone? The README describes StreetComplete as an editor available for Android, and the download links point to Google Play, F-Droid and a GitHub APK. The repository contains an iosApp/ directory, and the README states that a 2025 NLnet grant will let the maintainer finish migrating the app to a multiplatform so it also runs on iOS, linking to ticket #5421. That work is funded and in progress, not a shipped iOS release. ### Do I need an OpenStreetMap account to use StreetComplete? Yes, in practice. The README states that edits are uploaded directly into the OSM database and are done in meaningful changesets using the user's OSM account. The account is what attributes the changeset to you. ### Can StreetComplete be used without knowing OSM tagging? That is the point of the app. The README says it can be used without any OpenStreetMap-specific knowledge and is aimed at users who do not know anything about OSM tagging schemes but still want to contribute. Quests are limited to those answerable by asking simple questions. ### Where do I download StreetComplete? The README lists three sources: Google Play, F-Droid, and the APK attached to the latest GitHub release. The package name on the stores is de.westnordost.streetcomplete. ### What licence is StreetComplete released under? The README states the software is released under the terms of the GNU General Public License v3.0 only, and the repository carries a LICENSE file at the top level. ## Sources - [License: GPL-3.0](https://github.com/streetcomplete/StreetComplete/blob/master/LICENSE) - [Project website](https://streetcomplete.app) - [README](https://github.com/streetcomplete/StreetComplete/blob/master/README.md) - [Releases](https://github.com/streetcomplete/StreetComplete/releases) - [streetcomplete/StreetComplete on GitHub](https://github.com/streetcomplete/StreetComplete) --- Hysen Labs editorial analysis, written from the project's own repository and release notes. Cite the canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/streetcomplete-streetcomplete