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Today: 1,953 launches · Niche of the day: specialized calculation tools · See what launched today →

Tiny FOSS Compass and Navigation App (<2MB)

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HN · launched Jan 14, 2026 · 137 upvotes (top 7%) · 0 views

Niche: specialized navigation and tracking apps · 203 launches, 35 in the last 7 days ▲ +84% · Explore this niche →

Category and tags
  • Horizontal
  • Dev tools
  • B2C
  • Not AI
  • Hobby / open-source project

Visit website ↗ Source listing ↗

More like this: all 203 launches in specialized navigation and tracking apps →

Could you build this?

Yes This is a lightweight open-source Android app reading hardware magnetometer and GPS sensors to render an orientation compass and basic coordinates. Standard Android SDK sensor listeners and canvas rendering are basic tasks easily generated with AI assistance.

Discussion

20 comments analyzed.

Competitors mentioned: Cartes.app web compass, Comaps offline maps, Maplibre-Native vector map library, OpenStreetMap vector maps, Other utility apps (music tuners, barcode scanners, unit converters)

Concerns raised: Magnetic anomalies near ore deposits require higher map resolution, Compass accuracy affected by power lines and electric trains, GPL license can be circumvented by AI-generated copies on app stores, Additional license note may not override GPL restrictions legally, Hard to maintain FOSS project long-term without funding or contributions

Feature requests: Bitcoin, Lightning, or Monero donation options, Vector map support on Android, In-app donation prompts to increase user support, Support for offline maps on web platform

Competitors

Other products that read as similar to this one : 312 launches clear the similarity bar, closest 8 shown.

Attention rank: #31 of 313 (itself plus its competitors, highest first, normalized so YC and Product Hunt are compared fairly).

Launched 71 days after the earliest competitor.

  • FOSS De-googled Compass and Nav app with live location tracking · hn · 2025-11-21 · 5 upvotes · similarity 0.50
  • Compass · github · 2026-10-15 · 35 upvotes · similarity 0.45
  • Tinywm · hn · 2026-10-16 · 13 upvotes · similarity 0.44
  • tinywm · github · 2026-10-14 · 22 upvotes · similarity 0.44
  • Jarvey · hn · 2026-03-07 · 5 upvotes · similarity 0.43
  • tinycue · github · 2026-09-19 · 12 upvotes · similarity 0.42
  • Dinky · github · 2026-09-26 · 24 upvotes · similarity 0.41
  • frun · github · 2026-10-15 · 29 upvotes · similarity 0.40

Related data

The niche, labels, vibe code rating and competitor comparison on this page are analysis by Nicheloom. If you use them, please credit nicheloom.com. How you may use our data.