Wikipedia

NOTE

The Wikipedia plugin is a paid feature of the OsmAnd app.

Having Wikipedia on your trip helps you learn more about the places you visit. It is available offline and shows Wikipedia articles in relation to the points of interest right on the map.

Overview

The Wikipedia plugin is a separate feature that can be enabled/disabled as needed. Once enabled, it allows you to upload Wikipedia data downloaded for each geographical region. The map has two kinds of uploaded knowledge from Wikipedia: a brief information and a full article.

Brief information is provided by Wikipedia POIs (an abbreviation for "point of interest"). If the Wikipedia option is toggled on in the menu, a Wikipedia POI appears on the map. When you tap on a point of interest, it expands to provide brief information from Wikipedia, as well as the ability to open a full article. The Wikipedia POI, as well as related articles, are available offline. You can read them as needed, switch languages, and search for other information on Wikipedia.

Wikipedia is a free, multilingual open-collaborative online encyclopedia created and maintained by a community of volunteer editors using a wiki-based editing system.

Wikipedia

Setup

To display Wikipedia data on the map, you need to make the following setting:

Purchase and Enable Wikipedia plugin in the Plugins section of the main menu.
Download the Wikipedia packages for the required regions.
Display the Wikipedia POIs on the map for the required profile.
Configure preferred languages to read articles.

Download Wikipedia packages

Wikipedia data is available for each geographic region. If it is loaded for one region and not loaded for another, in the first case you can work with Wikipedia information when viewing the region on a map, and in the other case the region will not have any Wikipedia information. Once loaded, Wikipedia data becomes available in general, as well as offline.

To download the Wikipedia data for a region, go to the available packages for download in the main menu, find the needed region and open it. The Wikipedia data will be among other packages.

Android
iOS

In the Android version, you can open Wikipedia data to download by region as follows:

Go to: Menu → Download maps → Regions
Select the required region. Once the region is opened, the Wikipedia data will be among other packages.

To see what data has already been uploaded, go to: Menu → Local → Wikipedia

Download Wikipedia in Android

Display Wikipedia on the map

By loading Wikipedia data for the required regions, you can control the visibility of that data on the map. Visibility is controlled by Wikipedia POIs, which can be shown or hidden for all uploaded regions by a certain profile, for example, a profile for driving, a profile for cycling, another profile to show public transport, etc.

To show or hide Wikipedia POIs, first select a profile and then on/off Wikipedia option.

Android
iOS

In the Android version, to show/hide Wikipedia POIs, do the following:

Go to: Menu → Configure map
Select a Profile, and look for the Show section of settings in the menu.
Toggle Wikipedia on.

Wikipedia POIs on Android

Search Wikipedia

With uploaded Wikipedia data, regardless of the visibility mode of the Wikipedia POIs on the map, it is possible to search for any information from Wikipedia.

When you tap the Search button, an additional panel appears allowing you to search the entire text and/or a specific category. In the former case, the search results will show Wikipedia POIs with corresponding Wikipedia articles among other types of information. In the case of a Wikipedia category search, the search results will only show Wikipedia information, sorted by the closest location to the area of the map that is currently displayed on the screen.

Android
iOS

In the Android version, you can open Search by:

tapping the Search icon in the upper left corner of the screen
and/or
tapping the Search option in the menu.

To search by the Wikipedia category, select: Search → Categories → Wikipedia

If necessary, tap the Show Wikipedia on the map option at the top of the search panel and search results from the Wikipedia category will appear on the map.

Wikipedia languages

When there is a choice of languages to display the Wikipedia data, you can set the language in which you prefer to read the text. The figure below shows an example of Wikipedia POIs and an article that is written in French by default and is displayed in English, thanks to the other translations available for this Wikipedia data and the English language set for Wikipedia in the Profile settings.

Android
iOS

With the preferred language established for Wikipedia, for example, a French POI can show the text in English (see the figure below).

French Wikipedia POI in English

Set preferred language

To set your preferred language, browse the Wikipedia data, navigate to the desired profile, tap the Wikipedia option, and in the list that opens, deselect All language and check the specific option. If multiple languages are selected, the displayed text will be in any of them.

Android
iOS

In the Android version, to set the preferred language for the Wikipedia data, do the following:

Go to: Menu → Configure map
Select a profile and find the Show section of settings.
Tap Wikipedia, toggle it enabled, and then tap Language.
Check the preferred language(-s) in the opened list.

Setting a preferred language on Android

Switch languages inside article

If some translation options are available, you can switch the language when viewing a particular Wikipedia article. The language icon in the upper right corner of the article will offer options to choose from.

Android
iOS

In the Android version, with the Wikipedia POI turned on for a specific profile, it is enough to tap a POI, then scroll the opened context menu upwards till viewing an abstract of the Wikipedia article:

Tap on an article.
Tap the current language icon in the header in the upper right corner of the screen, which opens a list of available language options.
Select the desired language.

Switching languages for a specific article