This page describes a historic artifact in the history of OpenStreetMap. It does not reflect the current situation, but instead documents the historical concepts, issues, or ideas.
About
The OSM Binary Format was the data format, the WhereAmI, a map application for SymbianOS, used. This page describes additions to that format.
Impact on OpenStreetMap
It was one of the multiple attempts to find a more performant file format for OSM vector data compared to PBF. Nowadays (2025), map data for mobile applications is often stored in formats used by the application themselves (e.g. OsmAnd, Organic Maps). Tiles—vector and raster—can be stored in MBTiles as container format.
Reason for being historic
There is no known application using this file format.
Captured time
2025
Uses 8bits to indicate the level of detail held in the format for this tile.
