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
Version numbers are not needed for most modifications to the OSM Binary protocol. New information can generally be added to the end of enumerations or the end of type definition, or new types added all together. Data users can simply ignore anything they don't know about and skip over it.
For bigger changes it can be useful to indicate which format is preferred. The version number is included in the request, and also in the Tile Definition.
Version
Change
Why
1
Uses 32bit unsigned ints for node id's (poi entities not expected).
Original.
2
Uses 64bit ints for poi id's (node entities not expected), supports relations such that referenced pois/ways dont need to have duplicated properties.
OSM Node Id's are growing fast they will break the 32bit boundary soon. Relations can be used to reduce the amount of data needed.
