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How To Add Fire Hydrants (or Benches) in StreetComplete

Posted by Tex2002ans on 22 January 2025 in English. Last updated on 23 January 2025.

In the upper-right corner of the main screen, you’ll see 3 buttons:

  • Upload
    • Looks like an “up arrow”.
  • Layers
    • This is the one we want!
  • Settings
    • Looks like “3 horizontal lines”.

(Note: This tutorial was created using StreetComplete v60.1 on Android.)

Tutorial: Adding Fire Hydrants

SEE IMAGE

1. Click on the “Layers” button.

2. Choose “Things”.

  • The icon will now turn into a green-and-white bullseye-looking symbol.
    • (You can now see objects like benches / fire hydrants on the map.)

SEE IMAGE

3. Pinch+Zoom in really far:

  • You’ll see a crosshair appear on your screen.
    • (That’s the exact spot the object will be placed.)

Now:

  • Scroll on the map to move it to the exact location.

4. At the bottom-right of the screen:

  • Click the big red + button.

5. At the bottom of your screen:

  • Click on the “? Select” dropdown.
    • (You’ll now get a list of objects to choose from.)

This is where you can quickly choose from the 10 most popular objects:

  • Bench
  • Fire Hydrant
    • Choose this one!
  • Trash Can
  • Bicycle Parking
  • Recycling Bin
  • […]

SEE IMAGE

6. Then:

  • Verify you moved the cursor to the right location.
  • Double-check you chose the correct object.
  • Click on the checkmark.

Congrats. You added it to the map! :)


Tips

Tip #1: See A Bench? Take A Break!

If I’m mapping benches, I:

  • Sit right down.
  • Wait for the GPS to stabilize.
  • Do Steps 3->6.
    • Moving “the crosshair” directly over my “location dot”.

And while I’m taking a quick rest, I complete a few more quests around me too! :)

Tip #2: Other Small Things?

In Step 5, you can also add many other things by just:

  • Typing into the search box.

SEE IMAGE

So if you’re in a park, you may want to add:

  • Drinking Water
    • This will trigger the “water fountain” quests.
  • Picnic Table

or some of the playground equipment:

  • Play Structure
    • This is the big thing with steps/slides/walls/bridges for kids to play on.
  • Swing
  • Seesaw

Or here are a few other objects you might come across while exploring:

Extra Info

Side Note #1: If you like fire hydrants, then check out the map at:

StreetComplete is great for filling in all those blank gaps in your neighborhood! :)

Side Note #2: If you love adding in all these little things, you may also be interested in this great talk:

@mycota did a fantastic job making parks look so much better! :)


Technical Note: These are the 2 main OSM tags discussed:

StreetComplete Name Tag Link
Fire Hydrant emergency=fire_hydrant OSM Wiki
Bench amenity=bench OSM Wiki

and then these bonus ones:

StreetComplete Name Tag Link
Drinking Water amenity=drinking_water OSM Wiki
Picnic Table leisure=picnic_table OSM Wiki
  playground=* OSM Wiki
Trash Can amenity=waste_basket OSM Wiki
Public Bookcase amenity=public_bookcase OSM Wiki
Flagpole man_made=flagpole OSM Wiki

Discussion

Comment from watmildon on 23 January 2025 at 23:15

Thanks! I’ll be sharing this with some folks for a mapping party. Really really nice.

Comment from redd on 23 January 2025 at 23:31

Thanks, it seems that its not straight forward to add things with StreetComplete. I use OsmAnd to add POIs like fire hydrants or benches as OsmAnd is very convinient for this task.

Comment from Tex2002ans on 25 January 2025 at 15:36

Thanks watmildon + thanks redd. :)

I’ll be sharing this with some folks for a mapping party.

Awesome! That’s great! Let me know how it goes. :)

One of the things I noticed last year, while fixing 300+ OSM Notes, was a lot of StreetComplete users were leaving Notes like:

  • “A yellow fire hydrant is here!”
  • “There is a group of 3 benches here!”

So, as I added it to the map, I gave those users a step-by-step breakdown of how to do it right in StreetComplete!

(And screenshots are a HUGE HELP. :) )

I use OsmAnd to add POIs like fire hydrants or benches as OsmAnd is very convinient for this task.

Nice! I haven’t used OsmAnd before.

How do you add things using it? What does it do better?

Thanks, it seems that its not straight forward to add things with StreetComplete.

Once you put the “Things” mode ON (Steps 1+2)…

You’re pretty much just doing a lot of:

  1. Pinch/Zoom + Place the crosshair.
  2. Click the Add button.
  3. Click on type.

I don’t see how that can be done much differently, but maybe I’m wrong. :P


As I was writing this tutorial, I was thinking of a few other potential enhancements.

Because, often, you’re adding multiple of the same type of object (for example, 3 benches)…

So maybe after adding an object:

  • 1 extra button appears to quickly “drop” another version of the same thing.

So during Step 2, you’d have 2 buttons at the bottom:

  • A + to “Add New Object”
  • A [new icon] to “Add Previous Object”

That’s about the only way I can currently think of to make it faster.

But I’m definitely open to hearing new ideas.

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