“Has there ever been an app that has caused so much of an uproar in the Apple community as Apple Maps? It was released in the fall of 2012 with iOS 6, and it was not received well to say the least,” Bradley Chambers writes for 9to5Mac. “It was so poorly received that Tim Cook even wrote a letter apologizing for the poor launch of Apple Maps which contributed o the firing of Scott Forstall:”
“Now that we are almost six years into Apple Maps, I am of the opinion that Apple was right, certainly in a post Facebook privacy scandal world, to replace Google Maps with their in-house mapping product,” Chambers writes. “In fact, Google Maps isn’t on my iPhone, and here are five reasons I prefer Apple Maps over Google Maps.”
1. Privacy
2. Siri Integration
3. Apple Watch
4. Yelp Integration
5. Good Enough Maps Data: Apple Maps hasn’t given me incorrect information in years.
Each of the five points explained full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple Watch integration alone is reason enough to use Apple Maps for turn-by-turn navigation!
Apple maps, while useful sometimes, just is not as good as google maps. No street view is a deal breaker. Is it that hard to implement, Apple? I guess so…..
Where its available I prefer Flyover but it would be useful and cool if you could literally fly over and then into a Street View like view in a seamless manner. One day perhaps.
For me it is a craps shoot. Sometimes Google does better, sometimes Maps does better. I usually consult both.
“Apple Maps hasn’t given me incorrect information in years.”
Ha! I wish.
I use Apple Maps almost exclusively, but it has definitely given me some nonsense.
Puts me on a bizarre side-street to “turn left” when that isn’t allowed, and the way that works is closer/better anyway.
Has the turn into my sister-in-law’s neighborhood on the wrong side of the county road, despite the fact that I’ve reported the error to Apple several times over the past 3 years.
Intermittently aborts giving directions (as in, it crashed or something?) when I’m about 2-3 minutes away from my destination.
Driving down the highway, will tell me to take an exit, drive around a cloverleaf, get on the other road, drive a half mile, do a U-turn, go back to highway, merge back onto highway in the same direction I was originally going. Seriously?!?
This is in a highly-populated area – there’s no excuse for Apple’s data to be so bizarrely wrong in these examples. And, aborting out of directions when I’m almost there? That’s a bit distracting.
Not gonna use Google, though – fuck their spying ways.
Many good points.
My favorite Maps Location debacle was when it pinpointed a restaurant location in the middle of a bridge across a river, ha!
Google is far more accurate, and has an active community of users that sign up and send corrections that are corrected and acknowledged. My brother is over 300 wrong locations confirmed and corrected.
Imagine if Apple ever listened to their customers like that in a general sense. They may have the same mechanism, I don’t know. Also, Maps has tons of places missing particularly in rural areas and small towns. Must be that snobby elite urban elitism you don’t easily find in flyover country …
@GoeB “Imagine if Apple ever listened to their customers like that in a general sense. They may have the same mechanism, I don’t know.”
I guess you never checked under the Apple Maps pull-down menu where it says “report an Issue” or the one under that that says “email preferences.”
Reporting is useless if it is rarely/never acted on.
Right, admitted as such, so thanks Juan. I gave up using it, too may errors and missing locations for my taste. Certainly don’t want the added burden of filing reports all the time. Apple’s job to get it right …
Apple often _does_ respond when I “Report an Issue” with a location or other map feature. They even notify me and the notification takes me right to the new map feature or correction. That’s why I’m so annoyed when they don’t seem to listen.
Exactly! Street view is simply unbelievable and available all over the country. Worth the price of admission alone. “Flyover” is a great product name for the elitists on both coasts and describes the product to perfection …
I dont know about America but in UK and Europe, i find Google maps offer better service then Apple maps. In UK Apple maps has incorrect info,and many of these i send a report to Apple have not been fixed. The worst part of Apple maps is no street view.
Also, no Lane Assist (in Europe at least) which Google Maps has and can save a lot of stress. I also find that Apple Maps takes the main roads and not side roads which may be quicker. So if towing a trailer or driving a truck use Apple Maps. For everybody else, use Google Maps.
Google Maps in my area still has features and routes that were demolished 4 years ago. Apple maps is correct. It’s all about the data and Apple has removed some non-existing routes on my request. Apple maps*did* have a route 2 years ahead of planning as well so YMMV. I have both but mainly use Apple maps as it’s better integrated
Apple data is from TomTom
Incomplete, needs street view, I still use them both
I turned off Maps functionality on my Apple Watch back in the Series 0 days because I went on a 2-hour trip and my watch was almost dead when I got there. I haven’t used again it since.
Whoever thought of thin gray roads on a white background with yellow lettering has obviously never used their own product. Entirely impossible to see at arms length which is the same distance it would be in a dash mount in the car.
Maps ok for accuracy, I don’t like going Google for data security reasons, but totally agree about the low contrast interface, just an Apple obsession that will be with us until someone wants a new fad. Someone at Apple must have had had a traumatic experience in a high contrast environment and fixated on it.
I don’t use Google maps, but Apple maps get bad marks from f me for:
1) worst: no distinction between Autobahns and the next lower category of streets (Germany)
2) too little map info shown (street names!!!)
3) bad contrasts (yellow streets on light grey? hello?!?)
4) inconsistent data. map shows: turn right, Siri voice says: turn left. In such cases, always Siri is wrong.
Federal Highways (next lower category of streets in Germany)
Point 2 and point 3: I agree 100%. Please, someone at Apple, read these two comments from Sam and act upon them.
As for Siri saying the wrong direction on a turn: I have never seen this, and have used Apple Maps in 6 countries.
Neither app is perfect. I once requested driving directions to a specific street address (car dealer) and was taken to a cemetery in Google maps. The two places were 850m apart. I do like the readability of Google maps, but their privacy/tracking policies are truly frightening.
on Siri / point 4:
I also get the very same behaviour in Scout (substitute App for Apple maps, in particular when there’s no net) as well as on a very old Michelin standalone GPS navigator. Maybe something messes up all German data.
+1 for watch integration.
Couldn’t get by without the messages integration. I am constantly sending my wife and mother-in-law maps to where they need to go via messages. Works amazing well and saves me hours on the phone telling them “where they are and where to go”.
I use both, but my F150’s navigation beats them both. As usual for me, I always try to love all things Apple, but sheesh, it’s hard. Cook, y’all boys listening? No.
Oh! For a moment there, I thought you said an F-15… Boy that is some speed!
Depending upon the age of your truck, the Nav could be Microsoft or BlackBerry (QNX) SW
Apple Maps simply isn’t as reliable as Google Maps. Often times can’t find addresses, and continues to occasionally send me to the incorrect place. Every couple of months I try again, wanting it to work, but then it fails,so I roll back. This last week it couldn’t find a prominent hotel when I searched for it… google immediately knew. I’m honestly surprised the issues continue to persist.
Have no Google apps on my iPhone. Still have Gmail.
It’s been years since the introduction of Apple Maps and yet many countries are left out of the navigation feature. Which I think its BULLSHIT!
Thank God for Waze.
I agree with most commenters here. Apple Maps has a piss poor interface. The text is always way too small (and yes I adjusted it the largest size). I live in a part of the U.S. that is rural and Apple Maps likes to send me down dirt roads instead of paved roads to save time. Not good! It simply lacks the intelligence and the polish that Google Maps has.
The difference is really striking when you get down to how these two competitors came about. Apple was late to the game and saw it as an add-on service. Google made their efforts a part of their strategic plan (for better or worse) to see Maps as aggregated data. Yet another means of mapping the world’s data and individuals’ movement within data points. Apple saw Maps as simply another App. and continues to see it as such.
Whiners all, it does not matter 99% of the time most people drive to places they know work, school, home…Google and Microsoft Free.
I don’t understand why any of you are wasting your time with either Apple or Google maps when Waze is SO VASTLY superior?
Both Apple & Google maps lack crowd sourcing: Waze tells me if there’s an accident up ahead and then reroutes me around it. It warns me if there’s a speed trap (which has saved me numerous tickets!), road obstruction or a police car up ahead. Neither Apple Maps nor Google Maps can hold a candle to Waze (plus, I like how Waze distinguishes between the route I’ve already traversed versus what is left to go).
You are aware that Waze is owned by Google right? And part of its data store is synced with Google Maps’ data store. Think of Waze as the more user-accesible map data crowd sourcing interface for Google Maps.
Here’s a Forbes article from 2013 regarding what Google gets out of owning Waze.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/parmyolson/2013/06/13/what-waze-adds-to-google-a-view-from-wazes-ceo/#76ff06646288
Apple maps has done that for me many times. And time to get there with current traffic? That’s dead on accurate.
Just drove in form an out of town trip and tried Apple Maps/Navigation and it is still a dumpster fire.
1- Select ETA only (no routing) and it still tries to force you to a route instead of following your route and updating the time as it should.
2- It’s ability to redirect you around ongoing road improvements is still not consistent or accurate.
3- Road data is still not up to date. I drove over a US highway bridge that has been open to traffic for almost 2 years, and it still tries to route drivers over the old bridge which has been closed to drivers for the same 2 years-I have personally sent feedback to Apple and they have yet to get it right.
4- The suggestions it makes for timely routing are neither the fastest or most convenient more than a little bit of the time.
5- If you look up something on your desktop in Maps and then get in your car, it will be on the hit list of destinations. I was looking at street maps of Europe and those addresses were among the list for destinations. I doubt I will be driving from the United States to Germany in my lifetime.
6- Siri is still as dumb as dirt. Our local YMCA has multiple locations and they are known to Siri not as YMCA’s, but as named YMCAs. So if you ask “YMCAs near me”, you will not get a local list of all the local Ys, you will get only some (based upon naming) and other that are hours away.
Google Maps has none of these problems and Scott has been gone from Apple for quite a while now.
Excellent points … 👍🏻
I like Apple Maps being able to find my car in a parking lot when you turn the car off and the phone disconnects from Bluetooth. Have used it many times at the mall and theme parks to find my car. Other than that I use Google Maps and Waze almost equally for other trips. Always like checking which route is the fastest and if I should bother paying money for toll roads or take the Interstate to get to my destination.
Don’t recall if it is a function of Google Maps but I believe any Android phone with location services active will also create a notification of where you parked your car. Even more convenient (or scary) is if the parking structure has registered its internal ‘floor’ plan and has some Wifi connectivity it will narrow down your car’s location to the specific floor and within a few feet.
Data? It depends on where you live. For me? It’s Apple maps.
Privacy? That one is so obvious, I don’t even need to answer that question.
Oh, and integration with Apple’s Calendar? (formerly iCal) Apple maps.
For serious navigation I use TomTom Go on the iPhone.
Although Apple supposedly gets most of the navigation data from TomTom, it does not always add up when you compare routing between the two.
TomTom also has a lot of options for routing choice like bicycle, walk, fastest, shortest, avoid dirt roads etc. Options that also Apple Maps could benefit from.
In Kazakhstan, Apple Maps is almost completely clueless and Google Maps is somewhat better.
Thanks, Borat.
Actual Siri direction “ Park the car and walk 2 miles and your destination is on your left.” Nuff said.
WeGo Here or Mapquest here. Won’t give Google the time of day and Apple Maps is horrible.
Apple Maps will never get my custom until it starts showing bike paths and calculating cycling routes.
Apple maps is mostly passable, but it still doesn’t compare to Google maps (depending where in the world you are, blah blah).