Beginning today, users in Canada can experience the new Apple Maps, with faster and more accurate navigation, and comprehensive views of roads, buildings, parks, airports, malls, and more, making it easier and more enjoyable to map out any journey.
“With Apple Maps, we have created the best and most private maps app on the planet and we are excited to bring this experience to our users in Canada,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services, in a statement. “We have rebuilt Apple Maps from the ground up to provide better navigation, richer detail, more accurate information for places, and incredible features like Look Around, curated Guides from trusted sources, and much more. Now it is easier than ever for users in Canada to explore and navigate the world.”
Maps helps hundreds of millions of people in over 200 countries and territories discover new places, navigate, and explore the world. Privacy is central to the Maps experience, offering personalized features created using on-device intelligence, and it is everywhere customers are: at home, in the office, on the go on users’ iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch, and in the car with CarPlay. Maps is deeply integrated into Photos, Messages, Calendar, Weather, and more.
Building on the new map, there are many features that help users navigate and explore the world with a simple tap.
Maps offers interactive street-level imagery with high-resolution 3D photography and smooth and seamless transitions through major cities with Look Around. Customers from anywhere in the world can navigate through locations across Canada, including cities like Calgary, Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver, as well as parts of Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and many more.
Guides provide a curated list of interesting places to visit in a city, created by a selection of trusted local resources, including Toronto Life and Narcity, and global authorities like Lonely Planet. Guides are a great way to find popular attractions, discover restaurants, and explore new recommendations from respected brands.
Additional features in Maps include:
• Electric vehicle routing, which will be available on compatible vehicles, adds charging stops along a planned route based on current vehicle charge and charger types.
• Siri Natural Language Guidance provides more natural-sounding directions that are even easier to follow, such as, “At the next traffic light, turn left.”
• Real-time transit information gives detailed transit schedules, live departure times, arrival times, the current location of a bus or train en route, system connections, and information like outages to help plan a journey. Real-time transit is available in cities in the provinces of Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec, and more across Canada.
• Flyover offers a way to see select major metro areas, such as Calgary, Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, and more, with photo-realistic, immersive 3D views. Users can move their device through space to experience a city from above, or explore in high resolution as they zoom, pan, tilt, and rotate around the city and its landmarks.
• Indoor Maps for airports and malls in Calgary, Edmonton, Montreal, Quebec City, Toronto, and more, makes it possible for users to simply open the Maps app and see what level they are on, restroom locations, and even which stores and restaurants are open.
• Share ETA sends an estimated time of arrival to family, friends, or coworkers with a simple tap. The receiver can follow along on the journey, and Maps will even update them with a revised estimate for when the traveler is arriving if a significant delay occurs.
• Speed cameras will let users know when they are approaching speed and red light cameras along a route, with the added ability to see where they are located on the map.
• Favourites provides one-tap navigation to frequent places. Whether it’s home, work, the gym, or school, users can simply tap and go once the location is in Favourites on the launch screen.
• Flight status uses on-device Siri intelligence to scan for information stored in Mail, Calendar, or Wallet, and proactively serves flight information for terminals, gate locations, departure times, as well as flight changes or cancellations for upcoming travel.
Maps and Privacy
Apple is committed to keeping personal information safe and has built privacy into the core of Maps. With Maps, no sign-in is required and it is not connected to an Apple ID in any way. Personalized features, such as suggesting departure time to make the next appointment, are created using on-device intelligence. Any data collected by Maps while using the app, like search terms, navigation routing, and traffic information, is associated with random identifiers that continually reset to ensure the best possible experience and to improve Maps. Maps goes even further to obscure a user’s location on Apple servers when searching for a location through a process called “fuzzing.” Maps converts the precise location where the search originated to a less-exact one after 24 hours and does not retain a history of what has been searched or where a user has been.
MacDailyNews Take: As the Apple news website that most loves Canada and Canadians: Congrats, Canucks and enjoy the much-improved Apple Maps!
Thanks for that warm fuzzy feeling! Canada loves you too(at least this Canadian)
when will they finally fire the person who is responsible for these weak contrasts and the lack of relevant information? Maps is still the worst part of the Apple eco system.
I use Maps and appreciate the update. Thanks Apple.