With its new offline maps, Apple has achieved more than parity with Google Maps on this important – if you don’t have connectivity – feature.
In iOS 17, Apple’s Maps app adds offline maps, so users can download a specific area and access turn-by-turn navigation, see their estimated time of arrival, find places in Maps, and more while offline.
The iOS 17 public beta dropped this week, so users who aren’t part of Apple’s developer program can now access the feature for the first time — though I don’t generally recommend installing beta operating systems on your daily drivers, of course.
It took me a few years to consider switching to Apple Maps, but I finally did in 2019 after Apple’s incremental improvements. Still, there are some features (like offline maps) that have led me to keep Google Maps installed for occasional use. I’ve been using the developer beta of iOS 17 for a couple of weeks now, so this seems like a good time to compare how the feature works on an iPhone running either Apple Maps or Google Maps.
Downloading and using offline maps in Apple Maps is simple, and it closely mirrors the process on Google Maps…
Once you decide to download a map, you can move or resize a box on top of the map to decide where to capture it. The map will download, and that’s all you have to do to get going. When you’re navigating that area without a cellular data connection, Apple Maps will default to the offline map. You can get directions, search for businesses, or access location pages…
Apple Maps has slightly more information on business and landmark pages. For Nine Bar in Chicago, Google lists the name, address, hours, and phone number. Apple includes all that information, plus the business’s Yelp rating, the website, and additional information under the “Good to Know” section, like wheelchair accessibility, parking, payment options, typical attire, and so on.
Google’s offline maps expire after a while if you don’t update them, but Apple’s maps don’t seem to expire — or at least, the app doesn’t say that they do.
Apart from those small things, the experiences are identical. You can search for businesses, get turn-by-turn directions, or simply browse. If Apple’s goal was to achieve parity with Google Maps — no more, no less — then it succeeded.
MacDailyNews Take: If Apple’s offline Maps offer “more information on business and landmark pages” than Google’s offline Maps, then, by definition, Apple Maps offers more, not, as Axon clearly contradicts himself, “no more, no less.”
MacDailyNews Note: The iOS 17 public beta is available at beta.apple.com. New software features will be available this fall as a free software update for iPhone Xs and later. For more information, visit apple.com/ios/ios-17-preview.
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[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
Why can’t Apple include an off-line base map at the widest view?
At a minimum I should be able to get the very basics of where I am on the globe, and be able to drop a pin for later.