Apple Maps simply acquired an enormous increase, and it’d get me to delete Google Maps

You may not keep in mind, however when Apple Maps first launched with iOS 6, changing Google Maps on iPhones, it was a catastrophe. Past missing many options Google customers took with no consideration, its protection was restricted. Usually that protection was inaccurate and even harmful — one story I vividly keep in mind reporting on concerned Australian drivers ending up stranded within the Outback. They needed to be rescued, which could be probably the most damning overview you possibly can ever give an app.

I and plenty of others largely averted Apple Maps for a very long time after that. I’d dip into it sometimes to test its progress, however then swap again to Google (or perhaps Waze) nearly instantly. The software program did shortly transfer previous its “disastrous” part, however there was no compelling motive to drop Google, particularly if you happen to have been touring internationally or had lots of bookmarked addresses. You must see my bookmarks for Austin — town is virtually smothered in stars.

For the reason that launch of iOS 26, I’ve discovered myself not solely utilizing Apple Maps much more, however toying with making it my default navigation app. That is not assured at this stage for a couple of causes, however Apple has made sufficient developments to not less than ponder the concept.

What’s so particular about Apple Maps in iOS 26?

Figuing out the way you really drive

Strictly talking, there aren’t that many adjustments. Some persons are keen on the brand new Visited Locations characteristic, which borrows a cue from the Google Maps Timeline in letting you see the place you have been through the years. I do not discover both device notably helpful exterior of nostalgia — it is not like I am touring so typically that I am forgetting the perfect locations to go to in Ottawa or Osaka.

There’s larger potential within the app’s new Apple Intelligence-based Siri searches, since I may hypothetically ask one thing like “discover BBQ eating places with free Wi-FI” and get significant outcomes. In follow, although, I hardly ever have an curiosity in looking that means. I am both headed to a selected deal with — the fitness center, the airport, the physician, and many others. — or I am content material to make use of the app’s fundamental filter buttons and browse for one thing shut by. Proximity often reigns supreme, and when it would not, there’s much more to research than fundamental classes, facilities, or rankings.

The factor that is caught my consideration with iOS 26 is a characteristic known as Most popular Routes. Apple Maps has lengthy been capable of predict the place you will be headed at a given time. The iOS 26 model of the app can’t solely warn you to related delays, however counsel the route you’d usually, really take as certainly one of your navigation choices.

That may not seem to be an enormous deal. In lots of instances, it will not be — you need to drive the identical route for some time for Maps to select up on it, and your regular route will typically align with different suggestions anyway. We have all had these moments, nevertheless, when an app’s generic routes do not acknowledge the realities of the place they’re taking you. A left flip would possibly cross a highway that hardly has sufficient openings to make it safely — a backroad, in the meantime, could possibly be in such unhealthy form that it will injury your tires or windshield. In Austin, the place I used to stay, folks typically keep away from I35 or MoPac if in any respect doable, regardless of these being the perfect selections on paper. Most popular Routes ought to can help you navigate with out being nudged into these kinds of traps.

There is not any equal of this characteristic in Google Maps but. It must be doable, since it is not too onerous to extrapolate from Timeline information. Till then, although, Most popular Routes may doubtlessly be a game-changing benefit for me and others. I am not making any agency conclusions till I’ve had some extra time behind the wheel.

The affect of cumulative upgrades

Laborious work is lastly paying off

Credit score: Apple

Returning to Apple Maps has jogged my memory of different issues the app has completed higher for some time. Maybe my favourite is its extra detailed voice directions. As an alternative of simply saying one thing like “in 400 meters, flip proper,” Siri will reference real-world markers, for instance turning that final immediate into “after the cease signal, flip proper” or “on the subsequent set of lights, flip proper.” I do not find out about you, however I discover uncooked distance figures meaningless in metropolis driving — I get extra out of watching how shut my arrow icon is to an upcoming flip.

Apple Maps can also be carefully built-in with the Apple Watch. When a flip is developing, my wrist vibrates. Instructions will proceed to show on the Watch if I get out of the automotive and I am nonetheless far away, and watchOS 26 may even spotlight close by Maps locations on its Waypoint watchface, no matter whether or not you have got the app open. None of that is truthful to Google, which does not have the identical stage of gadget entry, nevertheless it’s a bonus nonetheless.

The place issues aren’t higher, they not less than really feel (largely) on par with Google Maps. Each apps have fairly thorough protection of Edmonton, the place I at the moment stay, together with 3D buildings and fundamental enterprise information. Additionally they share incident reporting, and the power to route you round main site visitors delays. Neither is totally dependable on the subject of highlighting close by bike trails, which issues quite a bit to me now that I am riding my EUC additional away from residence.

The pull of Google Maps

Why switching will not be doable but

Credit score: Rivian

The largest disadvantage of Apple Maps is its exclusivity. Whereas it has a beta internet interface, it is a pale shadow of each Google Maps and the model for Apple units — you’ll be able to’t even log in your Apple Account — and there is not any native Android app to talk of. That makes planning far much less handy than it’s with Google Maps, and sharing largely pointless until the individual you are sending a hyperlink to can also be an iPhone proprietor. If you happen to dare to change away from Apple merchandise, your bookmarks will not carry over. From a flexibility standpoint, it’s extremely onerous to justify switching away from Google Maps completely.

Apple additionally tends to path behind Google on the subject of bringing options to extra international locations. Whereas it is unusual to discover a place the place Google Avenue View would not work, the Apple equal (Look Round) is not even accessible in each main US metropolis, not to mention with the ability to depend on it for a visit to Mexico or Jamaica. Usually, Apple’s priorities are weird. I am unable to get augmented actuality strolling instructions in Edmonton, a significant Canadian metropolis, however I can get them in Wigan or Southend-on-Sea within the UK.

The additional enterprise particulars Google collects could make an enormous distinction, too. I can nearly all the time depend on a Google restaurant itemizing having a menu accessible, whereas Apple boots you to third-party web sites or apps. Google location pages additionally are likely to show exercise ranges and customer evaluations. Wrapping this stuff collectively, it is onerous to disregard how far more helpful Google Maps is for making a choice. It is robotically my device of alternative for planning any trip. At finest, I would flip to Apple Maps for turn-by-turn strolling instructions after I land.

I will hold maining Apple Maps for a short time longer, not less than. However in the long run, I feel Apple goes to need to make some strategic enhancements to win me over utterly.