Google Maps is the most high-profile navigation app, but that doesn’t mean it’s without serious competition. After years of playing catchup, Apple Maps nearly reaches parity with Google’s offering thanks to satellite imagery, cycling navigation, and city-based Guides improvements. In fact, Apple Maps comes out on top in one essential area: user privacy protection. Overall, Apple Maps still trails Google Maps, our Editors’ Choice winner for navigation apps, due to a few missing and less robust features, but it’s clear that Cupertino is dedicated to finding its route to the top of the class.Where to Find Apple MapsApple Maps is free and comes preinstalled on every iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and Mac. It’s an Apple-exclusive app, so Android users can’t download it to their phones and tablets. Conversely, Google Maps is available on Apple’s platforms.Unlike Google Maps and the driver-focused Waze, Apple Maps lacks a browser-based version. That said, Apple released MapKit JS code that lets web developers add Apple Maps services to websites. For example, the privacy-focused search engine DuckDuckGo recently switched to using it for map-related searches and route planning.
(Credit: Apple)
Apple Maps has a basic skeleton map that’s similar to Google Maps, with clearly labeled street names, interstates, and local businesses. There’s a search bar, a widget showcasing the temperature and air quality in your search area, a button to reorient to your current location, and another icon that lets you explore the Settings options. In Settings, you can toggle between map, public transit, and satellite views, and turn real-time traffic indicators on and off. Like Google Maps, Apple Maps has voiced turn-by-turn directions.
Apple Maps syncs with your region’s day/night cycle, presenting a Light mode during the daytime and a Dark mode at night. Google Maps has this as an option, too. However, we couldn’t find a way to toggle this on or off within Apple Maps. It’s based on your device’s system settings. That’s a bit annoying if you prefer one mode over the other.Apple Maps does a slightly better job than Google Maps of highlighting major stores and businesses in your area. Say you have Best Buy, Home Depot, Walmart, and Wegmans all clustered nearby, Google only shows the first three unless you zoom into the map. We’d hazard the app is prioritizing sponsored businesses, as they come complete with special logos and nameplates. In our tests, Apple Maps displayed all the local, major businesses at a glance. We wish Apple’s icons were brighter, especially in the daytime view. Google’s icon colors are a bit brighter than Apple’s, making them easier to read.
(Credit: Apple)
Searches, Guides, and Look AroundWhen you search for a specific address or business in Apple Maps, the app takes you to the location, gives you the distance from your current location, pulls reviews from Yelp, and offers directions. Location cards highlight business hours, phone numbers, relevant Yelp photos, and other useful information (such as places that offer free Wi-Fi or businesses that accept credit cards). For certain cities, Apple Maps displays Guides, a curated list highlighting a city’s recommended destinations. For example, Guides showed us Los Angeles’ best local beaches and flea markets after we searched within the city. These guides are spotty, though, as they’re from third-party sources. Unfortunately, not every city has accompanying Guides; Cincinnati and Detroit lack adjoining Guides as of this writing.Apple Maps has directions for when you’re traveling by car, foot, public transportation, bicycle, or ride-sharing services. The app displays multiple route options, and its traffic is color-coded by severity. Although Apple Maps defaults to finding directions based on your current location, it’s easy to create a different starting point. You just tap the current starting location and a search bar appears. It’s a far more intuitive search solution than what Waze offers. That app makes you jump through hoops to select a different starting point.Although Apple has a fleet of camera-equipped cars to scan the world, Google still has more robust maps. Using Google Maps, we viewed a local Best Buy’s internal layout. In a more useful illustration, Google Maps let us switch between multiple floors within the Washington State Convention Center. Likewise, the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History has internal maps with multiple floors highlighting bathrooms, escalators, and phones. This type of internal mapping is an area where Apple Maps falls short. Apple lets you see indoor maps of select areas like airports and shopping malls, but Google simply offers more.Apple Maps puts up a good fight in smaller towns. A Gorham, New Hampshire search gave us a clear, concise look at the town’s local businesses. Google Maps knows where the businesses are when you search for them, but they’re not as clearly listed as Apple Maps. It requires you to zoom in a bit.Apple’s cool Look Around feature recalls Google’s Street View. We enjoy its implementation, as it gives you 360-degree location views and a side-by-side map for additional context. Google Maps’ Street View, on the other hand, is a full-screen affair that’s somewhat cumbersome to use.That said, Google is working with more data. Google Maps’ Street View has an internal location view. Plus, in our Gorham search, Street View covered most of the town, while Apple’s Look Around offered nothing. International travelers will find even less information: Look Around is available in 35 countries with limited coverage areas in each nation. Google Maps tops it by offering Street View in more than 80 countries.
(Credit: Apple)
Flying Over the WorldApple Maps has full Siri integration, which lets you ask Apple’s voice assistant for directions. The commands work well, though we found that asking for directions to a location wouldn’t immediately present us with a route. Instead, it gave us a series of route buttons, including one based on our current location and other recent searches. We wish it would just automatically create a route, as Google Maps does. The app’s satellite view is a little odd, adding a more intense angle to its terrain photographs. This makes sense, however, when you see Apple’s absolutely stunning 3D Flyover view. Akin to Microsoft Flight Simulator, Apple Maps combines satellite imagery with 3D models to create a truly impressive view of major cities. These flyover maps look like tiny dioramas, and we could spend days looking at them. Apple Maps lets you set home and work locations for frequent commutes. You can also save locations as favorites, making it easy to find directions at the press of a button. Apple’s app caches routes when you look them up. You can also save maps for offline use as you can with Google Maps; it’s one of the many reasons to give Apple Maps a try. It’s worth noting that Apple’s maps are vector-based, requiring less data.Privacy ProtectionApple’s commitment to privacy carries over to this app. Apple Maps keeps most of its data, such as recent searches and directions, on your device. The app also ties data to random identifiers that reset over time, leaving no history of your travels—an excellent touch. Google falls short in this regard. Google Maps lets you delete its collected data, but it hides those options. Verdict: The Second Best Map AppApple has filled its digital world with satisfying directions, additional travel types, and temperature and air quality information. The Look Around feature brings Apple Maps one step closer to parity with Google Maps, and 3D Flyover is a stunning technology display. Still, Google works with far more expansive mapping data. Apple Maps can get you to your local museum or mall, but Google Maps can show you more of what’s inside. That data gap is lessening over time, but it’s a gap that still exists. As a result, Google Maps remains our Editors’ Choice winner for navigation apps.Mike Williams contributed to this review.
The Bottom Line
Apple Maps is closing the navigation app gap with easy-to-read icons, temperature readings, air quality reports, an impressive 3D Flyover mode, and better privacy protection than Google Maps.
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