Apple Maps simply received an enormous enhance, 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 without any 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 evaluation you would ever give an app.

I and plenty of others largely prevented Apple Maps for a very long time after that. I might dip into it often to test its progress, however then swap again to Google (or perhaps Waze) virtually instantly. The software program did shortly transfer previous its “disastrous” part, however there was no compelling purpose to drop Google, particularly in case you have been touring internationally or had a variety of bookmarked addresses. You need to 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 just a few causes, however Apple has made sufficient developments to at the least ponder the thought.

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 individuals are keen on the brand new Visited Locations function, which borrows a cue from the Google Maps Timeline in letting you see the place you have been over time. I do not discover both device notably helpful exterior of nostalgia — it isn’t like I am touring so usually that I am forgetting the most effective locations to go to in Ottawa or Osaka.

There’s larger potential within the app’s new Apple Intelligence-based Siri searches, since I might hypothetically ask one thing like “discover BBQ eating places with free Wi-FI” and get significant outcomes. In observe, although, I not often have an curiosity in looking out that method. I am both headed to a selected handle — the health club, 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 normally reigns supreme, and when it does not, there’s much more to analyze than fundamental classes, facilities, or scores.

The factor that is caught my consideration with iOS 26 is a function known as Most popular Routes. Apple Maps has lengthy been capable of predict the place you may 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’ll usually, really take as one in every of your navigation choices.

Which may not seem to be an enormous deal. In lots of circumstances, it will not be — you must drive the identical route for some time for Maps to select up on it, and your regular route will usually align with different suggestions anyway. We have all had these moments, nonetheless, when an app’s generic routes do not acknowledge the realities of the place they’re taking you. A left flip may cross a street that hardly has sufficient openings to make it safely — a backroad, in the meantime, may very well be in such unhealthy form that it will harm your tires or windshield. In Austin, the place I used to reside, individuals usually keep away from I35 or MoPac if in any respect doable, regardless of these being the most effective selections on paper. Most popular Routes ought to let you navigate with out being nudged into these kinds of traps.

There isn’t any equal of this function in Google Maps but. It ought to be doable, since it isn’t too onerous to extrapolate from Timeline knowledge. Till then, although, Most popular Routes might probably 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 influence of cumulative upgrades

Onerous work is lastly paying off

Credit score: Apple

Returning to Apple Maps has jogged my memory of different issues the app has performed 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 learn 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 be intently built-in with the Apple Watch. When a flip is arising, my wrist vibrates. Instructions will proceed to show on the Watch if I get out of the automobile and I am nonetheless a ways away, and watchOS 26 may even spotlight close by Maps locations on its Waypoint watchface, no matter whether or not you will have the app open. None of that is honest to Google, which does not have the identical stage of machine entry, nevertheless it’s a bonus nonetheless.

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

The pull of Google Maps

Why switching might not be doable but

Credit score: Rivian

The largest downside 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 possibly can’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 except the individual you are sending a hyperlink to can be an iPhone proprietor. For those who dare to change away from Apple merchandise, your bookmarks will not carry over. From a flexibility standpoint, it’s totally onerous to justify switching away from Google Maps completely.

Apple additionally tends to path behind Google relating to bringing options to extra nations. Whereas it is unusual to discover a place the place Google Road View does not work, the Apple equal (Look Round) is not even accessible in each main US metropolis, not to mention having 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 virtually at all times 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 critiques. Wrapping this stuff collectively, it is onerous to disregard how way more helpful Google Maps is for making a choice. It is robotically my device of alternative for planning any trip. At finest, I’d flip to Apple Maps for turn-by-turn strolling instructions after I land.

I’ll maintain maining Apple Maps for a short time longer, at the least. However in the long run, I feel Apple goes to must make some strategic enhancements to win me over fully.