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Apple Maps vs. Google Maps

151 points by ColinWright 5y ago

aunty_helen 5y ago
What a tight rope this author has to walk. You want commute suggestions but you don’t want google to know where you live or work? I’ll bat for google on this one, the value I get from Gmaps vs the value they get from my data seems like a fair exchange. Also PSA, if you use Bluetooth with your car, your city transport department is tracking you. Best of luck opting out of that or even finding who to contact.
- Allezxandre 5y ago
  But the point is that Apple Maps also has the commute suggestions without the privacy cost
  - lyongu 5y ago
    As long as you're using a cellular network, you're trackable, no? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFns39RXPrU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFns39RXPrU
    - Allezxandre 5y ago
      Maybe, I don’t know, but it doesn’t mean we should just give up on protecting our data everywhere else. A GPS or Bluetooth signal would be far more precise as a mass surveillance tool, so let’s not give that up
    - benhurmarcel 5y ago
      Not being tracked in addition by an advertising company is worth something to me.
- jabyess 5y ago
  > Also PSA, if you use Bluetooth with your car, your city transport department is tracking you. Best of luck opting out of that or even finding who to contact. Can you say more about this? I've never heard of it.
  - RyJones 5y ago
    Not sure what they’re pointing to, but TPMS tracking is possible as well. https://youtu.be/TDYoo7TGNcw https://youtu.be/TDYoo7TGNcw
  - post_break 5y ago
    Houston does it. They have bluetooth trackers on all the highways. They use it for determining congestion based on how often you can ping the same address. Keeps pinging? Gridlock. Pings once, traffic moving.
    - stjohnswarts 5y ago
      I wander if anyone has any proof it's being stored for future use or used for anything but general traffic data.
  - aunty_helen 5y ago
    Sure, here's the one I've had experience with: https://addinsight.com.au/ https://addinsight.com.au/ They put powerful bluetooth sensors on poles or in roadside cabinets. They're pretty cheap to deploy so have become widely used. Pretty much if you have two bluetooth devices talking to each other, you can be tracked by your bluetooth mac address. (Same as wifi networks and sniffing with wireshark etc) Or if you have a device pinging with a non-random mac (ie your car). If you've got an iphone and it's not actively being used, you get a random mac, no problems.
  - TecoAndJix 5y ago
    Here is a slide deck from DEFCON on it: https://media.defcon.org/DEF%20CON%2022/DEF%20CON%2022%20presentations/DEF%20CON%2022%20-%20Grant-Bugher-Detecting-Bluetooth-Surveillance-Systems-Updated.pdf https://media.defcon.org/DEF%20CON%2022/DEF%20CON%2022%20pre...
- foolfoolz 5y ago
  you don’t even need bluetooth. there’s license plate readers on all highways which feed into traffic indicators on apps or those road signs that say how many minutes away places are
  - aunty_helen 5y ago
    License plate readers are costly and need to be positioned with a good field of view etc. Bluetooth sensors are more widely used, you've just never noticed them. Also, the highway congestion is most likely done with magnetic inductance loops.
steve_adams_86 5y ago
I’m curious - does anyone reading this agree with the notion that Apple maps is becoming comparable to Google maps? I haven’t given it a fair shot in almost a decade I guess, and it was almost unusable then. Does anyone here use it as a daily driver? What are the strong and weak points?
- moogleii 5y ago
  I greatly prefer the UX of Apple Maps for navigation, but the search is still bad compared to Google Maps. The verbal directions and UI are clearer IMO. Both have been equally bad at keeping directions up to date, though, but I live in a relatively mutable city. If I were living in the burbs, I would probably stick with Apple Maps.
- vikingcaffiene 5y ago
  I made the switch back to Apple Maps a while back. It’s great. I’m not sure what specific features you want to know about.
- zepto 5y ago
  I agree with the notion. It was pretty terrible for the first 3 years. A second place contender for a few years after that, but for the last few years it has been clearly as good. I am not going to enumerate strong and weak points. It’s a matter of taste at this point. Just try it again.
- olivertaylor 5y ago
  I almost entirely use Apple Maps. I live in a large city so the data is very accurate. And I only really use it for driving, so I can't compare transit, hiking trails, etc. When I travel to less populated parts of the country Google Maps is far more accurate and complete. That's the only difference I've noticed.
  - ghaff 5y ago
    Google Maps is pretty good for transit and pretty bad for hiking trails. Can't speak to Apple Maps. While imperfect, OpenStreetMaps is fairly reliable for hiking trails, including unofficial ones, in populated areas of the US at any rate.
edhelas 5y ago
vs OpenStreepMap
komuher 5y ago
Google maps >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> apple maps here in Europe especially for medium sized cities (in big cities apple works fine but still a lot worse then google). For me it seems like fair exchange to give some data, for free and very good service that have no real competition :)
- jbluepolarbear 5y ago
  I switched to Apple Maps a couple years ago and it’s been much better for me around the US; especially, Denver and Portland areas. Google maps still has a lot of issues with navigating around Portland.
- cassianoleal 5y ago
  In London I find Apple Maps superior to Google Maps in almost every way. Apple's cycling routing is miles ahead of Google's.
  - madeofpalk 5y ago
    I was very happy when Apple "finally" added cycling directions in London. That was the only reason why I used Google Maps. Apple does give me some funky directions through Victoria Park, though I'm always surprised when any map service can route through parks somewhat well.
    - saurik 5y ago
      Why did you switch?
      - sbuk 5y ago
        > I was very happy when Apple "finally" added cycling directions in London. That was the only reason why I used Google Maps.
        saurik 5y ago
        Yes: I absolutely understood the catalyst, but not the reason. I will rephrase my question: why did you want to switch? Is that less confusing? The person I am responding to seemed eager to leave Google Maps, but couldn't because of one critical feature; once that critical feature was there, removing the reason they had not to switch... but, there still had to be some remaining reason why the person switched: a reason that had caused them to be waiting to switch this whole time (and while I have some ideas as to what that reason might be, it isn't at all obvious which one and I didn't want to bias the answer by suggesting any). Is this really such a strange concept? :(
jhpauley 5y ago
Why post shit that's behind a paywall? Really, why?
plank_time 5y ago
I use Apple CarPlay almost exclusively now, and will never buy a car that doesn’t support it anymore. When using navigation, I will often use Apple Maps. Their biggest advantage is that their directions will say “after the next stop sign, turn right at the following traffic light.” Thats so much more useful than most other Map apps. So in the city, I prefer Apple Maps. If I need the shortest route including traffic or if I need to drive fast and watch out for cops, I will use Waze.
- brundolf 5y ago
  In my experience Apple does a pretty great job with redirecting around traffic and stuff too. I'm sure it won't be as good as Waze since that's their whole thing, but it's plenty good enough for me
mr-ron 5y ago
I opened up my settings to allow Google maps to have access to my location all the time, even when not using the app. I have found the Timeline feature in Google maps to be a huge game changer in terms of 'where ive been' and 'what Ive done'. I can look back months, see exactly what routes I went down, where I was at a given time. It will even match pictures with the locations. Especially for journaling vacations (sometimes weeks later), and reliving memories, its the greatest app Ive used in some time.
- dreamcompiler 5y ago
  > I can look back months, see exactly what routes I went down, where I was at a given time. So can Google. I'd love to have these features but the price is just too high. The price would be too high even if I trusted Google (which I don't), because every company that collects personal information will be hacked because no company is properly incentivised to protect users' data.
  - tshaddox 5y ago
    What is the price?
  - beagle3 5y ago
    You know your phone service provider has that location information in resolution that’s almost as good, right? The only way to opt out is to turn your phone off (equivalently, leave it at home). For some people, the fact that google also knows it is no big deal. For some it is. But if you are worried about your whereabouts being leaked, how can you justify using a phone in the first place? Verizon and AT&T are more likely to get hacked than google (or just sell that info outright, which they have done wholesale before)
    - stickfigure 5y ago
      ...not to mention they whip out a credit card to make every purchase. And let's not get started on what their ISP records.
SirensOfTitan 5y ago
We were already using Apple Maps pre-iOS15 because its turn-by-turn directions were far superior. With Google Maps, we were often surprised by the directions: it would be like keep left... keep left...TURN AROUND NOW. Apple Maps often shows the next two directions, and more clearly dictates what we should do next. ... with iOS15, Apple maps are just gorgeous, and I've completely deleted Google maps (I now have no dependence on Google services for personal life). Google has sat on its hands the last couple years with Google Maps: it has hardly improved at all, and outside of their move to jack up prices for API users, I haven't heard of any real changes.
- marcinzm 5y ago
  It's been years and Google maps still recommends an illegal/suicidal/likely impossible u-turn near my parent's place in NYC. Might be time to switch to Apple Maps for driving directions.
- wutbrodo 5y ago
  > Google has sat on its hands the last couple years with Google Maps: it has hardly improved at all, and outside of their move to jack up prices for API users, I haven't heard of any real changes. It's a pretty mature product, so you'd expect the pace of signjificant change to be much slower. And large, noticeable change (like a redesign) is a poor metric, as it often feels like a PM getting their wings at the expense of user experience, including muscle memory in an app as useful as Maps. Despite these caveats, I can think of a new feature off the top of my head: a heatmap of all photos I've ever taken appearing on Google maps. I just moved to New York and it's been both useful and delightful to rediscover where I've been from a new perspective, driven by the serendipitous photos I took over the last decade of sporadic visits. Yet another new feature I just remembered is Live View compass calibration. Anybody who lives in a big city can relate to how irritating compass quality is around large buildings. The ability to calibrate my compass in two seconds via camera recognition of the street scene is a huge quality of life improvement. Im usually hesitant to disagree with other people's opinions, but it really sounds like you either have no familiarity with Google Maps or are stuck in a 2010 Apple vs Google fanboy-war view of the world. The reason Maps is so wildly popular is because it consistently pushes out user experience both improvements that are straightforwardly (if incrementally) useful and occasional larger "cool" (and also useful) features. To get as wildly wrong an interpretation as yours (of Maps as somehow stagnant) reeks of willful ignorance.
nixy 5y ago
But a map app is so much more than street maps and navigation. I have tried to switch to Apple Maps, and it works great for navigation or getting an overview of the streets. But I cannot use Apple Maps to explore! With Google maps, I just fire it up and search “sights” to find places near that are worth a visit. “Public beaches” to find where I can go for a swim. If I try the same with Apple Maps, more often than not I get sent to a place in Myanmar or similar which happens to be tagged as “public beach”. Also when I search for a business on Google maps, I get photos and reviews. With Apple Maps I am happy if I get a link to a website.
- cdubzzz 5y ago
  I agree with you but to be fair I just tapped “public beaches” in to Apple Maps and got a bunch of nearby public beaches. The Yelp integration is what annoys me. I don’t care much about the stars or anything in Google Maps but the photos and sometimes comments be can very instructive. On Apple Maps this information is hidden behind a third party service I don’t use or want to use.
  - lotsofpulp 5y ago
    I assume they are working on getting rid of Yelp and only use it as a stop gap until they get their own sufficient data.
    - ghostly_s 5y ago
      They don't seem to be collecting any replacement data from their users...
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
post_break 5y ago
I've tried to use Apple Maps but it just straight up cant find normal places that have existed for ages. I don't know what the deal is.
- wutbrodo 5y ago
  Outside of niche cases, every user I've ever talked to, here or in-person, has only ever used brand loyalty as their reason for using it. With a userbase like that, why bother making a good service, particularly when you don't have the institutional competency to do so?
  - chipotle_coyote 5y ago
    Okay, in a comment you left literally three minutes before this you were accusing someone else of being "stuck in a 2010 Apple vs Google fanboy-war view of the world," and now you're saying, in so many words, only people who are fanboys use Apple maps because Apple fans are sheep so why should Apple bother. Pick a lane.
    - wutbrodo 5y ago
      Yes, the juxtaposition occurred to me. But this is not an accurate representation of my view: > you're saying, in so many words, only people who are fanboys use Apple maps because Apple fans are sheep so why should Apple bother. This is a reasonable interpretation if you read my comment carelessly, because I was pretty imprecise with my phrasing. First off, I don't think my sample is close to representative of all users, but I've come across it often enough in diverse enough contexts that I'm comfortable considering brand-loyalty-as-motivation to be a non-trivial part of the market dynamic here. I'm also not artificially deducing brand loyalty from assumptions about the quality of the product, and I recognize that its most famous failings don't encapsulate overall product quality (in fact, I didn't make any direct claims about product quality). The "brand-loyal" people I'm referring to are the ones who've explicitly said to me that they use Apple Maps so that it can "get more user data and get better". This kind of altruism is vanishingly rare in most product relationships, and brand loyalty is by far the most parsimonious explanation. This shouldn't be surprising; theres a reason that Apple's marketing and product competencies are world-renowned, and I have plenty of other from-the-horse's-mouth examples (like the family members who sincerely ask me why I'd choose an Android, as they had _literally_ never heard a reason other than "can't afford an iPhone"). Apple's relatively poor competency at services (vs hardware products) is a subjective claim, but one that isn't an unreasonable conclusion for a thoughtful person to land on (or disagree with). To put it all together, something like this more accurately conveys my point: I have enough data points of strong brand loyalty shaping Apple consumer behavior, particularly in the case of Maps, that I fairly consider it a non-trivial factor in usage of the product. I don't discount (and in fact directly call out) the possibility of the app fitting a specific consumer better, nor do I claim that it's not a better product overall, as I'm not familiar enough with it to make that claim. A situation with stickier brand loyalty _requires_ less competition on usability than the counterfactual (this is practically tautological). If you can't see the difference between the above and the trivially-disprovable factual claims in the comment I described, then your definition of "fanboy" seems to be little more than "dislike a product I like".
cryptofistMonk 5y ago
This article just showed me an ad with my exact last name embroidered on a t-shirt... Bit ironic
- TimMurnaghan 5y ago
  I never got to the article as I gave up after 25 "no" clicks on the cookie form. (I know I could block better - but sometimes I like to see the state of the bad ui design). Websites like Forbes and The Condé Nast ones don't exist in my world as I don't go there. As to Apple maps I gave up when the dumped us in a field in Norfolk (England). It was about 5 miles from the proper destination, and no clue how to get to a road going there.
stuart78 5y ago
I’ve been using Apple Maps since getting my first CapPlay compatible car. I switched because the Google Maps app was (and remains) awful to use. GM forces you to view a very small view of where you are going next. Multiple click to access trip view and custom map scale. In contrast, Apple Maps makes it easy to toggle between multiple views with one click and the UI is less cluttered. Personally, I like to use the map to occasionally update my mental map, not for turn by turn spoon-feeding. Apple’s app makes this much more convenient. Additionally, bookmarking in Google Maps remains primitive and hard to manage. Apple introduced collections over the last few years which are great. What I miss the most about Google Maps is the photos, which are generally better than Yelp (and don’t open a new app). Apple has work to do outside of US, but their maps make steady progress year after year, and if the US indicate where rest of the world is headed, things will get better.
randomperson_24 5y ago
Apple Maps is unusable in any city that is not US City OR Big City in Europe.
T3RMINATED 5y ago
apple maps sux
2Gkashmiri 5y ago
i would be in a minority here but i use osmand+ on my phone. in my city, openstreetmaps is still in its infancy relatively speaking so what i do is, if i go somewhere and i see problem spots, wrong turn or missing road or a point, intersection or something. I just mark it and once home, i update the map for everyone. while this might not be for everyone. It is time consuming for me but i find this a good exercise for myself. i use streetcomplete (android app) often to update the streets and that is a good feature of openstreetmaps
- toastal 5y ago
  100% this spirit. I like how I can take an active role in my community helping with this kinda stuff. I ask business owners all sorts of missing details you can't add to the other maps. Some people have laughed when my maps are appear empty in some places, but when I show them how easy it was to meaningfully contribute and the aforementioned details, I hear comments of jealousy.
  - 2Gkashmiri 5y ago
    Same thing. Marketting plays a big role. Everyone around me uses Google maps because why not? I showed a relative about offline tracks and camping and route mapping. He's like "well I can offline save Google maps". I want to slowly build a robust network.
ehsankia 5y ago
I'm curious what the privacy labels for Google Maps in Incognito mode would be. The thing with the labels is that you have to list all the labels as if all the features were enabled and set to the least private option. Google maps has over a decade of features that people use and love. For example, I personally would be outraged if they removed Timeline, which I rely on daily, but that feature alone probably adds a dozen privacy labels, even though it's optional.
- aeromusek 5y ago
  The other difference is that Google Maps has to build everything into the app directly. The privacy label for Apple Maps gets a 'free ride' on so many things by virtue of piggybacking on OS-level functionality. Same thing applies to Messages vs. WhatsApp/Messenger and bunch of others.
CalChris 5y ago
The FA presents a good argument and as a consequence I deleted Google Maps and a few others. I also turned off Location Services for a few apps, notably WhatsApp. I'll try Apple Maps for awhile which in the Bay Area should be a low bar to clear. I'm also looking at OpenStreetMaps apps.
DevKoala 5y ago
I haven’t used Google maps since 2017. I started using Apple maps once they fixed their issues in California and took the stance on privacy. I have never missed Google maps.
beefman 5y ago
Apple's driving coverage has been improving and is now as good as Google's in the SF Bay area. Google is still better at walking directions (especially involving building access), and I'm sure their coverage is superior globally. Apple doesn't support multi-point itineraries and doesn't have depart at / arrive by functionality, which can be very useful. Apple has generally copied Google's mobile UI approach, which has been devolving for a few years now (2018 brought the large and useless bottom "explore" panel IIRC). Google's iOS app is almost impossible to use as an actual map now -- it's exceedingly difficult to pan, orient, or zoom to inspect things. Everything you do has to be part of some flow that somebody designed, while it flashes surveys at you. Trying to do anything else just bounces you between flows in a loop. It's become and idiot app to the point that I wonder how those involved sleep at night.
- aiddun 5y ago
  Apple Maps in iOS 15 will have leave at/arrive by. I've been using it in the beta
- pfranz 5y ago
  > Apple doesn't support multi-point itineraries I've never tried multi-point itineraries with Google Maps, but the new iOS beta has an "add stop" feature. It's not exactly what I was hoping for because it only has predefined searches ("food", "gas", etc). What it does is pause your original trip with a button to continue. If it could do a generic search along the route it would be exactly what I need most of the time without being too confusing to use.
- dan-robertson 5y ago
  For an iPad, I find the apple ma-s ui much better. E.g. for search results in portrait, apple give you a column on the side (so you can see the map) but google fill your screen with results which makes more sense on a small phone. Google do the same “better” thing in landscape. I also find Apple’s street view copy much nicer to use but obviously they have the late-mover advantage. Google now have a poor copy of this interface but it’s hidden away.
nvr219 5y ago
I use Waze because I want to know where the cops are.
- seriousquestion 5y ago
  How reliable is that?
  - pfranz 5y ago
    It's been fairly reliable in practice, but it's based on crowd sourcing. It'll ask you to confirm if you see one someone else has flagged. Sometimes you're the first to see it, sometimes the alert is out of date and there's no officer.
  - cromwellian 5y ago
    Super reliable. I used to get at least 1 speeding ticket per year, I haven’t had a ticket in 8 years thanks to Waze. Also Waze time estimates are stupidly accurately. You think you can beat their estimate by driving faster but it somehow accounts for that, eg if average speed on 101 is currently 80 mph the estimates will reflect that. Waze puts Apple Maps to shame for navigation. The way it reports adding a stop (say for gas station) as how many minutes off route is extremely useful.
- exegete 5y ago
  With CarPlay Apple Maps now has an option to report radar and hazards. Google also now owns Waze and uses info from it to show hazards.
  - wpearse 5y ago
    My experience (NZ) is that it’s 50-50 whether you get the “Fixed speed camera ahead!” warning before, or after, you drive past the speed camera. (Even approaching the same camera from different directions!) The position of the cameras is correctly marked on the map, so you just need to keep an eye on the map rather than trust the audible alerts.
r0m4n0 5y ago
Apple Maps has a long way to go on biking directions. Today on the Chicago waterfront I selected biking directions and it just said “unavailable” I do like the contextual directions on Apple Maps they say “at the next signal turn left” but I refuse to use two map apps
- brewdad 5y ago
  Do you have "avoid busy roads" enabled for biking directions? I think it may be the default and would explain why it had trouble near DT Chicago.
- ghostly_s 5y ago
  Apple Maps does not yet offer cycling directions in Chicago, period. Despite it being on their "coming soon" list about 2 years ago. I would love to switch, cmon guys.
throwaway284534 5y ago
My biggest issue with Apple Maps is that I know it has information that it isn’t telling me about, especially so when public transit is involved. Apple almost always picks the worst route when commenting through NYC’s subway, suggesting that you take the closest line and transfer in another station, rather than walking a block to the line directly. And it’s almost always the case that you’ll arrive at a mid-trip station just as your connecting train leaves the platform. You’ve just added a minimum 10 minute wait, plus the time and energy it took to walk through the station! I would avoid Apple Maps entirely if they allowed Google Maps full access to the Watch OS.
tppiotrowski 5y ago
Nobody mentioned the battery/heat issues with Google Maps. My iPhone on a sunny dashboard running Google Maps almost always overheats and drains the battery. I've switched to Apple Maps on long drives because it uses significantly less battery and phone stays cooler. Has anyone else experienced this?
o_m 5y ago
I use Apple Maps for navigation and Google Maps in the browser for everything else.
Maxburn 5y ago
Apple maps has a lot of weaknesses, particularly the search along route limitations that I bump into all the time. Mostly in the US it's "good enough" though. BUT when I started seeing so many obvious advertising things going on in google maps the writing was on the wall. Lately the advert items started looking an awful lot like my starred places, that's some dark patterns I'm not going to put up with.
- threatofrain 5y ago
  Still better than partnering with Yelp, I would think. Apple Maps puts Yelp front and center like one of its star performers.
  - Schiendelman 5y ago
    It looks like it’s stopped doing that in some countries recently. I’ve seen tripadvisor, and some that are native photos!
  - ericmay 5y ago
    True but at least they are kind of partnering with different companies and keeping additional ecosystems alive. Like using DDG for example.
  - TheParkShark 5y ago
    Hopefully this is going away soon enough. This is from iOS 14 last year, https://appleinsider.com/articles/20/08/26/apple-maps-will-let-users-leave-reviews-and-photos-in-latest-ios-14-beta https://appleinsider.com/articles/20/08/26/apple-maps-will-l....
    - threatofrain 5y ago
      That's odd, I'm on iOS 15 and don't see it yet.
- stjohnswarts 5y ago
  Yeah for me apple maps is "good enough". OSM can be good for more details when you get to where you're going or make a stop.
yawaworht1978 5y ago
Google maps has a couple annoying features, the main one being the location arrow is confusing, I am by far not the only one saying this. And as of recently, in some locations I have been(large western European capitals) it is lagging, on different networks and devices. Many wrong turns taken because of that, this is very time consuming during peak traffic hours in large, dense cities. Not sure about apple maps, but Google maps has me on the fence considering changing the app. Also is there a feature where I can save "school for kids", "work", "sports"? I could not locate it.
wayanon 5y ago
Apple Maps in London UK is pretty bad with business info - I’ve had to make correction reports for a few things in my neighbourhood I never have to for Google Maps.
unclewalter 5y ago
I love the way Apple Maps gives turn by turn directions: “go past these lights and at the next set, turn left”. Just way more understandable as a ... human. However, it commonly gives me just the wrong destination. Just the other day, it put me five blocks away from the actual address in Downtown LA. Which is... well, suboptimal.
thedougd 5y ago
In a Honda with Android Auto and Carplay, Google Maps on Android will take advantage of both vehicle displays whereas Carplay will not. The next turn and distance until next turn is displayed on the speedometer display while showing the full map and UI on the dashboard center display. Is this broadly true or specific to vehicle?
mark_l_watson 5y ago
Even though Apple Maps is improving rapidly, Google Maps usually gives me slightly better results. But, I use Apple Maps almost always because of two things: privacy, and because of my Apple Watch. If I need Google Maps then I run it from Safari on my iPhone.
barneybooroo 5y ago
I mostly rely on audio turn by turn walking directions (in London) and was surprised how bad Google Maps was. For example, it would give directions like “head south on High Street” as if I know which way south is? Apple Maps isn’t perfect but I can just about rely on audio for navigating (and the occasional glance for everything else)
Spooky23 5y ago
Imo Apple does easier directions. Sometimes, going on some weird detour with Waze is appealing. Apples routes are usually a few minutes longer.
aeharding 5y ago
Apple Maps needs to provide bicycle directions in my city (Madison, Wisconsin). Until then, it's literally nonfunctional for the vast majority of my trips.
cromwellian 5y ago
Personally I have a decade of travel in Google Maps timeline, hundreds of cities, dozens of countries. I use that and exif data in photos as a way to self document my life and look back on what I did. Apple offers nothing like this. I can even download a Takeout dump from Google import it other apps for processing. Apple Maps POI database still seems pretty bad IMHO, but worse is that it’s search function is broken. If I am searching for something, return results sorted by distance. Sometimes Apple Maps returns businesses with the same name in other states or countries before one right next to me. Maybe their POI database isn’t the problem, and it’s search. Given the years they’ve had to improve their broken App Store search, it doesn’t raise my confidence that it’ll improve soon.
wpearse 5y ago
Here in New Zealand there’s State Highway 1 which runs the length of the country. Because of our geography (long and thin) it’s basically the only way to cover long distances quickly. Inexplicably once or twice a year Apple Maps decides that different sections of SH1 is closed and sends you on a wild detour. Right now, Apple Maps thinks that a short 30m (100ft) stretch of SH1 is closed just north of Warkworth. (It’s not closed, I drive it daily, and have reported to Apple weeks ago.) The suggested detour is a miserable, slow, and windy drive. Why Apple, why?!
perfectstorm 5y ago
Apple maps still doesn’t support offline navigation which is a huge issue for me as someone who visits National parks. I used to have a Nokia windows phone back in 2014 which had terrific offline maps and navigation. I still can’t believe why apple hasn’t prioritized offline maps. I use Google maps which gets its job done and has offline support. I just wish they cleaned up the UI a bit and allowed me to download more area because right now I’ve to do it 3-4 times to get a size able chunk of a state.
jandorn 5y ago
I don’t need for Apple Maps to be better, just good enough and they are. I switched last year completely and removed GM from my phone.
SergeAx 5y ago
> Google is the world’s largest data-driven advertising company. Apple is not. But it reeeeeally wants to be!

151 points by ColinWright 5y ago

What a tight rope this author has to walk. You want commute suggestions but you don’t want google to know where you live or work? I’ll bat for google on this one, the value I get from Gmaps vs the value they get from my data seems like a fair exchange. Also PSA, if you use Bluetooth with your car, your city transport department is tracking you. Best of luck opting out of that or even finding who to contact.

Allezxandre 5y ago
But the point is that Apple Maps also has the commute suggestions without the privacy cost
- lyongu 5y ago
  As long as you're using a cellular network, you're trackable, no? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFns39RXPrU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFns39RXPrU
  - Allezxandre 5y ago
    Maybe, I don’t know, but it doesn’t mean we should just give up on protecting our data everywhere else. A GPS or Bluetooth signal would be far more precise as a mass surveillance tool, so let’s not give that up
  - benhurmarcel 5y ago
    Not being tracked in addition by an advertising company is worth something to me.
jabyess 5y ago
> Also PSA, if you use Bluetooth with your car, your city transport department is tracking you. Best of luck opting out of that or even finding who to contact. Can you say more about this? I've never heard of it.
- RyJones 5y ago
  Not sure what they’re pointing to, but TPMS tracking is possible as well. https://youtu.be/TDYoo7TGNcw https://youtu.be/TDYoo7TGNcw
- post_break 5y ago
  Houston does it. They have bluetooth trackers on all the highways. They use it for determining congestion based on how often you can ping the same address. Keeps pinging? Gridlock. Pings once, traffic moving.
  - stjohnswarts 5y ago
    I wander if anyone has any proof it's being stored for future use or used for anything but general traffic data.
- aunty_helen 5y ago
  Sure, here's the one I've had experience with: https://addinsight.com.au/ https://addinsight.com.au/ They put powerful bluetooth sensors on poles or in roadside cabinets. They're pretty cheap to deploy so have become widely used. Pretty much if you have two bluetooth devices talking to each other, you can be tracked by your bluetooth mac address. (Same as wifi networks and sniffing with wireshark etc) Or if you have a device pinging with a non-random mac (ie your car). If you've got an iphone and it's not actively being used, you get a random mac, no problems.
- TecoAndJix 5y ago
  Here is a slide deck from DEFCON on it: https://media.defcon.org/DEF%20CON%2022/DEF%20CON%2022%20presentations/DEF%20CON%2022%20-%20Grant-Bugher-Detecting-Bluetooth-Surveillance-Systems-Updated.pdf https://media.defcon.org/DEF%20CON%2022/DEF%20CON%2022%20pre...
foolfoolz 5y ago
you don’t even need bluetooth. there’s license plate readers on all highways which feed into traffic indicators on apps or those road signs that say how many minutes away places are
- aunty_helen 5y ago
  License plate readers are costly and need to be positioned with a good field of view etc. Bluetooth sensors are more widely used, you've just never noticed them. Also, the highway congestion is most likely done with magnetic inductance loops.

steve_adams_86 5y ago

I’m curious - does anyone reading this agree with the notion that Apple maps is becoming comparable to Google maps? I haven’t given it a fair shot in almost a decade I guess, and it was almost unusable then. Does anyone here use it as a daily driver? What are the strong and weak points?

moogleii 5y ago
I greatly prefer the UX of Apple Maps for navigation, but the search is still bad compared to Google Maps. The verbal directions and UI are clearer IMO. Both have been equally bad at keeping directions up to date, though, but I live in a relatively mutable city. If I were living in the burbs, I would probably stick with Apple Maps.
vikingcaffiene 5y ago
I made the switch back to Apple Maps a while back. It’s great. I’m not sure what specific features you want to know about.
zepto 5y ago
I agree with the notion. It was pretty terrible for the first 3 years. A second place contender for a few years after that, but for the last few years it has been clearly as good. I am not going to enumerate strong and weak points. It’s a matter of taste at this point. Just try it again.
olivertaylor 5y ago
I almost entirely use Apple Maps. I live in a large city so the data is very accurate. And I only really use it for driving, so I can't compare transit, hiking trails, etc. When I travel to less populated parts of the country Google Maps is far more accurate and complete. That's the only difference I've noticed.
- ghaff 5y ago
  Google Maps is pretty good for transit and pretty bad for hiking trails. Can't speak to Apple Maps. While imperfect, OpenStreetMaps is fairly reliable for hiking trails, including unofficial ones, in populated areas of the US at any rate.

edhelas 5y ago

vs OpenStreepMap

komuher 5y ago

Google maps >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> apple maps here in Europe especially for medium sized cities (in big cities apple works fine but still a lot worse then google). For me it seems like fair exchange to give some data, for free and very good service that have no real competition :)

jbluepolarbear 5y ago
I switched to Apple Maps a couple years ago and it’s been much better for me around the US; especially, Denver and Portland areas. Google maps still has a lot of issues with navigating around Portland.
cassianoleal 5y ago
In London I find Apple Maps superior to Google Maps in almost every way. Apple's cycling routing is miles ahead of Google's.
- madeofpalk 5y ago
  I was very happy when Apple "finally" added cycling directions in London. That was the only reason why I used Google Maps. Apple does give me some funky directions through Victoria Park, though I'm always surprised when any map service can route through parks somewhat well.
  - saurik 5y ago
    Why did you switch?
    - sbuk 5y ago
      > I was very happy when Apple "finally" added cycling directions in London. That was the only reason why I used Google Maps.
      - saurik 5y ago
        Yes: I absolutely understood the catalyst, but not the reason. I will rephrase my question: why did you want to switch? Is that less confusing? The person I am responding to seemed eager to leave Google Maps, but couldn't because of one critical feature; once that critical feature was there, removing the reason they had not to switch... but, there still had to be some remaining reason why the person switched: a reason that had caused them to be waiting to switch this whole time (and while I have some ideas as to what that reason might be, it isn't at all obvious which one and I didn't want to bias the answer by suggesting any). Is this really such a strange concept? :(

jhpauley 5y ago

Why post shit that's behind a paywall? Really, why?

plank_time 5y ago

I use Apple CarPlay almost exclusively now, and will never buy a car that doesn’t support it anymore. When using navigation, I will often use Apple Maps. Their biggest advantage is that their directions will say “after the next stop sign, turn right at the following traffic light.” Thats so much more useful than most other Map apps. So in the city, I prefer Apple Maps. If I need the shortest route including traffic or if I need to drive fast and watch out for cops, I will use Waze.

brundolf 5y ago
In my experience Apple does a pretty great job with redirecting around traffic and stuff too. I'm sure it won't be as good as Waze since that's their whole thing, but it's plenty good enough for me

mr-ron 5y ago

I opened up my settings to allow Google maps to have access to my location all the time, even when not using the app. I have found the Timeline feature in Google maps to be a huge game changer in terms of 'where ive been' and 'what Ive done'. I can look back months, see exactly what routes I went down, where I was at a given time. It will even match pictures with the locations. Especially for journaling vacations (sometimes weeks later), and reliving memories, its the greatest app Ive used in some time.

dreamcompiler 5y ago
> I can look back months, see exactly what routes I went down, where I was at a given time. So can Google. I'd love to have these features but the price is just too high. The price would be too high even if I trusted Google (which I don't), because every company that collects personal information will be hacked because no company is properly incentivised to protect users' data.
- tshaddox 5y ago
  What is the price?
- beagle3 5y ago
  You know your phone service provider has that location information in resolution that’s almost as good, right? The only way to opt out is to turn your phone off (equivalently, leave it at home). For some people, the fact that google also knows it is no big deal. For some it is. But if you are worried about your whereabouts being leaked, how can you justify using a phone in the first place? Verizon and AT&T are more likely to get hacked than google (or just sell that info outright, which they have done wholesale before)
  - stickfigure 5y ago
    ...not to mention they whip out a credit card to make every purchase. And let's not get started on what their ISP records.

SirensOfTitan 5y ago

We were already using Apple Maps pre-iOS15 because its turn-by-turn directions were far superior. With Google Maps, we were often surprised by the directions: it would be like keep left... keep left...TURN AROUND NOW. Apple Maps often shows the next two directions, and more clearly dictates what we should do next. ... with iOS15, Apple maps are just gorgeous, and I've completely deleted Google maps (I now have no dependence on Google services for personal life). Google has sat on its hands the last couple years with Google Maps: it has hardly improved at all, and outside of their move to jack up prices for API users, I haven't heard of any real changes.

marcinzm 5y ago
It's been years and Google maps still recommends an illegal/suicidal/likely impossible u-turn near my parent's place in NYC. Might be time to switch to Apple Maps for driving directions.
wutbrodo 5y ago
> Google has sat on its hands the last couple years with Google Maps: it has hardly improved at all, and outside of their move to jack up prices for API users, I haven't heard of any real changes. It's a pretty mature product, so you'd expect the pace of signjificant change to be much slower. And large, noticeable change (like a redesign) is a poor metric, as it often feels like a PM getting their wings at the expense of user experience, including muscle memory in an app as useful as Maps. Despite these caveats, I can think of a new feature off the top of my head: a heatmap of all photos I've ever taken appearing on Google maps. I just moved to New York and it's been both useful and delightful to rediscover where I've been from a new perspective, driven by the serendipitous photos I took over the last decade of sporadic visits. Yet another new feature I just remembered is Live View compass calibration. Anybody who lives in a big city can relate to how irritating compass quality is around large buildings. The ability to calibrate my compass in two seconds via camera recognition of the street scene is a huge quality of life improvement. Im usually hesitant to disagree with other people's opinions, but it really sounds like you either have no familiarity with Google Maps or are stuck in a 2010 Apple vs Google fanboy-war view of the world. The reason Maps is so wildly popular is because it consistently pushes out user experience both improvements that are straightforwardly (if incrementally) useful and occasional larger "cool" (and also useful) features. To get as wildly wrong an interpretation as yours (of Maps as somehow stagnant) reeks of willful ignorance.

nixy 5y ago

But a map app is so much more than street maps and navigation. I have tried to switch to Apple Maps, and it works great for navigation or getting an overview of the streets. But I cannot use Apple Maps to explore! With Google maps, I just fire it up and search “sights” to find places near that are worth a visit. “Public beaches” to find where I can go for a swim. If I try the same with Apple Maps, more often than not I get sent to a place in Myanmar or similar which happens to be tagged as “public beach”. Also when I search for a business on Google maps, I get photos and reviews. With Apple Maps I am happy if I get a link to a website.

cdubzzz 5y ago
I agree with you but to be fair I just tapped “public beaches” in to Apple Maps and got a bunch of nearby public beaches. The Yelp integration is what annoys me. I don’t care much about the stars or anything in Google Maps but the photos and sometimes comments be can very instructive. On Apple Maps this information is hidden behind a third party service I don’t use or want to use.
- lotsofpulp 5y ago
  I assume they are working on getting rid of Yelp and only use it as a stop gap until they get their own sufficient data.
  - ghostly_s 5y ago
    They don't seem to be collecting any replacement data from their users...
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

post_break 5y ago

I've tried to use Apple Maps but it just straight up cant find normal places that have existed for ages. I don't know what the deal is.

wutbrodo 5y ago
Outside of niche cases, every user I've ever talked to, here or in-person, has only ever used brand loyalty as their reason for using it. With a userbase like that, why bother making a good service, particularly when you don't have the institutional competency to do so?
- chipotle_coyote 5y ago
  Okay, in a comment you left literally three minutes before this you were accusing someone else of being "stuck in a 2010 Apple vs Google fanboy-war view of the world," and now you're saying, in so many words, only people who are fanboys use Apple maps because Apple fans are sheep so why should Apple bother. Pick a lane.
  - wutbrodo 5y ago
    Yes, the juxtaposition occurred to me. But this is not an accurate representation of my view: > you're saying, in so many words, only people who are fanboys use Apple maps because Apple fans are sheep so why should Apple bother. This is a reasonable interpretation if you read my comment carelessly, because I was pretty imprecise with my phrasing. First off, I don't think my sample is close to representative of all users, but I've come across it often enough in diverse enough contexts that I'm comfortable considering brand-loyalty-as-motivation to be a non-trivial part of the market dynamic here. I'm also not artificially deducing brand loyalty from assumptions about the quality of the product, and I recognize that its most famous failings don't encapsulate overall product quality (in fact, I didn't make any direct claims about product quality). The "brand-loyal" people I'm referring to are the ones who've explicitly said to me that they use Apple Maps so that it can "get more user data and get better". This kind of altruism is vanishingly rare in most product relationships, and brand loyalty is by far the most parsimonious explanation. This shouldn't be surprising; theres a reason that Apple's marketing and product competencies are world-renowned, and I have plenty of other from-the-horse's-mouth examples (like the family members who sincerely ask me why I'd choose an Android, as they had _literally_ never heard a reason other than "can't afford an iPhone"). Apple's relatively poor competency at services (vs hardware products) is a subjective claim, but one that isn't an unreasonable conclusion for a thoughtful person to land on (or disagree with). To put it all together, something like this more accurately conveys my point: I have enough data points of strong brand loyalty shaping Apple consumer behavior, particularly in the case of Maps, that I fairly consider it a non-trivial factor in usage of the product. I don't discount (and in fact directly call out) the possibility of the app fitting a specific consumer better, nor do I claim that it's not a better product overall, as I'm not familiar enough with it to make that claim. A situation with stickier brand loyalty _requires_ less competition on usability than the counterfactual (this is practically tautological). If you can't see the difference between the above and the trivially-disprovable factual claims in the comment I described, then your definition of "fanboy" seems to be little more than "dislike a product I like".

cryptofistMonk 5y ago

This article just showed me an ad with my exact last name embroidered on a t-shirt... Bit ironic

TimMurnaghan 5y ago
I never got to the article as I gave up after 25 "no" clicks on the cookie form. (I know I could block better - but sometimes I like to see the state of the bad ui design). Websites like Forbes and The Condé Nast ones don't exist in my world as I don't go there. As to Apple maps I gave up when the dumped us in a field in Norfolk (England). It was about 5 miles from the proper destination, and no clue how to get to a road going there.

stuart78 5y ago

I’ve been using Apple Maps since getting my first CapPlay compatible car. I switched because the Google Maps app was (and remains) awful to use. GM forces you to view a very small view of where you are going next. Multiple click to access trip view and custom map scale. In contrast, Apple Maps makes it easy to toggle between multiple views with one click and the UI is less cluttered. Personally, I like to use the map to occasionally update my mental map, not for turn by turn spoon-feeding. Apple’s app makes this much more convenient. Additionally, bookmarking in Google Maps remains primitive and hard to manage. Apple introduced collections over the last few years which are great. What I miss the most about Google Maps is the photos, which are generally better than Yelp (and don’t open a new app). Apple has work to do outside of US, but their maps make steady progress year after year, and if the US indicate where rest of the world is headed, things will get better.

randomperson_24 5y ago

Apple Maps is unusable in any city that is not US City OR Big City in Europe.

T3RMINATED 5y ago

apple maps sux

2Gkashmiri 5y ago

i would be in a minority here but i use osmand+ on my phone. in my city, openstreetmaps is still in its infancy relatively speaking so what i do is, if i go somewhere and i see problem spots, wrong turn or missing road or a point, intersection or something. I just mark it and once home, i update the map for everyone. while this might not be for everyone. It is time consuming for me but i find this a good exercise for myself. i use streetcomplete (android app) often to update the streets and that is a good feature of openstreetmaps

toastal 5y ago
100% this spirit. I like how I can take an active role in my community helping with this kinda stuff. I ask business owners all sorts of missing details you can't add to the other maps. Some people have laughed when my maps are appear empty in some places, but when I show them how easy it was to meaningfully contribute and the aforementioned details, I hear comments of jealousy.
- 2Gkashmiri 5y ago
  Same thing. Marketting plays a big role. Everyone around me uses Google maps because why not? I showed a relative about offline tracks and camping and route mapping. He's like "well I can offline save Google maps". I want to slowly build a robust network.

ehsankia 5y ago

I'm curious what the privacy labels for Google Maps in Incognito mode would be. The thing with the labels is that you have to list all the labels as if all the features were enabled and set to the least private option. Google maps has over a decade of features that people use and love. For example, I personally would be outraged if they removed Timeline, which I rely on daily, but that feature alone probably adds a dozen privacy labels, even though it's optional.

aeromusek 5y ago
The other difference is that Google Maps has to build everything into the app directly. The privacy label for Apple Maps gets a 'free ride' on so many things by virtue of piggybacking on OS-level functionality. Same thing applies to Messages vs. WhatsApp/Messenger and bunch of others.

CalChris 5y ago

The FA presents a good argument and as a consequence I deleted Google Maps and a few others. I also turned off Location Services for a few apps, notably WhatsApp. I'll try Apple Maps for awhile which in the Bay Area should be a low bar to clear. I'm also looking at OpenStreetMaps apps.

DevKoala 5y ago

I haven’t used Google maps since 2017. I started using Apple maps once they fixed their issues in California and took the stance on privacy. I have never missed Google maps.

beefman 5y ago

Apple's driving coverage has been improving and is now as good as Google's in the SF Bay area. Google is still better at walking directions (especially involving building access), and I'm sure their coverage is superior globally. Apple doesn't support multi-point itineraries and doesn't have depart at / arrive by functionality, which can be very useful. Apple has generally copied Google's mobile UI approach, which has been devolving for a few years now (2018 brought the large and useless bottom "explore" panel IIRC). Google's iOS app is almost impossible to use as an actual map now -- it's exceedingly difficult to pan, orient, or zoom to inspect things. Everything you do has to be part of some flow that somebody designed, while it flashes surveys at you. Trying to do anything else just bounces you between flows in a loop. It's become and idiot app to the point that I wonder how those involved sleep at night.

aiddun 5y ago
Apple Maps in iOS 15 will have leave at/arrive by. I've been using it in the beta
pfranz 5y ago
> Apple doesn't support multi-point itineraries I've never tried multi-point itineraries with Google Maps, but the new iOS beta has an "add stop" feature. It's not exactly what I was hoping for because it only has predefined searches ("food", "gas", etc). What it does is pause your original trip with a button to continue. If it could do a generic search along the route it would be exactly what I need most of the time without being too confusing to use.
dan-robertson 5y ago
For an iPad, I find the apple ma-s ui much better. E.g. for search results in portrait, apple give you a column on the side (so you can see the map) but google fill your screen with results which makes more sense on a small phone. Google do the same “better” thing in landscape. I also find Apple’s street view copy much nicer to use but obviously they have the late-mover advantage. Google now have a poor copy of this interface but it’s hidden away.

nvr219 5y ago

I use Waze because I want to know where the cops are.

seriousquestion 5y ago
How reliable is that?
- pfranz 5y ago
  It's been fairly reliable in practice, but it's based on crowd sourcing. It'll ask you to confirm if you see one someone else has flagged. Sometimes you're the first to see it, sometimes the alert is out of date and there's no officer.
- cromwellian 5y ago
  Super reliable. I used to get at least 1 speeding ticket per year, I haven’t had a ticket in 8 years thanks to Waze. Also Waze time estimates are stupidly accurately. You think you can beat their estimate by driving faster but it somehow accounts for that, eg if average speed on 101 is currently 80 mph the estimates will reflect that. Waze puts Apple Maps to shame for navigation. The way it reports adding a stop (say for gas station) as how many minutes off route is extremely useful.
exegete 5y ago
With CarPlay Apple Maps now has an option to report radar and hazards. Google also now owns Waze and uses info from it to show hazards.
- wpearse 5y ago
  My experience (NZ) is that it’s 50-50 whether you get the “Fixed speed camera ahead!” warning before, or after, you drive past the speed camera. (Even approaching the same camera from different directions!) The position of the cameras is correctly marked on the map, so you just need to keep an eye on the map rather than trust the audible alerts.

r0m4n0 5y ago

Apple Maps has a long way to go on biking directions. Today on the Chicago waterfront I selected biking directions and it just said “unavailable” I do like the contextual directions on Apple Maps they say “at the next signal turn left” but I refuse to use two map apps

brewdad 5y ago
Do you have "avoid busy roads" enabled for biking directions? I think it may be the default and would explain why it had trouble near DT Chicago.
ghostly_s 5y ago
Apple Maps does not yet offer cycling directions in Chicago, period. Despite it being on their "coming soon" list about 2 years ago. I would love to switch, cmon guys.

throwaway284534 5y ago

My biggest issue with Apple Maps is that I know it has information that it isn’t telling me about, especially so when public transit is involved. Apple almost always picks the worst route when commenting through NYC’s subway, suggesting that you take the closest line and transfer in another station, rather than walking a block to the line directly. And it’s almost always the case that you’ll arrive at a mid-trip station just as your connecting train leaves the platform. You’ve just added a minimum 10 minute wait, plus the time and energy it took to walk through the station! I would avoid Apple Maps entirely if they allowed Google Maps full access to the Watch OS.

tppiotrowski 5y ago

Nobody mentioned the battery/heat issues with Google Maps. My iPhone on a sunny dashboard running Google Maps almost always overheats and drains the battery. I've switched to Apple Maps on long drives because it uses significantly less battery and phone stays cooler. Has anyone else experienced this?

o_m 5y ago

I use Apple Maps for navigation and Google Maps in the browser for everything else.

Maxburn 5y ago

Apple maps has a lot of weaknesses, particularly the search along route limitations that I bump into all the time. Mostly in the US it's "good enough" though. BUT when I started seeing so many obvious advertising things going on in google maps the writing was on the wall. Lately the advert items started looking an awful lot like my starred places, that's some dark patterns I'm not going to put up with.

threatofrain 5y ago
Still better than partnering with Yelp, I would think. Apple Maps puts Yelp front and center like one of its star performers.
- Schiendelman 5y ago
  It looks like it’s stopped doing that in some countries recently. I’ve seen tripadvisor, and some that are native photos!
- ericmay 5y ago
  True but at least they are kind of partnering with different companies and keeping additional ecosystems alive. Like using DDG for example.
- TheParkShark 5y ago
  Hopefully this is going away soon enough. This is from iOS 14 last year, https://appleinsider.com/articles/20/08/26/apple-maps-will-let-users-leave-reviews-and-photos-in-latest-ios-14-beta https://appleinsider.com/articles/20/08/26/apple-maps-will-l....
  - threatofrain 5y ago
    That's odd, I'm on iOS 15 and don't see it yet.
stjohnswarts 5y ago
Yeah for me apple maps is "good enough". OSM can be good for more details when you get to where you're going or make a stop.

yawaworht1978 5y ago

Google maps has a couple annoying features, the main one being the location arrow is confusing, I am by far not the only one saying this. And as of recently, in some locations I have been(large western European capitals) it is lagging, on different networks and devices. Many wrong turns taken because of that, this is very time consuming during peak traffic hours in large, dense cities. Not sure about apple maps, but Google maps has me on the fence considering changing the app. Also is there a feature where I can save "school for kids", "work", "sports"? I could not locate it.

wayanon 5y ago

Apple Maps in London UK is pretty bad with business info - I’ve had to make correction reports for a few things in my neighbourhood I never have to for Google Maps.

unclewalter 5y ago

I love the way Apple Maps gives turn by turn directions: “go past these lights and at the next set, turn left”. Just way more understandable as a ... human. However, it commonly gives me just the wrong destination. Just the other day, it put me five blocks away from the actual address in Downtown LA. Which is... well, suboptimal.

thedougd 5y ago

In a Honda with Android Auto and Carplay, Google Maps on Android will take advantage of both vehicle displays whereas Carplay will not. The next turn and distance until next turn is displayed on the speedometer display while showing the full map and UI on the dashboard center display. Is this broadly true or specific to vehicle?

mark_l_watson 5y ago

Even though Apple Maps is improving rapidly, Google Maps usually gives me slightly better results. But, I use Apple Maps almost always because of two things: privacy, and because of my Apple Watch. If I need Google Maps then I run it from Safari on my iPhone.

barneybooroo 5y ago

I mostly rely on audio turn by turn walking directions (in London) and was surprised how bad Google Maps was. For example, it would give directions like “head south on High Street” as if I know which way south is? Apple Maps isn’t perfect but I can just about rely on audio for navigating (and the occasional glance for everything else)

Spooky23 5y ago

Imo Apple does easier directions. Sometimes, going on some weird detour with Waze is appealing. Apples routes are usually a few minutes longer.

aeharding 5y ago

Apple Maps needs to provide bicycle directions in my city (Madison, Wisconsin). Until then, it's literally nonfunctional for the vast majority of my trips.

cromwellian 5y ago

Personally I have a decade of travel in Google Maps timeline, hundreds of cities, dozens of countries. I use that and exif data in photos as a way to self document my life and look back on what I did. Apple offers nothing like this. I can even download a Takeout dump from Google import it other apps for processing. Apple Maps POI database still seems pretty bad IMHO, but worse is that it’s search function is broken. If I am searching for something, return results sorted by distance. Sometimes Apple Maps returns businesses with the same name in other states or countries before one right next to me. Maybe their POI database isn’t the problem, and it’s search. Given the years they’ve had to improve their broken App Store search, it doesn’t raise my confidence that it’ll improve soon.

wpearse 5y ago

Here in New Zealand there’s State Highway 1 which runs the length of the country. Because of our geography (long and thin) it’s basically the only way to cover long distances quickly. Inexplicably once or twice a year Apple Maps decides that different sections of SH1 is closed and sends you on a wild detour. Right now, Apple Maps thinks that a short 30m (100ft) stretch of SH1 is closed just north of Warkworth. (It’s not closed, I drive it daily, and have reported to Apple weeks ago.) The suggested detour is a miserable, slow, and windy drive. Why Apple, why?!

perfectstorm 5y ago

Apple maps still doesn’t support offline navigation which is a huge issue for me as someone who visits National parks. I used to have a Nokia windows phone back in 2014 which had terrific offline maps and navigation. I still can’t believe why apple hasn’t prioritized offline maps. I use Google maps which gets its job done and has offline support. I just wish they cleaned up the UI a bit and allowed me to download more area because right now I’ve to do it 3-4 times to get a size able chunk of a state.

jandorn 5y ago

I don’t need for Apple Maps to be better, just good enough and they are. I switched last year completely and removed GM from my phone.

SergeAx 5y ago

> Google is the world’s largest data-driven advertising company. Apple is not. But it reeeeeally wants to be!