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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:

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.
- abraham 5y ago
  The Google Photos mobile apps have heatmaps of photos. https://www.theverge.com/2020/6/25/21301932/google-photos-redesign-map-view-memories-search https://www.theverge.com/2020/6/25/21301932/google-photos-re... Disclosure: I work for Google, not on Maps or Photos.
  - wutbrodo 5y ago
    Thanks! I must've mixed them up. The Live View compass calibration is a better example, plus an idle Google search found a couple more examples of new useful features (like more AR-overlay info)

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.

abraham 5y ago
The Google Photos mobile apps have heatmaps of photos. https://www.theverge.com/2020/6/25/21301932/google-photos-redesign-map-view-memories-search https://www.theverge.com/2020/6/25/21301932/google-photos-re... Disclosure: I work for Google, not on Maps or Photos.
- wutbrodo 5y ago
  Thanks! I must've mixed them up. The Live View compass calibration is a better example, plus an idle Google search found a couple more examples of new useful features (like more AR-overlay info)