19 ms·

The day I discovered that Apple Maps is Kind of Good now

• usrn 4y ago
  All modern map apps are completely terrible. Most of the time Apple maps doesn't draw any labels. The actual map is almost purely decorative.
  • bsilvereagle 4y ago
    HERE maps was one of the last to keep scales and was guaranteed to label a street if you zoomed in. But after looking at their web viewer, both features have been dropped. Most "map" apps are more for exploring where gas/food/etc is so directions can be generated and less about being a useful map.
  • MiddleEndian 4y ago
    Agreed, I hate when streets on maps don't have labels. It would be so easy to do.
    • insickness 4y ago
      Oh my god, this is such a huge pet peeve of mine, particularly when walking or riding a bike. They draw out the path on the map but 90% of the streets aren't labeled, including the street you're supposed to turn on.
    • zimpenfish 4y ago
      I've been bitten by this recently and I think it's because they're still following paper map rules for labels - like they'll[1] put the street name halfway down the street even if you're zoomed into the first 5% of it because that's what you'd do on a paper map and it would work fine there. (I'd also like the option for bigger / contrastier labels and a way to turn off all the business names because 99% of the time I don't want them cluttering up the map when I'm just flaneuring about London.) [1] Apple Maps and Google Maps both suffer from this. maps.me also suffers from it but inconsistently - sometimes it'll put it at 50%, sometimes it'll double up at 33% and 66%, sometimes it'll just not label a road...
      • MiddleEndian 4y ago
        I don't understand why they can't figure it out, just fucking slide the text to where it's visible.
  • yjftsjthsd-h 4y ago
    Maybe something on Open Street Map? Worst case, it's all open source so you could hack that back into a client.
  • unsupp0rted 4y ago
    I find it almost impossible to read street names, park names, etc on Google Maps.
  • hawski 4y ago
    When I need to orient myself better and especially when outdoors on foot I prefer mapy.cz, they have also a very nice Android app (I don't know if they have one for iPhones) which also gives offline maps. I think they at least partially use OSM, but very nice presentation and smoothness is there. Much better than OSM-And (which last time I used a few years ago).
    • severus_snape 4y ago
      OsmAnd "online maps" are much smoother than the default vector maps, because your phone doesn't have to render them (they also take more space). I find OsmAnd incredible for - hiking (lots of useful maps, possibility to add overlays like mountain slopes, satellite images, possibility to add maps from other sources as long as you have the tile URL, all maps can be downloaded and used offline, great Altitude/Slope graphs, POI searching), - cycling (navigation works very well, CyclOSM shows useful information, BRouter for serious bike routing), - driving (navigation works offline, good as a backup or if you don't like Waze showing you McDonald's ads every time you stop). Also it's a free software (that you can still pay to help the developers).
• perryizgr8 4y ago
  I'm curious to try Apple maps. Unfortunately I couldn't find it on the play store ;)
• speby 4y ago
  I would still suggest, anecdotally, that Google Maps is a bit more up to date and comprehensive over Apple Maps. However, that has narrowed a LOT over the last few years, to the point where I really don't worry about it much. I prefer Apple Maps' interface, smoothness, etc. over Google Maps. GMaps is still a good app and a great mapping/directions tool but being in the Apple ecosystem, Apple Maps works about as well (or close enough that it doesn't matter much, at least to me).
• pythonic_hell 4y ago
  I tried to use Apple Maps for 2 years right after Covid hit when I decided to de-google my life. I found it to be “ok” and sometimes terrible. * no bike lanes (even though my country is famous for them) * public transit sometimes recommends longer routes * terrible UI for public transit. Specifically in how times are communicated for multi-mode routes. * worse POI discoverability then google maps * missing places and businesses
• BrandoElFollito 4y ago
  Everyone is against google maps, I have only good experiences. In Europe, if it matters. It gets me to the right place through several choices. This is from someone who now intensely hates google for having me kicked off Google Apps/Suite with a 15 years old account. The only problem I have is that the indications are not always clear on some road splits, sand they the French language is sometimes surprisingly weird.
• some_guy_in_ca 4y ago
  Yes Apple Maps is much better than google maps. The way it zooms out when driving to give an overview The instructions are a bit better in my town. A lot of subtle improvements over the years.
• polalavik 4y ago
  Apple Maps does some insane stuff. For example, it overlays landscaping - trees / plants - in front of the route I’m trying to drive. I do not need cute digital obstacles in the way of my map. Just tell me how to get there!
• navanchauhan 4y ago
  It’s so much easier to navigate with Apple Maps (when it works). Hearing “turn right at the stop sign” or “go past these lights” is so much more helpful than “after 800m, turn right”
  • ttcbj 4y ago
    I haven't really tried apple maps since it came out and was bad. However, one thing I dislike about Google maps nav is how formal it is, even in areas that I have driven around for years. Often, I will drive to a hike where I need detailed navigation as I get outside my comfort zone, but I am completely familiar with the highways near me. It would be so much clearer if it just said "take I-270 south in half a mile" instead of, "Using exit 272, use the second from the right lane to take I-270 south, I-270 North, then stay left at the fork to take I-270 south." I know how to get on I-270 south, all you need to do is tell me that is where I am going, not the minutia on how to do it. I can see how the latter is useful for someone passing through, but google maps knows I've been through that intersection hundreds of times. It's really distracting and counterproductive for me. I wish there was some "give short instructions in my area" type setting that would simplify instructions in this case.
    • usui 4y ago
      Google generally has a goldmine of personal data that it could use to improve your user experience and make driving better, same with Search and YouTube. The past decade has shown Google is content with only using your personal information for serving you ads, not improving other functions. I wish what you suggested could exist too.
      • CamperBob2 4y ago
        Probably because people scream bloody murder when they use personal information for anything other than the most critical, documented business functions (i.e., serving ads.)
    • jessriedel 4y ago
      A version that I've long wanted, which is close to what you want: a "less verbose" setting for the voice instructions that would give you abbreviated instructions or perhaps even just a tone. Very often, all I need from Maps is an audio notification to let me know a turn is approaching so I don't miss it and I can look at the map for the details. Having the details read out in excruciating detail is much more annoying, as you point out.
• MiddleEndian 4y ago
  The hover text on the XKCD mentions OpenStreetMaps but just checked openstreetmap.org and they still don't seem to have public transit directions. Is there something that prevents them from getting that information? They also didn't understand a text query like "address to address"
  • usrn 4y ago
    I mean it does say "Open Street Map" not "Open Rail Map."
    • MiddleEndian 4y ago
      You got me there lol
    • not2b 4y ago
      But in many areas (not everywhere) it's very good for hiking trails, thanks to lots of volunteer contributors.
  • Doctor_Fegg 4y ago
    OSM is ultimately a crowdsourced, volunteer-surveyed database. Timetables (which are essential for public transport routing) don't really jibe with that. You could certainly build a map client which integrated third-party timetable data from operators and transport authorities, probably using OpenTripPlanner as a backend. But openstreetmap.org is designed simply to reflect OpenStreetMap data, not any third-party data.
  • Aachen 4y ago
    It's a weird balance where the OpenStreetMap.org website claims not to be meant for usability, but everything about it screams the opposite. A convenient search box, share button, all the stuff you'd expect, except then it doesn't work very well and it's even worse on mobile. Officially, it's a tech demo to showcase what you can do with the data. Unofficially, crazies like me use it daily but need to fall back to other websites for various purposes: - overpass-turbo.eu for data queries (showing all the tourism=viewpoint nodes in an area, or all the supermarkets, for example) - OsmAnd for simpler queries like looking for a nearby bench while on the move (note that this also works fully offline, the only data it ever needs is for map file updates or if you want stuff like satellite imagery) - OsmAnd for showing which of the fifteen bus stops across three areas my bus will actually be at. For example, this bus station has stop positions inside, outside, on the other side of the street with a traffic light to cross, around the corner... https://snipboard.io/DJUbVd.jpg https://snipboard.io/DJUbVd.jpg It's madness, I walked up and down the whole area twice (took a while, missed my connection) before discovering the stop position around the corner, shown on the left on this screenshot. Had I just used OSM, it would have been clear where to go. Most transport apps don't show this, they just tell you to go and find H13 somewhere. Link to the bus line object shown in screenshot, btw: https://www.openstreetmap.org/relation/1514901 https://www.openstreetmap.org/relation/1514901 - map.meurisse.org for distance measurement - maps.openrouteservice.org for more complex routing, e.g. with waypoints or time estimation with a specific maximum speed - when driving somewhere unfamiliar or with a tight deadline, I'll fall back to google maps which is the only source of accurate traffic info that I know of (in NL there are loops in the road which are open data, but idk if anyone built a site around it, and with the public transport network I don't drive there often anyway) To your specific question, OsmAnd can actually do public transport routing effectively in various countries using the data in OSM which is absolutely mind blowing impressive to me. But at the same time, I'm not sure why they bothered because without time table info it's pretty useless.
• enlyth 4y ago
  I've been using Apple Maps routinely for navigation in the UK for at least a year now, and I have to agree, it's quite amazing these days to the point where I prefer it to driving with Google Maps I did have some trouble with it while driving in Norway, but even Google Maps had issues there where it couldn't recognize which road I'm on, and the ferries were a bit confusing
  • frereubu 4y ago
    This happens with both though. I've had Google try to send me the wrong way down a one-way street, as well as take me round the houses because it thought a two-way street was one-way. We'd need some kind of large study to say which was worse in that respect.
• plaidfuji 4y ago
  Apple Maps is good for directions now … Google Maps is still much better as a kind of digital Yellow Pages … to figure out where you want to go to begin with, what’s open, get reviews of stores and vendors, as an entry point to food delivery… you know, all of the monetizable parts of a maps app.
  • dmart 4y ago
    Yeah, Apple Maps is still not as good for finding points of interest. A huge missing feature is that there's no equivalent to Google Maps' "Search this location" button. So if you search for something and then move the map, you just have to randomly pinch and scroll a bit and hope that it'll refresh with the new search radius.
    • dylan-m 4y ago
      They will never do it willingly, but I wish Google would split the POI stuff out of their maps app. It's all getting incredibly bloated the way it is, anyway. Then I could look up a place in there - because it's an excellent service - but use Apple Maps for the rest.
      • chias 4y ago
        I wish the same. In general when I need to call a local business (plumber, electrician, pizza delivery, etc.) the easiest way I know how is to look them up on google maps, then hit "call". It seems... silly... to basically have to look up directions to a place on a map I have no intention of going, simply because it's the closest thing I have to an online mobile-accessible local phone book.
        • iainmerrick 4y ago
          That is a bit silly, but on the other hand, sometimes it’s important to check that you’re calling the right branch, or that you aren’t confusing a business with a similarly-named one in another city, and a map view is good for that.
    • 4y ago
• davidjfelix 4y ago
  Honestly I prefer Apple Maps over Google these days. This is mostly opinion and feel, but it "feels" like: * Google is becoming less correct - ex: "use the right 3 lanes" when only the right 2 lanes work * Google is taking me on routes that are much less safe and more challenging - ex: taking small side roads to a left turn onto a busy road with poor visibility and no light rather than right turns to the main road and signaled lefts * Google is hammering me with unimportant details - ex: I don't care that I'm on the fastest route - ex: I don't care that something 4 hours away has a traffic jam - ex: I don't need to be told to stay on just because an exit ramp has a disappearing lane * Google tries to send me on wild boondoggles literally all the time. It sends me off highway in an attempt to avoid traffic, along with several other poor lost souls who are aimlessly listening to the same computer as me while we drive through some rural thru street. So I stopped using google. Apple isn't perfect but it's unsurprising for long road trips and provides reliable instruction that follows major road paths.
  • gboss 4y ago
    I completely agree about the unimportant details. It frustratingly cuts up a long stretch of freeway into alerts to stay left or right at unimportant exits. This often encourages me to be on the wrong side of the highway especially if it’s telling me to stay left at a small road exit when a mile later I need to be in the right lanes for a freeway split. It’s definitely gotten worse this past year
  • indecisive_user 4y ago
    The biggest anti-feature of google maps by far is the 'Change Car Icon' popup when you tap anywhere remotely close to your blue nav icon. Oh, trying to tap to take an alternate route on the map? Want to tap to add a gas station stop to your route? Sorry, the touch target is too close to your nav icon, but hey at least you can cycle through 3 different car styles endlessly. What a waste of resources.
    • pigeonhole123 4y ago
      I’m sure their engagement metrics are amazing for that feature. “Hey, look, Bob used our new feature three times last night!”
• dosenbrot 4y ago
  I used Apple Maps Navigation a few minutes ago because I was to lazy to enter the destination in the car navigation system. And so I got really annoyed of Apple since all directions were 200m to late. I really like the feature where the phone remembers the position of the parked car. It would be nice if I could send the destination from phone to car in a simple way (no route, just the destination), but this might only work with really new cars.
  • baby 4y ago
    Gmaps remembers where you parked your car too.
    • allisvancity 4y ago
      Apple maps also does this
      • baby 4y ago
        isn't that what the comment i'm replying to just said?
        • allisvancity 4y ago
          oop--yep! sorry. I must not have read either comment carefully
  • bkev 4y ago
    Tesla allows you to send an address from the Maps app to your car (via the share menu). It’s one of my favorite features. I have no idea why other manufacturers wouldn’t replicate that experience.
  • pchristensen 4y ago
    It took some time for me to adjust - Apple Maps shows your position exactly where you are, Google Maps shows your position in a few seconds in the future, which gives you more time to react. Once you realize the difference, it's much easier to use Apple Maps.
• faebi 4y ago
  I wish there was an actually good openstreetmap client with some kind of usable review integration. Nothing beats google maps reviews. Also all companies are usually most-up-to date in google maps. But the openstreetmap data, for me it's way ahead of anyone.
  • thinkingemote 4y ago
    Apple Maps is an openstreetmap client. They use and contribute lots of data too. They use other data also. and it's hard to know exactly what you are seeing comes from what source. Apple being so secret means they dont really do open data that well.
  • rattray 4y ago
    Very much agree, especially now that Google Maps seems to be monetizing their location listings more (showing sponsored results instead of relevant results in map views, etc).
  • pella 4y ago
    For OpenStreetMap data I am using the https://organicmaps.app/ https://organicmaps.app/ "Organic Maps is pure and organic, made with love: Respects your privacy ; Saves your battery ; No unexpected mobile data charges" And OpenSource: https://github.com/organicmaps/organicmaps https://github.com/organicmaps/organicmaps But the "usable review integration" is not a solved problem yet.
• sefrost 4y ago
  The "street view" implementation in Apple Maps is amazing. I really recommend you try it if you have an iPhone, the 3D sensation is far superior to Google Maps street view which feels very flat after using Apple Maps.
  • duskwuff 4y ago
    Some of Apple's street views in areas they've focused on are particularly incredible. Their maps of San Francisco are insanely detailed, for example, down to the level of showing individual trees, buildings, and street markings.
  • billti 4y ago
    Having lived in the same house for 10 years and done a bunch of work on it, what I find fascinating is the age of the photos they stitch together. I can look at the arial view and it's from when I had the swimming pool, switch to 3D and see it's once I built the chicken coop, rotate to look east and "Oh look, that's after we put on the solar panels". I wonder what drives the frequency of when the maps images are updated.
• baby 4y ago
  I’m in this camp, I try to use Apple Maps for navigation when I’m driving now. Much better in SF/the bay
• jorvi 4y ago
  I see all these people popping corks to Apple Maps, but all I read is > anglosphere > anglosphere > anglosphere If you would step out of your bubble, you would realize how terrible Apple Maps is aside from a few blessed regions.
  • deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  • yjftsjthsd-h 4y ago
    > If you would step out of your bubble, you would realize how terrible Apple Maps is aside from a few blessed regions. Okay, but I'm trying to get around inside this blessed region, so you'll forgive me being happy that there's an option that works here without being Google.
  • allisvancity 4y ago
    what map applications work best in your non-anglophone region of interest?
    • matyasrichter 4y ago
      In Czechia, for example, there's a fairly successful (in some ways even superior) Google Maps competitor in Mapy.cz. Google Maps are better in Prague and other larger cities. Mapy.cz focused on providing features Google didn't really care about, like mapping hiking and cycling trails or having nearly every backcountry road covered in their Street View alternative. https://mapy.cz https://mapy.cz
      • jakecopp 4y ago
        If you check the attribution, mapy.cz is an OpenStreetMap consumer! (I also do a lot of OSM mapping, so I know my edits when I see them :D)
        • matyasrichter 4y ago
          I know! Too bad they don't contribute more, because they've got lots of very precise data from different public organizations.
• alaricus 4y ago
  Isn't Apple Maps basically TomTom? Also I find that where I live (Germany) OpenStreetMaps is superiour to both Apple and Google.
  • Dave_Rosenthal 4y ago
    Not anymore. At launch the road networks was from TomTom, but for years now they have been in the process of completely redoing it from scratch themselves. From a quick Google search it looks the new data rolled out to Germany a couple of months ago.
  • kevinventullo 4y ago
    Apple relies on a massive number of data sources for maps: https://gspe21-ssl.ls.apple.com/html/attribution-221.html https://gspe21-ssl.ls.apple.com/html/attribution-221.html
• h00kwurm 4y ago
  as a person often on a motorcycle, apple maps has completely won me over for directions while riding. i have found it more natural to follow and more precise (eg. lane choices, light counts) with equivalent traffic information. edit to add - google maps directions have felt (borderline?) dangerous at times. i haven't yet experienced that with apple maps.
• tempnow987 4y ago
  Long time apple phone users (since the first), never used Maps after it had me try to drop someone off at a train station by giving me directions to the highway that ran over the train station (!!!) while saying I was arriving at the station. Will try it out again though. Google maps is pretty solid in my experience. Voice recognition is great in google apps for some reason.
• bitwize 4y ago
  Apple Maps is objectively superior to Google Maps, especially when it comes to directions and vehicular navigation. Fite me.
• nano9 4y ago
  Apple Maps has been good for a while now (3 years?) at least on core functionality (navigation, street names). I would say in terms of navigation, Apple Maps is superior to Google Maps. Apple Maps is more accurate about which lane to be in, shows the stoplights to pass before crucial turns, and labels the streets to skip over before turning near your destination. They don't have the same content features of Google Maps yet. You may have noticed Apple integrates with Yelp to provide you with feedback on restaurants and points of interest, but in my opinion Yelp is unreliable. Also since Google cares less about marketing a pro-privacy stance, Google shows you how busy locations are, which can be useful. On a more neutral note, it would be nice if either Map app re-routed common commute routes based on traffic incidents. Anyone who commutes down a contraflow lane knows that an accident in that lane makes it worse than the main route.
• richardatlarge 4y ago
  I only used AM when I was out of the country and didn’t have data. You could load the maps at the hotel and they would still work, I think because they’re vector based whereas GM is pixel- ?
• cmroanirgo 4y ago
  I thought i'd missed something and Apple Maps was now available on non-Apple platforms. Sadly, it's still iOS and macOS only. The top search results all suggest using DDG and using the maps option there, which apparently uses Apple Maps. :sigh:
  • kylehotchkiss 4y ago
    https://developer.apple.com/maps/web/ https://developer.apple.com/maps/web/ MapKit for web!
• bigtex 4y ago
  Still a big fan of Waze because you can report hidden police and speed traps.
  • codyogden 4y ago
    Apple Maps has this as well. You can report police, hazards, and accidents.
  • supertofu 4y ago
    How exactly are people supposed to do this while driving?
    • ArchOversight 4y ago
      "Hey Siri, report a hazard on the road" "Hey Siri, report a speed trap"
    • CamperBob2 4y ago
      It's the passenger's job. That, and keeping an eye out for deer.
    • flatiron 4y ago
      At least my car with car play it’s two buttons on the big display.
• Spooky23 4y ago
  Apple Maps is great for “safe” navigation. Over time Google Maps have become more Waze-like. Another great thing about Apple Maps is the haptic signaling on the watch.
• buildbot 4y ago
  Google Maps has actually led me wrong far more than Apple Maps, obv. anecdotal. I feel like Google Maps has way too much ML applied to it, and now that is coming back to bite it hard. The last time I used google maps was on a forest road, following directions to a remote-ish campsite. It literally had mistaken a light path through the trees as a road, and then had us try to turn into the bushes. Looking at the map of the area is was clear the road finding algorithm has mistaken a lot of small paths and tracks of light colored trees (!!!) as valid roads.
  • fennecfoxen 4y ago
    Google Maps also has an unfortunate tendency to go route-flapping, telling me that first one route, then another, is better. Often these routes diverge quite some distance away, and the "best" route switches back and forth a lot. I am also assumed to opt in to each route change unless I click "No thanks" — even if I was previously offered the route and chose another one. I am not going to click No Thanks, because I'm riding a motorcycle, thanks; therefore I use Apple Maps.
    • barkingcat 4y ago
      That auto-opt in for alternate route is the worst feature ever. I've had cases where I was on a highway far away from any exits and there was a jam caused by an accident, and google maps started flip flopping between 2 different "optimal" routes that required me to first take one exit that's ahead of me, and then another exit that was far behind me. Presumably google was seeing the traffic jam and determined that my current route is no longer optimal, and wanted me to do a U Turn on a highway where there are no exits.
      • duskwuff 4y ago
        Apple Maps will suggest alternate routes with an automatic opt-in if you don't respond, but, in my experience, it's much more conservative about making those suggestions.
    • boardwaalk 4y ago
• smhinsey 4y ago
  Apple Maps desperately needs an offline mode, but for me, it's better in LA on the freeways because they at least make an attempt to show you what lane to be in. Lane guidance usually works on surface streets, too, which is nice but not as important, except when it's vital. I seem to remember Google Maps having this at one point but they certainly don't care enough to lately, as far as I can tell.
• dcow 4y ago
  I think what's most interesting is that xkcd knows that it's the right time to release this type of comic. In other words, they play a hell of a meta game. Look at this thread, it's mostly a bunch of applause for Apple Maps with some healthy critique mixed in. I've been happily using Apple Maps for years now and would have shared this thought if this had been released 2 years ago. But likely not enough other people would have felt the same at that time for this to be a generally relevant piece of social commentary.
• buttersbrian 4y ago
  Split household. Apple Maps in Carplay is garbage in the default layout, zoom level, and way it organizes the screen while driving compared to AndroidAuto + Maps. When searching for information about when something is open, etc, Maps is leagues better. Like others have mentioned, I like the lighter 'tone' of Apple Maps directions compared to google. 1) Google maps, 2) Waze, 3) Apple Maps.
  • tshaddox 4y ago
    I wonder if that depends heavily on the particular CarPlay display and implementation. My car has a fairly large portrait display and Apple Maps is vastly more readable at a glance (and IMO aesthetically pleasing) than Google Maps via CarPlay. Also, Apple Maps is able to put the next turn information on my instrument cluster, which is perhaps a CarPlay API that Apple doesn't give third-party CarPlay navigation apps.
    • buttersbrian 4y ago
      Quite possible. We use both in our 2021 Forrester, and Carplay gives very little space in the view to the maps. Google use to keep maps very 'simple', but Apple does the simple much better (aesthetically). The moment you need to dig in, Apple maps fails me. Finding Locations (via voice while driving or otherwise), hours of operation, or traffic theres no comparison. Also, walking mode and public transportation is great on Google Maps. Had some trouble in Chicago with wife's apple maps doing either on multiple occasions. One thing to note though -- IPhones have great gps stability. My wife's iphone often does a better job with gps and that can kill the whole app experience before you get started especially in a new location or a dense urban area with tall buildings etc.
      • tshaddox 4y ago
        I have a 2020 Outback with the tall 11.6 inch screen. I'm not familiar with the options on other models or model years. I totally agree with everything else you said, except that Apple's traffic info seems reliable (granted, I'm in the Bay Area). I only use Apple Maps for in-car navigation and for storing my own lists.
• grishka 4y ago
  Apple Maps is still utterly useless in Russia. There are no buildings. There are no public transit routes. Points of interest are all messed up. I've never dared to try to get directions from it, but I'd assume that not only would it not pick the optimal route, it would probably suggest you drive wrong way on a one-way street or something like that.
  • gumby 4y ago
    That's really interesting. I was there for the world cup a few years ago and Apple Maps coverage of the cities with games was quite good, even away from the stadia. I actually only attended one game as it was an easy way to get a visa at the time, but did poke around some of the other cites.
    • grishka 4y ago
      Oh, interesting. I just opened Maps.app on macOS after reading your comment, and the building shapes are finally there, at least in St Petersburg downtown?! The restaurants are mostly correct, too. Something must have changed recently. It wasn't this good even just a month or two ago. Still no public transit, and still Apple-only (I use a Mac but an Android phone), so still useless for me personally, but it's nice to see it improve. Though several years ago it was definitely just streets, parks, and rivers.
• mensetmanusman 4y ago
  I have been burned too many times by Apple Maps because I don’t always travel in cities. The mental overhead of having to double check with google maps means I can’t imagine using Apple Maps again until Google Maps screws me over.
  • jeffbee 4y ago
    Yeah, I've had too many total botches with Apple Maps that I don't trust it on new routes. I always check the route with Google, and then maybe use Apple Maps for navigation while driving. I also fall back to Google because I can cache maps ahead of a trip while Apple will just fail when offline. And Google is way better for pedestrian trips, live transit information, and business info. Basically the only niche Apple has earned with me is in my car, using CarPlay.
• jon_adler 4y ago
  I prefer Waze over both Apple and Google Maps in the U.K. The chosen routes are better and the traffic, police and speed camera reports seem very accurate.
• wwalexander 4y ago
  I prefer Apple Maps in absolutely every way except their business info. Many businesses are missing, listed but no longer operating, or have incorrect/outdated business hours and other metadata. I do my best to add or correct info via the in-app crowdsourcing interface, but it often takes a long time for the information to be reflected if at all. That being said, it’s hard to compete with Google on data munging. Besides, if I’m actually looking for info on a business besides it’s location, I’d just Google it or visit its website anyways—especially post-pandemic as businesses close, open, and change hours so frequently.
  • m463 4y ago
    I don't know any system that has good business hours. I think this mostly because just about every business on the planet has changed their hours - multiple times - during the pandemic.
  • BoardsOfCanada 4y ago
    Agreed. But with google maps I can suggests changes and add info and it will be accepted, I can't to do that with Apple Maps. Maybe that's part of why Google Maps has better info. (Or maybe I just haven't been able to figure it out how to contribute to Apple Maps, I even googled how to do it and got to a place where business owners could enter details about their own business)
  • paxys 4y ago
    I know someone who worked at Google Maps in this area, and believe it or not the business directory problem is probably harder to solve than the rest of the app put together. You can fine tune map parsing and routes and algorithms all you like till they are good enough for every reasonable use case, but there's really no technical solution for a small restaurant that has no online presence and simply opens and closes when it feels like it. Google crunches data from a hundred different sources – looking up local directories, cold calling every restaurant in the world, mailing them postcards, measuring visitor foot traffic, analyzing data from street view, looking at community edits – and draws a somewhat reasonable picture. It's borderline impossible for anyone else to do this. Another feature Google Maps excels at is estimation. If the app tells me I'll get to my destination at 3:24 when I start the route, I will really get there there at 3:24 no matter what. I don't know how they do it, but no one else is even close to that accurate.
• axg11 4y ago
  Apple Maps becoming good is a testament to Apple’s engineering culture and relentlessness. They made the decision, 9 years ago, to provide an alternative to Google Maps. They kept iterating on the product despite being inferior during the earlier days. Most other big tech co’s printing the amount of cash that Apple has would have abandoned the maps product and paid the Google tax.
• mcintyre1994 4y ago
  I’m always surprised that Google never implemented Apple’s feature of telling you what exit to take at a tube station. It makes Apple way better for any journey that involves a large tube station in London. Apple has had that for a long time now too, I think since they had public transit directions.
  • kingcharles 4y ago
    This is super important in London which has some of the widest-spaced exits I've encountered - you can easily go half a mile wrong if you pick the incorrect exit at some stations.
• clydethefrog 4y ago
  I just downloaded it to try it again, but I quickly discovered it has no offline support.
• deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
• srvmshr 4y ago
  I have been using Google Maps, Apple Maps & Here interchangeably. Apple Maps is better than Google Maps in metros, while the reverse is true beyond suburbs & in freeways. Google Maps seems to work better in South & SE Asia. In supported regions however, HERE maps is better than both of them. It is a shame that app lost traction.
  • astrange 4y ago
    HERE's web map has the strangest approach to not supporting Japan where it shows the country as if nothing but its major highways and some rivers exist. It'd be better to show a "sorry, this is all wrong" sign. It is great in many other countries though.
• sarks_nz 4y ago
  In New Zealand, Apple Maps is the worst kind of useless, especially when paired with Siri. The Dumb and Dumber of the tech world. If I ask directions for a cafe within a 5km radius, either of these scenarios will occur: 1. Siri won't understand. Eg: Shelly Bay Bakery -> Directions to Shelly Bay. 2. Siri will understand and direct me to a cafe approximately 10,000 kms away, and then refuse to find me a suitable route. Google Maps just works.
• FloatArtifact 4y ago
  Probably user error, but I can't ever seem to get apples maps to orient with the car like Google's automatically does.
  • cyral 4y ago
    There's a button (I think shaped like a compass arrow) to do this, which toggles between facing north and facing the direction you are traveling.
• gmac 4y ago
  The Apple Maps navigation view gives much less your actual perspective and much more an overhead view than either Google Maps or TomTom, and when driving this causes me to make way too many wrong turns (especially at roundabouts). I really wish they'd fix this. I've even wondered sometimes if it could be part of their data deal with TomTom that they won't complete by offering proper first-person perspective navigation.
  • slipperlobster 4y ago
    > make way too many wrong turns (especially at roundabouts) I don't know how - Apple Maps clearly states to take the Nth exit out of the roundabout for me.
    • gmac 4y ago
      I always have spoken instructions turned off and drive by following the map view. This works fine for me with Google Maps and TomTom, but not Apple.
• balls187 4y ago
  Was just discussing switching back to Apple Maps with a friend. I do like Google Map's allows me to group together addresses. When I come across some place, I can easily add it to a curated list for retrieval later. Apple maps just lets you add locations, but as far as I am aware, I have no way to organize locations.
  • joeman1000 4y ago
    You can create a ‘guide’, which is a list of POIs in Apple maps. I’ve got one for French restaurants near me :)
• andrewzah 4y ago
  I've been using apple maps for probably 3 years now and for driving it's great. Both for local navigation and driving from the east coast to ~michigan/illinois. My family still swears by Waze, though. The only thing I hate is it uses yelp for the reviews of places. Want to read more reviews or view pictures of a new place? Too bad, you need to install the yelp app... So I'll use google to look up places and then put the address into apple maps.
• uptown 4y ago
  I use Apple Maps for navigation and it is mostly good. The only gripe I have is that they don’t seem to handle the predictive approach to a turn as well as Google does. What I mean by that is that the image of where my vehicle is in relation to a turn appears as if I have more road to drive before I’ve reached the turn, whereas I feel Google does a better job of factoring in vehicle speed into where it places the vehicle on the map in relation to the turn. On Apple it feels like it is “late”.
• xdrosenheim 4y ago
  I do not own an Apple device, but when my sister had to tell me directions one day, in my car, Apple maps told us to drive down a bike only street. The entrance is blocked so cars can not get through. That street has never been for cars, so I have no idea why it would tell us to go that way.
• dylan604 4y ago
  Apple Maps still cannot give directions via bicycle yet GMaps can. Maybe it's better in other cities, but that doesn't help me.
• joeman1000 4y ago
  I’ve used nothing but Apple maps for the last 3-4 years. Previously I heavily used Gmaps, OpenStreetMap and Waze. The issue with the commercial maps was that they undoubtedly would sell my data or do other horrible shit with it. OSM was janky, so I only use that when I walk around. That left me with Apple maps, which has had a bad rep for a while. I tried it and realised that the interface looks great, the actual maps are good now, I can share my ETA with people, and most of all it’s native to the phone! Another great benefit is that Apple won’t necessarily sell my tracking data. Or if they choose to, it’s nothing more than they would already have from me using the phone anyway.
  • changoplatanero 4y ago
    Isn't apple maps based on open street map?
    • jakecopp 4y ago
      Apple Maps only uses OpenStreetMap in some places I believe - if anyone knows exactly where I'm very interested to hear!
    • joeman1000 4y ago
      I’ll be clearer: The app front-end for OSM was jank (on iOS in 2018). Apple maps does have a marker to show that “OSM and other providers” have contributed to the data. There is also a logo for ‘tomtom’.
• frereubu 4y ago
  My muscle memory has been so conditioned by Google Maps (on a computer rather than a phone) that the main reason I don't use Apple Maps is the zoom in / out actions on trackpads are reversed and the drag action is different. I think most other maps systems like OpenStreetMap and Mapbox use the Google-style actions too. I just cannot get used to the Apple ones and it frustrates me as I'd like to use Apple Maps over Google Maps as I'm more convinced about Apple's privacy stance, and don't mind Apple Maps having access to my contacts, making it easier to say "direction to X's house" rather than having to type in an address or postcode.
  • ricardobeat 4y ago
    The scroll direction is only reversed between windows/mac, both Google and Apple Maps work the same, on the same OS.
    • frereubu 4y ago
      I misremembered - two finger dragging drags the map, unlike Google Maps which zooms. You need to press shift on Apple Maps to zoom, but you're right that it's the same direction.
      • frereubu 4y ago
        Actually, just because someone on the internet is wrong (me)... The "natural" scroll direction on the Magic Mouse means that the zoom does work in the opposite way to Google Maps. That's what I was thinking of.
• jmyeet 4y ago
  Ok, so I guess Apple Maps is the new DDG. By this I mean, every DDG related thread immediately descends into anecdotes about "Google Search is terrible, DDG is much better" that always leaves me wondering "Are you using the same Google Search I am? Because it doesn't appear you are". Google Maps' integration with, say, various forms of public transit APIs (in paritcular) is second to none. Like, it's not even close. It's true Apple Maps is a lot better than it was but most of those improvements, in my experience, have been very US-centric, meaning the gap is much, much wider in other countries. Google Maps listings are still way better. What I suepect is that the same people who have decided they hate Google have now let that define their opinions on Apple vs Google Maps just like they have with DDG vs Google Search. I can only recall two current complaints I have with Google Maps: 1. I've come across a listing that claims to be a supermarket chain. It's not. It's a local market. I've filed corrections about this. A year later it still shows the wrong supermarket chain. No idea why. You can see it on street view; and 2. Maps decided to hijack the Menu tab on restaurants to use an ML pipeline from someone who really wanted to get promoted by classifying photos tagged at that location into menu items instead of, you know, just showing me the menu PDF on the website. Oh and while I'm airing complaints, there's a standard for showing exchange rates. Google "GBP to USD" and you'l get an answer of 1.23 (as of this writing). By the standard the entire finance industry uses this should be shown to 4 decimal places. It used to up until about 6 years ago. Someone changed it. It's clearly wrong. It's annoying. And if anyone from Google reads this, please fix this for God's sake. Unrelated to Maps but you have to try.
  • alsodumb 4y ago
    I love Google maps but I don't think Google has any edge over other map services in transit API integration (partly because of what they did). Pretty much every major transit agency publishes their schedule in two standard formats these days: GTFS for static scheduled and GTFS real-time for real-timr info. The G used to stand for Google before it was generally adapted and now it stands for general. All apps use the same data for showing transit feeds. There are some exceptions, such as cities where the transit agency has an exclusive agreement with Google maps but that's becoming there. There's a niche area where some apps focus solely on transit, adding a lot more data or integrating non standard custom APIs. Transit (which I love, sick UI) https://transitapp.com/ https://transitapp.com/ and CityMapper are two of them.
• Lio 4y ago
  Boo! Still no cycle maps outside of London in the UK.
• farmerstan 4y ago
  The best thing about Apple Maps is the “at the next stop sign, turn right”. That is a wonderful way to navigate!
• kylehotchkiss 4y ago
  I like that when I use Apple Maps, Google doesn't know exactly where I am/coming rom/going to. It's hard to trust that information is in safe hands and won't be passed off. I'm not saying Apple is a saint, but I trust them more to run maps without selling my location details. I just wished Apple Maps worked better overseas.
• Andrew_nenakhov 4y ago
  If only they'd whitelist osmand for the use in Android auto, I'd never use Google maps. For me, their biggest anti-feature is that they show buildings only on a very high zoom level, basically when only a couple of buildings for the screen. It used to be at a block level, where you reliably see many surrounding buildings. OSMand is way better now in this regard and can be easily configured.
• more_corn 4y ago
  I stopped using google maps because I got sick of them trying to force me to log in so they can legally share my location across products (I know this is why they do it because I was there at TGIF when Eric said so). Using dark patterns to do a legally questionable thing to defeat quite reasonable privacy protections is not how you delight this user.
• protomyth 4y ago
  I'm just happy Apple Maps now acknowledges the existence of the town I work in and understands the reservation actually has gas stations. It's been quite the leap in the last couple of years.
• anon9384929 4y ago
  Does anybody know why Apple Maps will still show directions when an iPhone is locked (basically turns the wallpaper into the directions), but for Google Maps you have to actually unlock the phone? Isn’t this dangerous?
  • dijit 4y ago
    How do you suppose it’s dangerous? Unlocking the phone while driving to see maps is probably more dangerous than anything else I can imagine; you can blame Apple for not allowing Google Maps to update the Lock Screen, though I understand why it would be that way. If you’re supposing that someone puts in directions and then loses their phone while en-route; then that the person who finds the phone knows the intended destination? That seems like a vanishingly small risk.
• syngrog66 4y ago
  Google Maps developed an infuriating trait during my own usage of it: the shy, disappearing street names! its a real battle at times messing around with the zoom and centering to figure how to make it display the name of a road I care about.
• ChrisMarshallNY 4y ago
  I've been using Apple Maps for the last couple of years, and they've served me just fine. I'm told that it is quite dependent upon where you live, though. A friend of mine, from Minnesota, says they aren't so good, over there. As far as software goes, I use Apple Maps, because I don't feel like paying licensing fees, or including fat dependencies. I have never received any complaints about the accuracy of the maps in my apps.
• deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
• yawnr 4y ago
  I’ve grown increasingly frustrated with google maps recently because its time estimates are just way, way off. My guess is that this has something to do with their ML assuming I will exceed the speed limit by X MPH based on my driving history or the flow of traffic or something, but it’s insane to go 80 on a 65 MPH highway and somehow arrive several minutes later than the original estimate.
  • gniv 4y ago
    I've had this issue too, but only sometimes. Thinking about it, might be due to stoplights. Google has no way of knowing when I hit a red light, and some of them are obnoxiously long. I'm assuming Google uses an average, so if you get unlucky it get be way off.
    • yawnr 4y ago
      Yeah I dunno, I mostly mean highway driving. Like I’ll go ~20 over the speed limit (basically the flow of traffic in jersey haha), for an hour and still get there the same time as my original ETA.
• stjohnswarts 4y ago
  Google is better, but Apple maps is perfectly useful these days. They actually respond to suggestions on updating their map as well. I have pointed out that a couple uturns are not valid options and both times within a couple of weeks they updated the problem.
• codazoda 4y ago
  “Go through this light then turn left at the next one.” Those are the types of instructions that got me using Apple Maps.
• hbarka 4y ago
  This post just 10x’d Apple Maps’ engagement.
• mastazi 4y ago
  I no longer use Google Maps because of privacy concerns, over the years Apple Maps got much better but unfortunately turn-by-turn navigation is still sub-par. For example it will take you out of the main road and into a narrow secondary road, just to save 1 minute in travel time (which often is not even the case because on narrow secondary roads you will have to slow down quite a bit). Other times, it will direct you to stay on a certain lane and then ask you to take an exit, but now it's impossible to take that exit since there is a guard rail between the lane you're on and the exit[1]. [1] this happens all the time in Sydney, just North of the Harbour Bridge, when going towards Cammeray or Crows Nest. It will tell you to keep right. Then it will ask you to take the Falcon Street exit on the left - but now there is a guard rail between your car and the exit, because you kept right.
  • TedDoesntTalk 4y ago
    Apple Maps is so good now there is no reason to use Google Maps unless you’re on Android
• muti 4y ago
  Google maps removed a feature I used a lot in the past, the schedule explorer. I tried to use it the other day only to find it had been removed recently, so use other apps now. https://twitter.com/vaughndavis/status/692914119192743936 https://twitter.com/vaughndavis/status/692914119192743936 https://support.google.com/maps/thread/156908963/schedule-explorer-missing-in-google-maps?hl=en https://support.google.com/maps/thread/156908963/schedule-ex...
• jacobkg 4y ago
  Is there a reasonable alternative to Google Maps API for traffic aware routing and duration estimates?
  • jakecopp 4y ago
    Mapbox has an API: https://www.mapbox.com/traffic-data https://www.mapbox.com/traffic-data I'm waiting for someone to build a Google Maps alternative (generic consumer oriented) product with Mapbox, their maps (OpenStreetMap based) are awesome.
    • habi 4y ago
      (Not Mapbox [1], but) have you looked at https://www.qwant.com/maps/ https://www.qwant.com/maps/ ? Looks and feels a bit like Google Maps. I don’t know about traffic data, though. [1]: Qwant uses https://openmaptiles.org/ https://openmaptiles.org/
      • jakecopp 4y ago
        Yeah! I'm really supportive of their services. I've found their maps are very slow here in Australia (I assume their infra is Europe based), and the I find the geocoding frequently gives me objects in other countries when I know OSM has an object with that exact name in my map view, but I check up on it every so often.
        • habi 4y ago
          > I assume their infra is Europe based Qwant is a French company, so yes: https://about.qwant.com/en/contact https://about.qwant.com/en/contact
• deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
• wanderingmind 4y ago
  Does anyone use osmand+ here for navigation? It works great if the destination exists, but the main trouble for me is that the destinations that i care about don't exist most of time. By the time, I realize, I'm in a hurry to add them to osm and so I go back to google maps and the vicious cycle continues.
• pkamb 4y ago
  I’d love a map feature that paused directions until the last ~10% of the trip. I know how to get on my local highway and drive for 60 miles! Let me queue up the address but only start talking to me when I need directions.
• deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
• mrfusion 4y ago
  I use Apple Maps for privacy. If I search for any business in Google maps I’ll get ads for it for weeks.
• mrfusion 4y ago
  I just wish apple would fix that terrible Yelp issue. I have to install an app and make an account just to see the reviews and pictures??
• trafficante 4y ago
  I use Apple Maps as my daily driver but I keep Google Maps around to double-check traffic. It generally has more traffic data, likely from having a larger user base, and (I assume) is therefore more accurate about delays. I also keep Waze around for the occasional road trip where unexpected speed traps might be a concern.
• dalacv 4y ago
  thank goodness. maybe my family will lay off of the "why do you use Apple maps?"
• ChrisArchitect 4y ago
  What's apple maps? Google Maps is a Website.
  • habi 4y ago
    Apple Maps are available on iOS, iPadOS and macOS. But also on the web, for example at DuckDuckGo: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=paris&hps=1&ia=web&iaxm=maps https://duckduckgo.com/?q=paris&hps=1&ia=web&iaxm=maps
• stoicjumbotron 4y ago
  Is there any mapping service available which shows directions based off of OpenStreetMap[0]? https://www.openstreetmap.org/ https://www.openstreetmap.org/
  • habi 4y ago
    https://organicmaps.app/ https://organicmaps.app/ and https://www.magicearth.com/ https://www.magicearth.com/ are two Apps I use which can route you (also with your phone being off the network). The OSM Wiki has a long list of routing services: https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/List_of_OSM-based_services#Routing https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/List_of_OSM-based_servic...
• Xorakios 4y ago
  Just for fun, try the walk button. I travel a lot, and usually like walking, but last year it became impossible to use Google Maps for that because it no longer shows paths that cross freeways, even when there are perfectly fine sidewalks. (GMaps directions show 4.2 miles from my hotel to the train station that is actually 2 blocks away in Delray Beach, Florida)
  • eythian 4y ago
    I use Google Maps for biking around the city, if I'm going somewhere unfamiliar. It often seems to take non-optimal paths that presumably many hundreds of peoples worth of data should have told it could be improved. But it does eventually get you where you're going at least.
• secretsatan 4y ago
  Maybe in the US, but I still find Google maps to be far better in Europe