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Apple Maps: Complete Guide to iOS 13
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Let me tell you why Apple maps is a joke. I just tried this with a random business name to see if Apple Maps gets it wrong, and it got it wrong on the first try, as it usually does.
There is a business in Hungary called The Hungarian Film Laboratory, in Hungarian it's called: "Filmlabor". In the modern world of Google Maps, you just type in Filmlabor and it finds it, obviously, because it's not ambiguous. You don't have to give it the galaxy, solar system, planet, the continent, the country or the city. It just assumes you mean the one nearest to you.
Apple Maps? It finds one in Zürich, 977 kilometers from me. Despite knowing that my current location is in Hungary. Yes, there are a thousand film laboratories on planet Earth. I kind of meant the one nearest to me.
And it does this all the time. You just can't trust it with finding an address or business. It will find the wrong one, in the wrong freaking country, often on the opposite freaking side of the EARTH. It consistently finds results in China. Is it just randomly spitting out addresses or what?
There is a business in Hungary called The Hungarian Film Laboratory, in Hungarian it's called: "Filmlabor". In the modern world of Google Maps, you just type in Filmlabor and it finds it, obviously, because it's not ambiguous. You don't have to give it the galaxy, solar system, planet, the continent, the country or the city. It just assumes you mean the one nearest to you.
Apple Maps? It finds one in Zürich, 977 kilometers from me. Despite knowing that my current location is in Hungary. Yes, there are a thousand film laboratories on planet Earth. I kind of meant the one nearest to me.
And it does this all the time. You just can't trust it with finding an address or business. It will find the wrong one, in the wrong freaking country, often on the opposite freaking side of the EARTH. It consistently finds results in China. Is it just randomly spitting out addresses or what?
Do your research. Google simply imported the generic data, which Apple could have done and simply "turned on" Transit directions across the board. Instead, looking at the heavy criticism Google received for the accuracy of its transit data, Apple took a different path that would take much longer and be much more expensive, but they decided to send teams and customize each region. It's now acknowledged as Apple has rolled out Transit directions that it is worth the wait.
Don't feel humiliated, just get informed. Here's a link to explain to you the different approaches.
https://appleinsider.com/articles/16/07/07/why-apples-transit-maps-are-rolling-out-so-slowly
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EDIT: Just noticed you are specifically referring to "transit". I don't care, so make whatever claims you want about its superiority.
iOS usage of Apple Maps versus Google Maps is based on world wide usage. It may not make sense for you, but the point is that people as a whole aren't irrational; with a plethora of free and good mapping services, people wouldn't use a mapping service that didn't get them where they wanted to go. Google Maps is free, takes less than 30 seconds to download, and is the world's most well known mapping app, yet Apple Maps usage has grown from a disastrous start to overtake Google among the nearly billion Apple customers.
Can't speak to your particular usage, but the idea that Apple Maps, or any mapping service, in this day and age, can't accurately navigate people to their destinations is comical.
Check it out. Canada is on the list of upcoming countries, along with my beloved Ireland!
https://mwp14.ls.apple.com/imagecollection/
☘️
[doublepost=1563381431][/doublepost]
Globally might be quite a while! But there are some countries on the ‘coming soon’ list.
https://mwp14.ls.apple.com/imagecollection/
[doublepost=1563381526][/doublepost]
Works pretty well for me here in Ireland.
I'm a constant user of Apple Maps, and while it's great for wayfinding, what you say is really true -- it really really lacks good data about businesses and other places. I mean, it's okay but Google has a huge edge here (for obvious reasons).
Keep in mind that most of Canada has already been done. Ditto the US. These are followup mappings. Indeed, in the US they are now moving on to pedestrian routes mapping.
I've submitted a couple dozen myself, but this isn't some crowdsourced nonprofit here. If Apple wants this to grow, they need to buy and maintain some quality POI data. It's not on users to do this.
I tried to find a sushi place in Manhattan the other day and THREE places in Apple Maps that were wrong or closed (and yeah, I reported them all). This isn't someone trying to find a deli in some small town. Sushi in one of the most dense zip codes in America shouldn't be hard.
I've been using iOS Maps for traffic info for a few years, way before iOS 12, and I didn't have to have turn-by-turn directions running. Why is this being billed as a new feature?
Apple Maps gives me three alternate routes when I begin. It does help to be in a mammoth city like LA, true. And this year, it's easy to use Google Maps as well in the car, which is where the real test happens. If I was a traveling salesman, I'd definitely use Google Maps. Google has a 20-year jump on Apple, but for a lot of people, what it gives you is just fine.
Off that's the case I wish they would fix LA public transit especially train interactions.
Reason I use Google Maps - less issues
Thank you for sharing that. I'll look at what options it shows the next time I go to BWI. That's always a nightmare for a clueless visitor person like me that never knows if I should go left, right, or straight up through the city.
One thing Google Maps does that I really like is that as you’re going along a route it shows you times for alternative routes, like “3min slower” if you turn at a certain point. Sometimes it’s worth 3 min to stay on the highway, or you want to take a more scenic route if it’s only going to be a bit longer.
Also, I may be a nerd this way but I always want to know which direction I’m heading. NW isn’t really good enough. I’d prefer a compass pointer, or ideally a heading like 330deg.
Also, I may be a nerd this way but I always want to know which direction I’m heading. NW isn’t really good enough. I’d prefer a compass pointer, or ideally a heading like 330deg.
He was simply saying outside the US of A, Apple Maps simply too dumb to be used as daily navigator. That cannot be closer from the truth. In my region, Apple Maps have no real time traffic, it cannot identify a temporary road closure, it also lacking updates of new places, or permanently closed venues. So, there’s a fat chance you wouldn’t get to your destination.
For some reason, location sharing using iMessage (which uses Apple Maps for its location data) performs way slower than the one on Whatsapp (which uses Google Maps information).
Simply said, outside US of A, Apple Maps sucks. Period.
In which you may reply “then don’t use Apple Maps”. Well, this is very annoying for someone who's invested pretty deep in Apple's ecosystem and want to use all the 1st party services (whenever possible). I pay for my Apple products same as everyone, but after all these years with premium hardwares, you would expect Apple would expand its services all of its users anywhere, not just USA citizens.
Google can do it, Apple should too.
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Don't know what country you live it, but please don't turn your post into "fake news." For example, you claim that Apple Maps has no real time traffic, including road closures, outside of USA, but in truth Apple Maps has it in every major country and is now up to about 75 countries and counting. https://www.apple.com/ios/feature-availability/#maps-traffic
Apple has been spending billions of dollars building a worldwide base map. They have thousands of people working on mapping around the world, including a major mapping center with thousands of employees in India. The base map is now being rolled out and will include game changers like Look Around and even more features.
Your experience is your experience, but the facts are that there's a reason that, worldwide, the vast majority of iOS users have switched to Apple Maps from Google Maps. That's hundreds of millions of people using it billions of times a week. You suggest that there is a "fat chance" that Apple Maps will get you to your destination, implying that hundreds of millions of people are so irrational that they choose to use a mapping service that will not get them to their destinations despite a plethora of good and free alternatives like Google Maps, Waze, Here, etc., etc.
Well I might took the "outside of USA" point a bit excessively, but it doesn't change the fact that most of the times Apple ignores the entire world for "USA only features"
- Apple Maps still has way less coverage than GMaps.
- Siri's native language support is way too few compared to Google Assistant
- Apple Watch ECG is only available in select few countries despite it's one of main reason to buy a Series 4. Of course you might remember that at its launch, ECG was available for.. yep, US only.
- Apple Pay limited availability, even after 5 years of initial launch
- HomePod limited country support (at least officially)
- And lastly there's this Apple Card that is only available for of course, US only
I get it that Apple is US-based company, it's only normal that US gets a head start for most of Apple's initiative. But the way that Apple expand its service globally, is waaaay too slow despite it being the "most valued tech company in the world". I can't remember Google holding its core services too long for US only.
Sorry, but once again you are distorting the facts. Apple isn't irrational, as you imply they ignore markets for their products.
- Apple Maps still has way less coverage than GMaps.
- Siri's native language support is way too few compared to Google Assistant
- Apple Watch ECG is only available in select few countries despite it's one of main reason to buy a Series 4. Of course you might remember that at its launch, ECG was available for.. yep, US only.
- Apple Pay limited availability, even after 5 years of initial launch
- And lastly there's this Apple Card that is only available for of course, US only
- HomePod limited country support (at least officially)
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Because you need an AppleID first then have to claim the business and update it. Meanwhile you can report mistakes directly in Apple Maps. Apples smart AI in our case thought there was a rental car station because the guys family is the same as a common rental car provider. A 20 second google search on that makes the mistake really obvious. Still doubts? Google Streetview even shows the sign on the door.
That said, even mapsconnect is extremely unfllexible. For example: it does not allow to add a business without defining OPEN/CLOSED times. Obviously Apple never heard of businesses that don't have fixed opening times or are open only after appointment.
Furthermore mapsconnect sometimes rejects the category for no reason...
I just played with Maps for a bit, wow, LookAround is way ahead of GMaps, I then went onto flyover, wasn't even aware it now directs your iphone movement/direction, I was flabbergasted by it.
BTW, Apple Maps works much better where I am from, Google, meh, plenty of mistakes, although you don't hear that from some others, Google Maps is by no means is perfect.
And then there's the Data collection....GMaps.
BTW, Apple Maps works much better where I am from, Google, meh, plenty of mistakes, although you don't hear that from some others, Google Maps is by no means is perfect.
And then there's the Data collection....GMaps.
What’s there to customize that much considering Siri already understands many languages. It takes too long. The reason of the delay is probably low projected sales in most markets.
As @iSayuSay said, Apple Maps has less coverage than Google Maps. I can’t even imagine when Apple will cover most of the world cities with the new Look Around feature. Probably by 2050 at best. When Google have its street view all around the world and it is regularly updated.