Apple Maps Flyover Gets a Visual Upgrade in iOS 27

[MacRumors]

Apple Maps is getting a visual update in iOS 27, with Apple planning to introduce new aerial imagery that's combined with Visual Intelligence models.

Apple said everything will have sharper detail, from the "shapes of individual trees to the way light reflects off the glass of skyscrapers."

Flyover is an Apple Maps view that lets users see more than 350 cities in 3D with detailed landmarks, roads, trees, parks, buildings, and more. It uses aerial imagery captured by planes, and it is a signature Apple Maps feature.

The more detailed Flyover visuals Apple described at the WWDC 2026 keynote do not appear to be implemented in the iOS 27 beta as of yet.

Article Link: Apple Maps Flyover Gets a Visual Upgrade in iOS 27

 

[Astuces iOS]

Rip google earth hahaha

 

[triumvirate]

That’s what the new ads are paying for?

 

[LightProtector]

I was really hoping for DCE-like experience in more cities in the US. Google Maps now has it for most cities in the US.

 

[awshucks]

I thought Flyover was discontinued

 

[Jensend]

Are they ever going to get good Lookaround coverage in the US?
Are they ever going to bring fully 3D maps to the Vision Pro?

 

[allenvanhellen]

I wonder who uses this.

 

[ignatius345]

I thought Flyover was discontinued

What they discontinued (unfortunately IMO) is the "Flyover tour" where you could click the name of a city and it would automatically take you on a "tour" of the major landmarks and whatnot.

Flyover is apparently their term for the 3D map model overview in general.

I wonder who uses this.

I do. IMO it's a cool way to see the physical details of an area. And if the textures are more realistic even better.

 

[switz]

They desperately need to keep updates current, especially the major interstates. No excuse acceptable for letting any of the road data get stale and inaccurate.

 

[Justin Cymbal]

Apple said everything will have sharper detail, from the "shapes of individual trees to the way light reflects off the glass of skyscrapers."

Flyover is an Apple Maps view that lets users see more than 350 cities in 3D with detailed landmarks, roads, trees, parks, buildings, and more

Awesome 😎

I remember when these new detailed maps first came to my hometown city:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1636505387632402435

 

[B4U]

Too late. Once they put in ads, this app is just another version of Google Maps for better or worse.

 

[jole]

Still no 3D Maps for Vision Pro 🙁

Say what you will about Vision Pro, experiencing Apple Maps in 3D would be a perfect showcase for the technology.

 

[svish]

Good to know but of course it might be only for a few cities worldwide

 

[rotvaldi]

Lima Peru still crooked been years the same

 

[Dirk Pieters]

Good to know but of course it might be only for a few cities worldwide

It always is.

 

[widestload]

Looks like a good feature and i presume something which i might breifly use when visiting one of those cities, but I kind of wish Apple would fully finish older features before rolling out new ones. Where i live is fairly rural and so doesnt even have the basic 3D feature and the satalite photography, whilst crisper than Google mpas, is pretty outdated. Updates to those would be far more worthwhile to me than enhanced 3D of a city i might visit one day.

 

[videosoul]

Very cool. But I’d much rather see them focus on making Apple Maps more accurate. I live in a capital city, and Apple Maps is here is riddled with out-of-date or inaccurate information. It makes it very annoying to use.

 

[Mexmen2]

it looks live on ios27 in Madrid, that is also shown in the WWDC presentation
https://maps.apple/p/dP9SReR_7ajFD2

 

[Mexmen2]

it also looks to be live in other places like Amsterdam.

 

[JulianL]

Great if the city you are interested in (live in, are visiting or just want to explore virtually) is on the list but of little use otherwise.

I really wish Apple Maps well because I'd love to use it as my main mapping app and get the fullest integration into the rest of the Apple ecosystem but even for where I live (London UK so hardly a backwater) I find Google Maps' ground truth to be noticeably better than that of Apple Maps and once you go further afield the difference can become huge.

Apple and Google already have agreements for search and now Gemini. Maps is one area where I really wish those same companies could come to some agreement whereby Apple licenses Google's mapping ground truth to augment its own data, or even discontinue its own data collection to at least partially offset those licensing fees or even enter into some joint venture agreement to create an even more complete and up to data data set. None of the major UK mobile phone companies build their own unique mast infrastructure, they all have various agreements or holding in a joint venture company to common mast infrastructure shared with one or more of their competitors and that seems a reasonable approach to build the best possible physical coverage in the most efficient way for each company. Mapping data is so critical so that mobile phone mast network is a model I wish we could see happen for ground truth data. I find it so frustrating when I can walk the streets of somewhere in Google Streetview but it isn't available on Apple Maps for instance.

I can't see any privacy issues whatsoever in doing that. If a user wants to know the address, opening hours, reviews or whatever for some establishment and that request comes from the Apple Maps app it's pretty trivial to anonymise the request with a one-time random ID when it is presented to the Google (or joint venture) back end, or since it's just a database Apple could keep a copy on its own servers in which case it has even more control.

If that happened I would almost certainly move to Apple Maps - which is probably why it will never happen because Google would probably lose a lot of users for its iOS/Apple Maps app and any licensing revenue from Apple might not be deemed sufficient to offset that loss.

 

[bigchrisfgb]

They have been mapping my city and region for Look around since they announced the feature. We have yet to see it. It’s about time that they implemented it.

 

[Mike_Trivisonno]

I want options for "Scenic Route" and "Avoid High Crime Areas".

 

[CarAnalogy]

How appropriate, since "flyover" is what Apple calls most of the country...

 

[CarAnalogy]

I want options for "Scenic Route" and "Avoid High Crime Areas".

Various apps have tried avoiding high crime areas. And they always get in trouble for certain socio-economic-ethnographic reasons...

Also pretty sure the entirety of San Francisco would be one giant red "avoid" warning, and they don't want that...

 

[ignatius345]

Maps is one area where I really wish those same companies could come to some agreement whereby Apple licenses Google's mapping ground truth to augment its own data, or even discontinue its own data collection to at least partially offset those licensing fees or even enter into some joint venture agreement to create an even more complete and up to data data set.

Couldn’t agree more. I do like Apple Maps a lot for navigation, and have loads of places saved there, but it’s always had middling/bad data about actual businesses and points of interest. Outdated, incomplete, just wrong a lot.

I have been misled so many times that now I often go to Google Maps to look up things and then use Apple Maps to navigate.