Apple Quietly Discontinued Flyover City Tours in Apple Maps

[MacRumors]

Apple Maps no longer offers a Flyover feature that provides users with automated tours of notable landmarks in major cities. The Flyover option appears to have been nixed around when iOS 26 launched, but its removal went largely unnoticed.

Flyover city tours were introduced in 2014 with iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite, using Flyover imagery to generate an aerial tour. Most cities with Flyover imagery supported the tour feature, but it may not have been used often since Apple was able to quietly discontinue it.

Flyover imagery has not been removed and over 350 cities continue to have 3D Flyover imagery that highlights landmarks, parks, important buildings, and more with a bird's-eye view.

Apple uses imagery collected with small military-grade planes that created detailed maps of buildings from above for Flyover. The feature is not available in some areas due to privacy and security concerns.

Flyover city tours used to be accessible by tapping on the Flyover icon when searching for a city, but that option has now been removed.

Article Link: Apple Quietly Discontinued Flyover City Tours in Apple Maps

 

[tomtad]

How we getting on with that review system?

 

[ShivneelSingh]

I loved that feature, it was fun and useful.
iOS 26 and Tahoe are just annoying. They keep taking away useful features and adding useless ones.

 

[dreamerstree]

I noticed recently that the feature wasn't available, but I just chalked it up to being on beta. I'm bummed about this. I like those flyover tours.

 

[Mac Fly (film)]

Was the feature not getting used? But then most people tend to not flying around the city they visit 😂

 

[Mac Fly (film)]

I loved that feature, it was fun and useful.
iOS 26 and Tahoe are just annoying. They keep taking away useful features and adding useless ones.

I'm still awaiting macOS to add video cropping system wide.

 

[t0rqx]

Slowly they are removing feature so they dont have to spend time and money on it. Its the saving but at the same time the prices of products increases.

They removed night mode on portrait mode on iPhone 17.

 

[jbc25]

I loved that feature, it was fun and useful.
iOS 26 and Tahoe are just annoying. They keep taking away useful features and adding useless ones.

It might have been fun, but I'm not sure if I'd call it a "useful" feature. They were basically just trying flex on Google maps with some visual gimmicky.

 

[WarmWinterHat]

I completely forgot this was a thing, and I don’t remember ever using it.

 

[bigchrisfgb]

The fact that they don’t have flyover in most cities now despite mapping for 11 years is a disgrace. The same with Lookaround and the quality of their satellite view.

 

[Mikey44]

I used this feature occasionally, but it wasn’t ever really consistent on if a location had it or not; and if there was a centralized place in Apple Maps to find it, I may have used it more. Just searching random cities and hoping they have one is… a waste of time.

 

[kenta_]

Never used it, won’t miss it.

 

[Killbill2]

Apple expanded look around, one of the largest cities in the world Mexico City now has it and even has pedestrian views on side walks!

 

[bradman83]

Meanwhile the Lookaround feature is still not broadly available in the US outside of top 20 metro areas or major tourist destinations 10 years after the feature launched, while Google Street View has multiple years worth of images for my neighborhood.

 

[les_is_more]

Why?? Those are fun!

 

[turbineseaplane]

Why?? Those are fun!

Costs money.
Fun is on the chopping block.

Number must go up.

 

[minik]

At least they

Flyover imagery has not been removed and over 350 cities continue to have 3D Flyover imagery that highlights landmarks, parks, important buildings, and more with a bird's-eye view.


Article Link: Apple Quietly Discontinued Flyover City Tours in Apple Maps

I couldn't find it on the Maps app (iOS and macOS) even Apple has a long list of cities on the website.

 

[macrlz9]

Meanwhile the Lookaround feature is still not broadly available in the US outside of top 20 metro areas or major tourist destinations 10 years after the feature launched, while Google Street View has multiple years worth of images for my neighborhood.

Same. The second and third largest cities in Illinois still don’t have look around.

 

[Zenman12]

Maps kinda suck. It still doesn’t get my address correct but a block down. Plus some other features missing that Google Maps has. Too bad I can’t make it default in my region.

 

[dreamerstree]

Maps kinda suck. It still doesn’t get my address correct but a block down. Plus some other features missing that Google Maps has. Too bad I can’t make it default in my region.

I will say the Report an Issue feature in Maps does work really well. I use it all the time and it's very rare that something I request to be improved or updated doesn't get done.

 

[jz0309]

never used it, and considered it a gimmick, might have to do with growing up with paper maps, in 2D

 

[Zenman12]

I will say the Report an Issue feature in Maps does work really well. I use it all the time and it's very rare that something I request to be improved or updated doesn't get done.

Done that. Fixed somethings I reported other things…not so much. I’ll give it another go.

 

[Zenman12]

never used it, and considered it a gimmick, might have to do with growing up with paper maps, in 2D

lol. Paper maps. Remember that as a kid. Do you move the car with your feet like in Fred the Flintstones? Surprised no Nokia flip phone.

 

[jz0309]

lol. Paper maps. Remember that as a kid. Do you move the car with your feet like in Fred the Flintstones? Surprised no Nokia flip phone.

I actually have quite fond memories of the pre-internet and pre-smartphone days ... drove thru 20+ countries using paper maps ...
I never had a Nokia flip phone, but the Motorola RAZR was quite amazing

 

[ikir]

I liked it