iOS 27: All the New Apple Maps Features

[citysnaps]

I use Apple Maps frequently. Always works great for me.

 

[gummybear2026]

We bought a '26 Hyundai Palisade (Hybrid AWD Calligraphy) in May, for road trips. Our salesperson said we should try Waze. I've downloaded it but haven't tried it yet. Is it really all that compelling? We're going on a road trip from St. Louis to Frisco, CO in a few weeks.

Waze is more accurate than Apple Maps.

 

[abdullamac77]

The Maps app didn't get as many iOS 27 updates as some of Apple's other apps, but there are still several useful features worth knowing about.

Flyover Improvements

Apple is upgrading Flyover in iOS 27, making it more detailed than before. It combines aerial imagery with Vision Intelligence models to add more texture and sharper visuals for trees, architecture, and more.

Apple says select cities around the world are rendered in sharper, more lifelike detail with improvements to everything from the "shapes of individual trees to the way light reflects off the glass of skyscrapers."

Flyover is an Apple Maps feature that offers detailed 3D landmarks, roads, parks, buildings, and more in more than 350 cities. The current version of Flyover uses aerial imagery captured by planes, but the new iOS 27 version improves the quality using AI.

New Maps Icon

Apple updated several of its Liquid Glass app icons in iOS 27 to add more glass-like layers. Icons have more depth, and the Maps app icon makes the difference especially clear.

Local Lists

Local Lists uses intelligent insights from what's trending around you for suggestions on places you should visit. Maps surfaces locally relevant collections of places to make it easier to find popular and interesting locations to visit.

Local Lists is privacy-focused and does not use information tied to individual users. It is a U.S.-only feature.

Trending Restaurants

In the Search interface, there's a Trending Restaurants section that shows you the top restaurants in the area you're in.

Natural Language Search Expansion

Natural language search in Maps now lets you ask for directions that avoid toll roads or highways.

Widgets

On the Apple Watch, there's a new Parked Car widget in the Smart Stack so you can easily see your car's last known location, with info synced from the iPhone.

Offline Maps

Apple says Offline Maps have improved in iOS 27. More locations are shown on the map, labels are darker and clearer, and there are icons that are easier to view at a glance. When you tap on a location, like a town, it will zoom into the area automatically so you can see what's there.

Visited Places

The Visited Places feature is more accurate in iOS 27 and less likely to miss locations. Visited Places keeps track of locations you've been to, organizing stops by category and location. It's accessible by tapping on your profile picture, choosing Places, and selecting Visited Places.

Visited Places is also expanding to more locations in iOS 27.

More iOS 27 Features

For more on what's new in iOS 27, we have a dedicated roundup.

Article Link: iOS 27: All the New Apple Maps Features

The proper definition of living in a 3rd-world country is a country that DOESN’T have turn-by-tun navigation working in Apple Maps. Google Maps is still the undisputed No.1 Maps App because turn-by-turn navigation actually works globally.

 

[gummybear2026]

Google Maps still looks like ass, though, and last time I tried Waze it was even worse and totally encrusted with sponsored crap. I will admit Google has better POI data, hands down, but I find Apple Maps navigation totally on par with Google Maps, and with better prompts.

Sponsored crap is coming to Apple Maps very soon.

 

[segfaultdotorg]

I'm confused. Was iPhoneOS 27 released already? They normally don't release it until the new iProPhone drops in the fall.

 

[DocMultimedia]

Has Yelp vanished from reviews yet? I'm really tired of 10 year old restaurant reviews.

 

[DocMultimedia]

I'm confused. Was iPhoneOS 27 released already? They normally don't release it until the new iProPhone drops in the fall.

No. But MR needs posts. It won't be officially released until mid September.

 

[johnsawyercjs]

The Local Lists feature seems to be just doing more of the same as it was doing prior to iOS 27 beta, which is to show a bunch of big photos of idealized meals prepared by local restaurants that Apple Maps, much less Siri AI, has no reason to believe I'd want to visit, since neither has any record of me visiting any local restaurant, since I haven't. All that space could be used for other things, like consistently showing me my home location when I need directions back home after visiting some nearby location. As it is, my home location appears only sometimes, and when it doesn't appear, I have to manually enter my home address to get it to display.

 

[fzJNotIBOxgnbqejSeVCvJScL]

I still prefer Google Maps. Accuracy of geographical information is most important for maps.

 

[e-coli]

I would like to see an Apple Maps feature that makes it Google Maps.

 

[svish]

Improvements to visited places will be good. I like the new icon. Parked car widget too will come in handy.

 

[Ruggy]

These statements like, 'making it easier to' means they are going to stream more ads to you.
'trending restaurants' means the ones they have offered to the most people.
I don't see anything better here.

 

[Ruggy]

Google Maps still looks like ass, though, and last time I tried Waze it was even worse and totally encrusted with sponsored crap. I will admit Google has better POI data, hands down, but I find Apple Maps navigation totally on par with Google Maps, and with better prompts.

If you have Carplay then for most of us, Apple maps wins hands down.
On both my cars, Carplay gives me turn by turn navigation in the heads up display. Google and Waze don't.
It's definitely at least as good in every other way except street view I believe.

 

[Avidos1]

They removed flyover then it’s the big new feature, very confusing….

 

[kurtfoster]

Has anybody noticed that the maps in CarPlay looks a little washed out as far as the contrast goes?