Honestly I prefer Apple Maps over Google these days. This is mostly opinion and feel, but it "feels" like:<p>* Google is becoming less correct<p>- ex: "use the right 3 lanes" when only the right 2 lanes work<p>* Google is taking me on routes that are much less safe and more challenging<p>- 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<p>* Google is hammering me with unimportant details<p>- ex: I don't care that I'm on the fastest route<p>- ex: I don't care that something 4 hours away has a traffic jam<p>- ex: I don't need to be told to stay on just because an exit ramp has a disappearing lane<p>* 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.<p>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.
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".<p>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.<p>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.<p>I can only recall two current complaints I have with Google Maps:<p>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<p>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.<p>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.<p>Unrelated to Maps but you have to try.
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.<p>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.
Apple Maps is good for <i>directions</i> 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.
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.<p>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.<p>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.
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”
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<p>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
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.
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.
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.
In New Zealand, Apple Maps is the worst kind of useless, especially when paired with Siri. The Dumb and Dumber of the tech world.<p>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.<p>Google Maps just works.
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.
I have been burned too many times by Apple Maps because I don’t always travel in cities.<p>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.
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.
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 <i>need</i> directions.
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.
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!
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.<p>When searching for information about when something is open, etc, Maps is leagues better.<p>Like others have mentioned, I like the lighter 'tone' of Apple Maps directions compared to google.<p>1) Google maps, 2) Waze, 3) Apple Maps.
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.<p><a href="https://twitter.com/vaughndavis/status/692914119192743936" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/vaughndavis/status/692914119192743936</a><p><a href="https://support.google.com/maps/thread/156908963/schedule-explorer-missing-in-google-maps?hl=en" rel="nofollow">https://support.google.com/maps/thread/156908963/schedule-ex...</a>
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.<p>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.
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.<p>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.
I've been using Apple Maps for the last couple of years, and they've served me just fine.<p>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.<p>As far as software goes, I use Apple Maps, because I don't feel like paying licensing fees, or including fat dependencies.<p>I have never received any complaints about the accuracy of the maps in my apps.
I’ve grown increasingly frustrated with google maps recently because its time estimates are just way, way off.<p>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.
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).<p>Using dark patterns to do a legally questionable thing to defeat quite reasonable privacy protections is not how you delight this user.
I have been using Google Maps, Apple Maps & Here interchangeably.<p>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.
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.<p>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).<p>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].<p>[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.
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.
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).
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”.
I see all these people popping corks to Apple Maps, but all I read is<p>> anglosphere<p>> anglosphere<p>> anglosphere<p>If you would step out of your bubble, you would realize how terrible Apple Maps is aside from a few blessed regions.
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).<p>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.
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.
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.
Everyone is against google maps, I have only good experiences. In Europe, if it matters.<p>It gets me to the right place through several choices.<p>This is from someone who now intensely hates google for having me kicked off Google Apps/Suite with a 15 years old account.<p>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.
If only they'd whitelist osmand for the use in Android auto, I'd never use Google maps.<p>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.
Just for fun, try the walk button.<p>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)
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.
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.<p>Will try it out again though. Google maps is pretty solid in my experience. Voice recognition is great in google apps for some reason.
I tried to use Apple Maps for 2 years right after Covid hit when I decided to de-google my life.<p>I found it to be “ok” and sometimes terrible.<p>* no bike lanes (even though my country is famous for them)<p>* public transit sometimes recommends longer routes<p>* terrible UI for public transit. Specifically in how times are communicated for multi-mode routes.<p>* worse POI discoverability then google maps<p>* missing places and businesses
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.<p>edit to add - google maps directions have felt (borderline?) dangerous at times. i haven't yet experienced that with apple maps.
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.
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.<p>I also keep Waze around for the occasional road trip where unexpected speed traps might be a concern.
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.
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.
Was just discussing switching back to Apple Maps with a friend.<p>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.<p>Apple maps just lets you add locations, but as far as I am aware, I have no way to organize locations.
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.
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.<p>:sigh:
Google Maps developed an infuriating trait during my own usage of it: the shy, disappearing street names!<p>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.
Yes Apple Maps is much better than google maps.<p>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.
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.
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?<p>Isn’t this dangerous?
Is there any mapping service available which shows directions based off of OpenStreetMap[0]?<p><a href="https://www.openstreetmap.org/" rel="nofollow">https://www.openstreetmap.org/</a>
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?<p>They also didn't understand a text query like "address to address"
Apple Maps is great for “safe” navigation. Over time Google Maps have become more Waze-like.<p>Another great thing about Apple Maps is the haptic signaling on the watch.
I think what's most interesting is that xkcd <i>knows</i> 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.
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- ?
All modern map apps are completely terrible. Most of the time Apple maps doesn't draw <i>any</i> labels. The actual map is almost purely decorative.