News flash: Apple Maps is good – really good. And in one key way it's better than Google Maps.
Everyone knows the tortured history of Apple Maps. A full revamp was unveiled a decade ago and it was a disaster, full of inaccurate directions and horrifying 3D renderings of major landmarks. Then relatively new CEO Tim Cook issued a rare written apology, and then went on TV and admitted "We screwed up."
Like a chastened child, Apple spent the next decade over-delivering on quality, performance, and map features. Its efforts to help guide us in our navigational journeys were further bolstered in 2015 with the launch of the Apple Watch, Apple Maps' perfect companion.
My own reassessment of Apple Maps was prompted this week by a new Wall Street Journal report detailing the changing sentiment around the app, and how this coincides with some tangible changes to its quality over the last decade. I'm not here to disagree with the story, but I do think the WSJ is a little late to the party.
There's no question that Apple Maps was a laughing stock in 2012, and suffered by comparison to the all-powerful and august Google Maps. It would be years before anyone could confidently say that Apple Maps matched, and sometimes beat, Google Maps on features and performance.
For the mobile experience – and I mean the iPhone-based one – there is no better mapping option than Apple Maps. Its maps are now accurate, it has helped me avoid major traffic tie-ups on virtually all of my long-haul trips, and in Manhattan it offers excellent transit guidance – I was particularly impressed by how it recently guided me from mid-town Manhattan to Brooklyn with just two subway connections and a short walk.
When I'm not using Apple Maps on my iPhone, or when Google Maps slides in like some unwanted interloper, I notice.
The other day my wife and I were driving somewhere and, to be honest, we were struggling. We were in a different state, and the directions were as confusing as the neighborhood's idiosyncratic road system. More frustrating, my Apple Watch wasn't getting any of the turn-by-turn alerts I've come to expect and love from the tight integration between Apple's wearable and its Maps app. If you want to see my wife and I fight, tell us to go somewhere and then provide us with incomplete directions.
We eventually arrived at our destination – and that's when we realized that we had inadvertently allowed the 'Directions' link on our destination's website to launch Google Maps.
Google Maps' directions were okay, but in a confusing situation like that, the disconnect between the app and my watch was doubly felt, and our frustration levels were at 10.
That connection to my Apple Watch is, for me at least, the defining feature of Apple Maps. I've never had a great sense of direction, and I rely heavily on Apple Maps on my iPhone's screen. However, when I'm driving, I would rather not keep glancing at the 6.1-inch display; and with Apple Maps and one of the best Apple Watches, I never have to.
Maps sends ultra-clear directions and taps to my wrist that let me know exactly where to go and when to turn. Apple Maps spoken turn-by-turn navigation (from my iPhone) enhances the overall accuracy with detailed information about where to turn, including when to skip one light and turn at the next.
On any of the best iPhones, Apple Maps offers detailed and editable directions, along with the ability to include multiple stops. When I wanted to visit all my old haunts (past homes and schools and the city of Denver) in Colorado, I simply mapped out a full-day road plan.
For the mobile experience, and I mean the iPhone-based one, there is no better mapping option than Apple Maps.
Granted, I can do much of this in Google Maps, too, but Apple Maps' connection to my Apple Watch means I would lose the wrist-bound and glanceable guidance.
Apple Maps has been this good for years, and it's only getting better. iOS 17 is adding offline maps, which means that even if I don't have great connectivity I can, within the confines of the downloaded map area, still get turn-by-turn directions. Just think how valuable this would be when you're traveling abroad and don't want to chew through expensive cell data minutes. I'm currently running the iOS 17 Public Beta on my iPhone, and I may try out offline maps when I travel to South Korea for Samsung Unpacked later this month.
There is a caveat to my Apple Maps fandom. I do not use Apple Maps on the desktop. In fact, when I'm looking on my laptop for directions in Manhattan (I have meetings all over the city), I invariably load Google Maps. As I said, there's nothing wrong with Google Maps, and I enjoy its desktop version. Still, when it's time to head out for my meeting, I plug the address into Apple Maps on my iPhone and let my Apple Watch 8 show me the way,
