Apple Maps Gains Popularity Despite Initial Backlash
Once notorious for errors, Apple Maps now has a growing user base
If you got lost while driving to a party, there's a chance you might be asked, "Were you using Apple Maps?"
Following its 2012 debut, Apple's navigation app quickly gained a reputation for being unreliable. Roads were missing in Grand Cayman. New York's Manhattan Bridge appeared as a roller coaster. Australian authorities even warned that some of the app's navigation errors were "potentially life threatening."
In response to these issues, Apple CEO Tim Cook offered an unusual apology to customers and dismissed his head of software. Since then, the company has invested years in improving the service.
According to customers and user-experience analysts, those efforts have paid off. Apple Maps is now attracting users with its easy-to-understand public transport directions and visually pleasing design.
While Apple may not rely on the app to sell iPhones, the company's ambitious plans for cars and augmented reality headsets hinge on creating maps that people actually enjoy using.
"Maps has come a long way, and people have noticed," said Craig Federighi, Apple's head of software, at the company's 2020 Worldwide Developers Conference.
Jason Rabinowitz, a 37-year-old airline-industry analyst, was so frustrated with Apple Maps when it was first introduced that he switched to Android to use Google Maps more conveniently.
However, this didn't last long. In 2015, he returned to iPhone, and as a New Yorker, he started relying more on transit directions than driving directions. A few years later, prompted by Apple's promotion of new transit features, he gave Apple Maps another try and was pleasantly surprised.
Rabinowitz now believes that Apple Maps offers more inventive, quicker routes and better handles the uncertainty of subway disruptions compared to Google. He even recommends it to friends and family visiting the city.
He prefers Apple Maps' less cluttered transit view to Google Maps, which he describes as "sinfully ugly to look at." However, he still uses Google Maps for driving.
Catching up
Despite coming pre-installed on all iPhones, the majority of U.S. iPhone users have also downloaded Google Maps as an alternative, according to Canalys. To persuade people to use Apple Maps, Apple had to incorporate popular features already available in Google Maps, such as a street-view feature. At its developer conference in June, Apple announced that users would soon be able to use maps offline, a feature Google has offered for years.
However, some visual features, like 3-D flyover views of cities, were first introduced by Apple Maps.
Google Maps has continued to evolve, introducing features like a 3-D view that enables users to see how different places look at various times of the day, and an AR tool that helps locate nearby businesses and attractions.
The most significant advantage Apple Maps has over Google Maps is its more profound integration with the iPhone. Every iOS service needing directions, from finding eateries on Yelp to tracking AirTags in the Find My app, utilizes Apple Maps. This cannot be changed by users.
"People naturally lean towards convenience and form habits around default options," says Peter Ramsey, a user-experience consultant who has written about the design disparities between Apple and Google Maps. "Apple Maps used to be so inadequate that people voluntarily switched to Google Maps, but as Apple Maps improved, there was less motivation to break away from the default."
In terms of aesthetics, Jane Natoli, a regular Google Maps user, has found herself utilizing Apple Maps more frequently in her daily life after her iPhone recommended it in the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. She found the app's information about shops and restaurants in her terminal clearer and more user-friendly than Google Maps. This experience made the 42-year-old political organizer from San Francisco reconsider her previous assumptions about Apple Maps.
"The initial hurdles that Apple Maps faced in terms of reputation, I think they've cleared those," Natoli says. Outside the airport, Natoli appreciates Apple's design and finds their directions easier to read, particularly street names.
Similarly, Angelica Nguyen, a 22-year-old recent graduate from Georgia Tech, finds Apple Maps' roads more visible at night, with fewer distractions from points of interest.
"Apple excels at making things look attractive," Nguyen states.
However, it's not all praise for Apple Maps. Some iPhone users will continue to voice dissatisfaction with Apple Maps, especially when they feel it is being forced upon them.
Laura Pladziewicz, a 23-year-old costume design student, says she's been misled by Apple Maps while walking around Boston. She generally uses Apple Maps as it is the default option, even though she admits that she's not motivated enough to download the Google Maps app.
"Despite its repeated mistakes, I'm accustomed to using it," she says of Apple Maps.
Noah Abdelaziz, a 25-year-old law student, experienced a similar issue when he rented a car in Los Angeles for his summer internship. When he connected his iPhone to the car's Apple CarPlay system, Apple Maps automatically appeared on the display screen. He found that Apple Maps often directed him through residential neighborhoods with stop signs to avoid traffic, which he believes added time to his journey. He recently discovered how to use Google Maps on the CarPlay system after almost a month and a half of usage.
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