Google Maps Update Improves Navigation, Adds Arabic and Hebrew Support - MacRumors
Skip to Content

Google Maps Update Improves Navigation, Adds Arabic and Hebrew Support

by

Google has updated its Google Maps for iOS app with quicker access to navigation, including route and traffic overviews when choosing from multiple possible routes for a particular destination.

This image shows the difference between the old route selection screen (left), and the new screen with the improved route options map.

NewImage

What's New in Version 2.3.4

- Faster access to navigation, complete with route and traffic overview
- Tips and Tricks available in the side menu
- Arabic and Hebrew now supported, including voice guidance in navigation, where available
- Bug fixes

The update also adds support Arabic and Hebrew, including for voice guided navigation, as well as unnamed bug fixes.

Google Maps for iPhone and iPad is a free download from the App Store. [Direct Link]

Top Rated Comments

ryanmcv Avatar
168 months ago
Headline should read:

Google Maps Update Improves Navigation, Adds Arabic and Hebrew Support, Fails to Add iOS 7 Support
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Twimfy Avatar
168 months ago
The "Apple Maps is terrible, Google should still be the default mapping software for iOS" comments may now begin. :D

I've been using Apple maps for in car navigation a lot recently. Quite impressed with it and the other day it found a street which apparently didn't exist on my Tom Tom.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
168 months ago
Google. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!! It is having the option of your maps what puts the spotlight on the awful Apple IOS Map application. Has anybody taken the chance to look at the about section of the Apple Maps. I think all of the copyrights are from 2012. No update has been done to the Apple IOS maps since their launch. I have sent a lot of error reports and nothing has been fixed. When the new bridge was opened between San Francisco and Oakland Google was the first map application to reflect the change. Apple is still showing the old abandoned span, and this was more than a month ago.

I know that people might think that my expectations are unrealistic. They are not, Google and other maps have already fixed this, Apple Maps still has this error together with all the ones I pointed out more than a year ago. Apple IOS map really suck in terms of being up to date and accurate. Again Google, thank you!!!!

I happen to know people who interview for work and work for Google maps. I have never heard of people working for Apple maps, probably there is nobody, perhaps Apple should think about having their own maps solution, not outsourcing it, or if they outsource it that they use a reliable and up to date map source like when IOS was using Google maps.

Well, the funny thing is that where I live Google hasn't updated their satellite images for over 5 years. Whereas Apples images are only 1 1/2 years old. The place where I live has completely changed and this entire neighborhood didn't even exist 6 years ago. Not to mention the fact that they've started to build the biggest mall in Scandinavia and Sweden's new national arena which had its opening ceremony on August 2012. None of that is visible on Google Maps.

It does however exist on Apple Maps.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
168 months ago
Headline should read:

Google Maps Update Improves Navigation, Adds Arabic and Hebrew Support, Fails to Add iOS 7 Support
Still no support for the design elements of iOS 7… Shame on you Google!
You do realise that a free app on IOS probably isn't the highest item on Googles list of priorities, right?
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
168 months ago
- Still takes forever to start up
- Still no access to contacts
- Still no iOS7 support
- Voice directions still getting cut off
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
mdelvecchio Avatar
168 months ago
puts the spotlight on the awful Apple IOS Map application.

apple maps is my regular go-to nav app, and i rarely have a problem with it. ive had problems with all of them at one point or another.


Has anybody taken the chance to look at the about section of the Apple Maps. I think all of the copyrights are from 2012. No update has been done to the Apple IOS maps since their launch.

false -- there have been articles comparing launch locations to updated versions. youre simply wrong because youre looking at the copyright date, which is meaningless.

Again Google, thank you!!!!

now if only i could use an address stored in my address book. wouldnt that be magical?


I have never heard of people working for Apple maps, probably there is nobody,

ah yeah. because some dude on the web hasnt never met an apple employee working on maps, they dont exist. riiiight. have you ever meet anyone in NASA? what about the president of Zimbabwe -- do they not exist either?
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

iPhone 18 Pro Rumored Colors

What's Coming in September: New iPhones, Apple Watches and More

Thursday August 13, 2026 4:20 pm PDT by
Apple will introduce at least five new devices at its iPhone-centric event next month, and it's also possible we'll get devices waiting on Siri AI like the Apple TV. iPhone 18 Pro The iPhone 18 Pro is going to look like the iPhone 17 Pro, but with a smaller Dynamic Island. It's getting some internal updates, including a new Wide camera with a variable aperture for more control over lighting ...
iPhone 17 One Year Later Thumb 1

Should You Buy an iPhone 17 Now or Wait for iPhone 18?

Friday August 14, 2026 12:15 pm PDT by
For the first time since Apple started selling standard and "Pro" iPhones, we're not going to get an entry-level iPhone model this fall. Apple doesn't plan to release an iPhone 18 in September, and will only launch the iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro Max, and foldable iPhone Ultra. The lower-cost iPhone 18 won't come out until spring 2027. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more ...
Everything New Your iPhone Can Do on iOS 27 Feature 1

30 New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 27

Friday August 14, 2026 6:24 am PDT by
Apple will release iOS 27 in September, and despite the company's focus this year on refining its flagship operating system and nixing bugs, there are still many additional features on the way, not least of which is Apple's new context-aware Siri, re-tooled for the generative AI era. This year's major iPhone software update isn't all about AI, though, as the following feature list...