Transit Directions Icon for iOS Maps Briefly Shown in Apple WWDC Session Slides

While improvements such as transit directions had been part of the early rumors for iOS 8, a follow-up report from 9to5Mac on May 1 had indicated that the feature might not make the cut for initial versions of iOS 8 as Apple was pulling resources from the iOS team to work on what would be introduced as OS X Yosemite.

Indeed, Maps improvements went essentially unmentioned at the WWDC keynote last week, and sources speaking to TechCrunch outlined "internal politics" including the departure of several key members of the Maps team as one of the reasons for Maps improvements not being ready for a WWDC presentation or inclusion in the initial iOS 8 beta.

As highlighted by BGR, one developer spotted a slide in an Apple WWDC session video showing an iPad version of the Maps app with a "bus" icon in the center of the bottom toolbar. While it is unsurprising that Apple is indeed working on transit directions for Maps given previous rumors and Apple's several corporate acquisitions in the area over the past year or two, the inclusion of a slide showing the feature suggests that discussion of the transit features may indeed have been a fairly late cut from the keynote presentation.

ios_8_maps_transit_icon

The screenshot, which can be seen above, shows an icon of a train or a bus at the bottom center of the screen, which presumably indicates transit directions. It comes from the session titled “Power, Performance and Diagnostics: What’s new in GCD and XPC,” and BGR was pointed to it by Jesper.

Interestingly, Apple has moved quickly to address the errant inclusion of the screenshot showing a transit-enabled Maps app and has already pulled the session video and slides from the developer website.

Apple's scheduling plans for transit directions in Maps are still not entirely clear, as there is still plenty of time of the feature to be added during the beta testing period prior to public launch, which is expected around September. Alternatively, the feature could be held back for a later update such as an iOS 8.1 to give Apple more time to polish it.

Related Forum: iOS 8

Popular Stories

iPhone 17 Pro Lower Logo Feature 1

iPhone 17 Pro Coming Soon With These 14 New Features

Monday June 30, 2025 1:08 pm PDT by
Apple's next-generation iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are less than three months away, and there are plenty of rumors about the devices. Apple is expected to launch the iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Air, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max in September this year. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models:Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an...
Apple Watch Ultra Night Mode Screen

Apple Watch Ultra 3 Launching Later This Year With Two Key Upgrades

Wednesday July 2, 2025 1:13 pm PDT by
The long wait for an Apple Watch Ultra 3 appears to be nearly over, and it is rumored to feature both satellite connectivity and 5G support. Apple Watch Ultra's existing Night Mode In his latest Power On newsletter, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said that the Apple Watch Ultra 3 is on track to launch this year with "significant" new features, including satellite connectivity, which would let you...
iPhone 17 Pro Lower Logo Magsafe

iPhone 17 Pro's New MagSafe Design Revealed in Leaked Photo

Wednesday July 2, 2025 8:37 am PDT by
The upcoming iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are rumored to have a slightly different MagSafe magnet layout compared to existing iPhone models, and a leaked photo has offered a closer look at the supposed new design. The leaker Majin Bu today shared a photo of alleged MagSafe magnet arrays for third-party iPhone 17 Pro cases. On existing iPhone models with MagSafe, the magnets form a...
Wi Fi WiFi General Feature

iOS 26 Adds a Useful New Wi-Fi Feature to Your iPhone

Wednesday July 2, 2025 6:36 am PDT by
iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 add a smaller yet useful Wi-Fi feature to iPhones and iPads. As spotted by Creative Strategies analyst Max Weinbach, sign-in details for captive Wi-Fi networks are now synced across iPhones and iPads running iOS 26 and iPadOS 26. For example, while Weinbach was staying at a Hilton hotel, his iPhone prompted him to fill in Wi-Fi details from his iPad that was already...
iPhone 17 Pro in Hand Feature Lowgo

iPhone 17 Pro Max Battery Capacity Leaked

Thursday July 3, 2025 5:40 am PDT by
The iPhone 17 Pro Max will feature the biggest ever battery in an iPhone, according to the Weibo leaker known as "Instant Digital." In a new post, the leaker listed the battery capacities of the iPhone 11 Pro Max through to the iPhone 16 Pro Max, and added that the iPhone 17 Pro Max will feature a battery capacity of 5,000mAh: iPhone 11 Pro Max: 3,969mAh iPhone 12 Pro Max: 3,687mAh...
iOS 18

Apple Releases Second iOS 18.6 Public Beta

Tuesday July 1, 2025 10:19 am PDT by
Apple today seeded the second betas of upcoming iOS 18.6 and iPadOS 18.6 updates to public beta testers, with the betas coming just a day after Apple provided the betas to developers. Apple has also released a second beta of macOS Sequoia 15.6. Testers who have signed up for beta updates through Apple's beta site can download iOS 18.6 and iPadOS 18.6 from the Settings app on a compatible...
maxresdefault

New MacBook With A18 Pro Chip Spotted in Apple Code

Monday June 30, 2025 8:05 am PDT by
Apple is developing a MacBook with the A18 Pro chip, according to findings in backend code uncovered by MacRumors. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. Earlier today, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo reported that Apple is planning to launch a low-cost MacBook powered by an iPhone chip. The machine is expected to feature a 13-inch display, the A18 Pro chip, and color options...

Top Rated Comments

JohnMantooth Avatar
144 months ago
Google Maps has transit directions. Just use Google Maps.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Gregintosh Avatar
144 months ago
A company with $120 billion in cash (errr... $117 billion after buying Beats?) can't afford to hire some additional programmers so they have to pull and reassign people from one project to another and suffer delays for features that should have been all done "yesterday"?

I mean I get that it takes time to find good people but given the resources available, they should be able to grow the team just a bit so they can tackle more ground.

$1 billion toward additional programmers would let them probably double their staff with equal or higher talent and then they can roll things out much faster across many products/services.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
0098386 Avatar
144 months ago
It's just too bad Apple split from Google on this product - Apple is using resources trying to re-invent something that is already done quite well with Google Maps.

To me the big difference between the two (since both now work in my area) are Streetview and that 3D mode.
At no point, other than flying low over a city is 3D mode going to be useful to me. Streetview on the other hand has been useful on a few occasions already. That's exactly it; seems that Apple is trying to reinvent maps when it's not necessary. Unless you're a helicopter pilot.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
RealKrS Avatar
144 months ago
It's just too bad Apple split from Google on this product - Apple is using resources trying to re-invent something that is already done quite well with Google Maps.

If Apple didn't split from Google, we'd still be using the same crappy Google Maps we were using back then and Google would have never offered a new version of Google Maps for IOS users.

So glad they split.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
512ke Avatar
144 months ago
It feels like someone is making a concerted effort today to bash Apple Maps.

But articles like this one throw gallons of water on that dim ember.

Apple Maps is already pretty darn good in my opinion.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
wolfshades Avatar
144 months ago
It's just too bad Apple split from Google on this product - Apple is using resources trying to re-invent something that is already done quite well with Google Maps.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)