Earlier this year, Apple ceased using Google Maps for its Find My iPhone web app on the beta iCloud.com site in favor of its own Apple Maps, and as of today, the main iCloud.com site has also been updated to utilize an online version of Apple maps.
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Visiting Find My iPhone on iCloud.com will now display Maps rendered using Apple's own mapping engine, cutting out the company's final bit of reliance on Google Maps. Apple first began shifting away from Google Maps in 2012, when it introduced an in-house mapping solution.
Though iOS apps like Find My iPhone and Find My Friends began using Apple Maps data shortly after the release of iOS 6, iCloud.com has continued to use Google Maps data up until now.
Apple Maps was highly criticized for its inaccuracy and poor implementation at the time, but since 2012, Apple has made a vast number of improvements to the mapping service and continues to work to this day. Currently, Apple is said to be working on adding indoor mapping and transit features to Apple Maps with iOS 8, but internal politics have allegedly delayed the launch of Maps updates.
Top Rated Comments
(View all)I've tried and tried to use Apple Maps for my turn by turn directions, but Google Maps simply outperforms it.
I want to love and use Apple Maps, it just isn't as good.
Google just does maps better. End of story.
I've tried and tried to use Apple Maps for my turn by turn directions, but Google Maps simply outperforms it.
I want to love and use Apple Maps, it just isn't as good.
Time is the key here. Google got at least 10yrs head start. In time, Apple will catch up and surpass Google map.
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Cue the same old complains about Apple map...
Google just does maps better. End of story.
I've tried and tried to use Apple Maps for my turn by turn directions, but Google Maps simply outperforms it.
I want to love and use Apple Maps, it just isn't as good.
I used to love Google Maps and have used them exclusively up until the past two months or so. Somewhere along the line, Google Maps introduced a nasty bug where the app will reroute you to a slower or longer route without giving you any audible indication that it has done so.
I was on a recent trip from Ft. Lauderdale to Atlanta and somewhere around Orlando, Google Maps began adding 60 to 90 minutes to my ETA. At first I thought it was a strange fluke so I cancelled navigation and restarted it and the ETA went back to normal for about 20 minutes and then all of a sudden it was pushed back again with no audible or visual notification about what was going on.
Upon closer examination, I discovered the problem: Google Maps was directing me to get off I-75 in middle of nowhere south Georgia (about 300 miles up the road from my current location at the time), drive 80 miles in the wrong direction (away from Atlanta), and then get on I-85 and continue toward Atlanta. There was no reason for Google Maps to do this. I-75 was not closed, nor was there any road construction going on at the time.
On another recent trip, Google Maps automatically rerouted me to a slower, longer route through the Georgia mountains without any audible notification that it had done so -- all while showing me on its own map that there was another route (my original route) that was about 30 minutes quicker than the route it had decided I should take for no apparent reason. This has happened with my iPhone 6 as well as my wife's iPhone 5s. It's a nasty bug and Google needs to fix it pronto.