Apple Maps 'Look Around' Feature Expands to Chicago

Apple this week has expanded its "Look Around" feature for Apple Maps to include Chicago, the latest major U.S. city to gain the 3D street-level imagery to compete with Google's Street View.

apple maps chicago look around
The expansion of Look Around to Chicago has been documented in detail by Justin O'Beirne, who notes that this brings the total number of metropolitan areas with Look Around to ten. The most recent expansion prior to this week came in February when Boston, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. were added.

As O'Beirne notes, while Look Around only covers 0.3 percent of the land area in the United States, it covers 13.8 percent of the U.S. population. That's still a far cry from Google's nearly ubiquitous Street View coverage, although Look Around has been compared favorably to Street View for the quality of its imagery and the smoothness of transitions as you navigate around.

In areas where Look Around is available, a binoculars icon will appear in the top-right corner of ‌Apple Maps‌. Tapping that icon opens a street-level view in a card overlay at the top of the screen, which can then be expanded to a full-screen view. Look Around also appears in the search results for a supported city, below the Flyover and Directions buttons.

Apple is unsurprisingly prioritizing the largest cities in the U.S. with its Look Around feature in order to most efficiently cover the largest number of people, with O'Beirne noting that eight of the ten Look Around areas rank among the ten largest urban areas in the country. The two outliers, Las Vegas and Honolulu, are major tourist destinations and thus also prime targets for the feature.

O'Beirne has much more in his blog post on the expansion, including some predictions on which cities might be next to see Look Around.

Popular Stories

iPhone 17 Pro in Hand Feature Lowgo

iPhone 17 Pro Coming Soon With These 14 New Features

Friday July 4, 2025 1:05 pm PDT by
Apple's next-generation iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are just over two months away, and there are plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models. Latest Rumors These rumors surfaced in June and July:Apple logo repositioned: Apple's logo may have a lower position on the back of the iPhone 17 Pro models, compared to previous...
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 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...
airpods pro 2

AirPods Pro 3 to Help Maintain Apple's Place in Earbud Market Amid Increasing Low-Cost Competition

Thursday July 3, 2025 7:25 am PDT by
Apple's position as the dominant force in the global true wireless stereo (TWS) earbud market is expected to continue through 2025, according to Counterpoint Research. The forecast outlines a 3% year-over-year increase in global TWS unit shipments for 2025, signaling a transition from rapid growth to a more mature phase for the category. While Apple is set to remain the leading brand by...
iphone 16 pro models 1

Here's How the iPhone 17 Pro Max Will Compare to the iPhone 17 Pro

Saturday July 5, 2025 1:00 pm PDT by
Apple should unveil the iPhone 17 series in September, and there might be one bigger difference between the Pro and Pro Max models this year. As always, the Pro Max model will be larger than the Pro model:iPhone 17 Pro: 6.3-inch display iPhone 17 Pro Max: 6.9-inch displayGiven the Pro Max is physically larger than the Pro, it has more internal space, allowing for a larger battery and...
apple silicon mac lineup 2024 feature purple m5

Apple's Upcoming Macs Listed in New Report

Thursday July 3, 2025 9:09 am PDT by
AppleInsider's Marko Zivkovic today shared a list of alleged identifiers for future Mac models, which should roll out over the next year or so. The report does not reveal anything too surprising, but it does serve as further evidence that Apple is seemingly working on new models of every Mac, including the MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, iMac, Mac mini, Mac Studio, and Mac Pro. Apple is...

Top Rated Comments

redneckitengineer Avatar
68 months ago
The positive thing here is you can walk around Chicago without getting shot at now...heh
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
TwoBytes Avatar
68 months ago
Best time for Apple to take pictures now nobody is around #lockdown
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
GeoStructural Avatar
68 months ago

Maps is getting better. I still get frustrated with POI search results and directions. Yesterday, had I not double checked where it was sending me, I would have gone to a nursery 20 miles in the opposite direction of where I was headed. There are 3 with the same name in my area, and the one closest to me will only show up when I zoom in to that specific area and search (even though it is significantly closer than the other two). I'm glad to see Apple investing heavily in Maps, and I think it will possibly surpass Google Maps at some point. However, aside from Look Around being better than Street view in these locations, it still has a ways to go.
I agree it is getting better, and I hope it continues to do so. However, I don't see it surpassing Google Maps any time soon as you mention. My reasons are:

First, Apple Maps is practically useless outside of the U.S., it is not even very accurate in US mainland either. I still get very weird routes and horribly inaccurate Estimated Times of Arrival. I live in Austin, one of the first cities where Maps was supposed to be optimized, and I was still getting ETAs of 11 hrs for very close distances. Sometimes it recommends me to drive in loops around my location, weird.

Second, and very important, is the detail, Google Maps tells me exactly which lane I should stay on, the specific exit in both the written and verbal directions, something that I don't understand why Apple Maps doesn't do.

Third, the availability of data, it is just not on par, Google Maps is a lot more up to date, I am moving to a new house in a couple of weeks and I can see the foundations and pipe connections of my new home in Google Maps. In Apple's the subdivision doesn't even exist yet, it looks like a forest. In other countries I have visited you still get street names, cities and monuments descriptions from the pre-Cold War area, I have reported so many times the name of the city where my mother live is incorrect and they still haven't changed it after about 5 years and more than 10 reports.

Fourth, the handling of location markers and pins. Current iOS doesn't even let you delete pins you dropped in previous versions of Maps, stupid. Google Maps lets me place pins and important locations of job sites and it handles these type of situations better overall... And when you pair it with Google Earth it is even more powerful.

Fifth, it is restricted to the Apple ecosystem, limiting the user base and potential growth.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
cflem Avatar
68 months ago
Looks like Dallas should FINALLY be in the next update - its big - so I'm sure its a daunting task.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
coolbeep Avatar
68 months ago

Best time for Apple to take pictures now nobody is around #lockdown
I was about to comment the same thing!!!
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Pafoofnik Avatar
68 months ago

The positive thing here is you can walk around Chicago without getting shot at now...heh
As one born and bred in that Sewer on the Lake, all I can say is, "Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!"

The city has a rich and wonderful history--up until about 1950--when Daley's wrecking ball began to swing.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)