Apple appears to be expanding on the native Apple Maps review functionality that it first introduced in iOS 14, allowing Apple Maps users in the United States the option to review places of interest, restaurants, and other locations.
In the Apple Maps app in iOS 14 and iOS 15, U.S. users can now see an option to provide a thumbs up or thumbs down for most locations. Tapping on the thumbs up/down icon brings up a secondary interface for providing thumbs up and thumbs down ratings for various categories like products, customer service, food, atmosphere, and more, based on the location being reviewed.
Users also have the option to upload photos of the location to the Apple Maps app to be added to the maps listing.
At the current time, the Apple Maps native rating system is displayed alongside the Yelp ratings that are provided for various locations. Apple may eventually be planning to replace Yelp and TripAdvisor integrations, but will need to build up a database of ratings before that will be possible.
There are no options for written reviews at this time, however, so it is not clear if Apple plans to entirely replace Yelp.
Native rating options in the Apple Maps app appear to be new for users in the United States, but Apple has been testing the feature in other countries like the UK and Australia for some time now. Ratings may also be available in additional countries based on the Ratings and Photos Terms legal site for Maps that was shared on Reddit.
Following nearly two years of rumors about a fourth-generation iPhone SE, The Information today reported that Apple suppliers are finally planning to begin ramping up mass production of the device in October of this year. If accurate, that timeframe would mean that the next iPhone SE would not be announced alongside the iPhone 16 series in September, as expected. Instead, the report...
Key details about the overall specifications of the iPhone 17 lineup have been shared by the leaker known as "Ice Universe," clarifying several important aspects of next year's devices. Reports in recent months have converged in agreement that Apple will discontinue the "Plus" iPhone model in 2025 while introducing an all-new iPhone 17 "Slim" model as an even more high-end option sitting...
Wednesday July 24, 2024 9:06 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
Apple supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo today shared alleged specifications for a new ultra-thin iPhone 17 model rumored to launch next year. Kuo expects the device to be equipped with a 6.6-inch display with a current-size Dynamic Island, a standard A19 chip rather than an A19 Pro chip, a single rear camera, and an Apple-designed 5G chip. He also expects the device to have a...
Thursday July 25, 2024 5:43 am PDT by Tim Hardwick
Apple typically releases its new iPhone series around mid-September, which means we are about two months out from the launch of the iPhone 16. Like the iPhone 15 series, this year's lineup is expected to stick with four models – iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, and iPhone 16 Pro Max – although there are plenty of design differences and new features to take into account. To bring ...
Apple’s iCloud Private Relay service is down for some users, according to Apple’s System Status page. Apple says that the iCloud Private Relay service may be slow or unavailable. The outage started at 2:34 p.m. Eastern Time, but it does not appear to be affecting all iCloud users. Some impacted users are unable to browse the web without turning iCloud Private Relay off, while others are...
The worst is when you want to look at more than 3 pictures from the restaurant and it takes you to the App Store to redownload Yelp. This will be a welcome addition, I just wish they allowed text to be inputted so we can fully replace Yelp!
Finally, I hate having to open the Yelp app just to read a review or see some pictures. Sometimes deciding between two restaurants or which landmark to visit in a short trip is based on reviews, I think this feature is great.
This is stupid, why build what they can just buy? They should just have bought Yelp. With all the weird and confusing acquisitions all these companies do throughout the years, seems the more obvious ones escape them.
On the flip side, why buy something you can build and source yourself?
This is stupid, why build what they can just buy? They should just have bought Yelp. With all the weird and confusing acquisitions all these companies do throughout the years, seems the more obvious ones escape them.
Yelp reviews aren’t entirely reliable because people go to review sites/apps for two primary reasons:
A. They’re looking for reviews B. They had a bad experience and want to complain
The third and just as important reason isn’t compelling enough to visit a site/app and spend time reviewing: they liked the place.
Ditching the star system is the first good move. A simple thumbs up or down, is going to yield a more universal standard. Written reviews almost always skew negative. People generally write good reviews if the place was off the charts amazing or if they were given an incentive (monetary, promotional, discounts).
Finally, reviews are only as reliable as the most recent ones. Good reviews from years ago may not mean much if the place hasn’t renovated in a long while, the rotating staff of waiters are currently lazy/rude and the star chef hasn’t worked there in a while. Similarly, bad reviews might’ve compelled a business to improve or the place was so bad that it has shut down. So a back catalogue of reviews isn’t all that valuable. Yelp doesn’t have much of an edge due to its ”head start”.
All of this comes together as poor data quality and so Apple doesn’t need Yelp to gradually assemble a more accurate sense of reviews. With its established user base of hundreds of millions, and with the ratings built in natively, Apple can get recent reviews rather quickly. Ultimately, being natively integrated, that picture you took of a steak dinner can be recognized as food by Photos’ machine learning and correlated to the GPS coordinates of a restaurant you went to. A simple prompt by Siri “Did you like it?” with a thumbs up/down, can help Apple fill in those reviews over a short period of time.
UPDATE: This just showed up for me in Canada. I’m a Canadian user with a Canadian Apple ID on iOS 15 Beta 6 Looks like we’re getting a wider rollout.
Yeah I hate seeing Yelp reviews in Maps. I hope this means that Yelp is going away sooner rather than later.
Yelp does nothing but ruin honest businesses with their predatory practices. I am hoping the Apple solution will be little more tolerable for small business owners.
