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Apple Maps Gradually Winning over Google Maps Users, Report Suggests

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Re: Apple Maps Gradually Winning over Google Maps Users, Report Suggests

#41

Post by m2fkxy »

victor106 wrote: post #16

I was a little hesitant to switch to Apple Maps but after I did, I cannot go back to using Google Maps. Everything from the UX to the clarity indicating street names is far superior on Apple Maps. One thing I always hater about Google Maps is that it doesn’t show you street names when you need them. I was in NYC a while back and I wanted to see the street name and I had to do lot of scrolling to find it. I also wish…

Google Maps does feature particularly terrible [carto]graphic design... never understood why they got away so long with such poor feature colour, contrast, and placenames appearance logic.

Re: Apple Maps Gradually Winning over Google Maps Users, Report Suggests

#42

Post by stmpjmpr »

nicolas_t wrote: post #6
SwiftyBug wrote: post #2

Apple Maps is infinitely superior to Google Maps to get walking directions. It's very easy to understand where I'm looking at on the map.

Where are you based? My experience so far is that Apple Maps is not very good outside of the US

I'm currently visiting Poland and Estonia, and have been using Apple Maps to walk from place-to-place. It's been working well for me—I have yet to get lost using it, and it seems to be giving me good directions.

Re: Apple Maps Gradually Winning over Google Maps Users, Report Suggests

#43

Post by codyb »

starbugs wrote: post #37
guhidalg wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Finally, as an iPhone user, my location data is already at Apple. Why give it to someone else? I see their plan is working! By the way, do you install any 3rd party apps that require location services?

I try not to, but there are some apps whose main purpose depends on location data. In those cases, I check who's behind those apps and try to restrict the times at which they are able to attain location data as best as possible. > I see their plan is working! I sense some cynicism here and I partially agree. The thing is: I am currently using an iPhone for lack of an alternative/platform lock-in and so my personal ri…

The big one for me is Citi Bike, and Lyft which require them to work. But it's only while using the app. Otherwise I actually have location services turned off for almost everything and try to just use a zipcode instead.

With Maps I enjoy not using location services because I end up knowing wherever I am better. It's a bit of a pain sometimes to try to figure out where in a city you are based on some street signs but it's really neat when you can talk about a whole neighborhood before the friends you're visiting can!

Re: Apple Maps Gradually Winning over Google Maps Users, Report Suggests

#44

Post by CrampusDestrus »

victor106 wrote: post #16

I was a little hesitant to switch to Apple Maps but after I did, I cannot go back to using Google Maps. Everything from the UX to the clarity indicating street names is far superior on Apple Maps. One thing I always hater about Google Maps is that it doesn’t show you street names when you need them. I was in NYC a while back and I wanted to see the street name and I had to do lot of scrolling to find it. I also wish…

You can also contribute to Apple Maps. Be the change you want to see

Re: Apple Maps Gradually Winning over Google Maps Users, Report Suggests

#45

Post by frantathefranta »

starbugs wrote: post #8

In my experience, the following things are notably better in Apple Maps vs. Google Maps: * No dangerous shortcuts where I risk to damage my car * Routes make much more sense in general and are nearer to what someone who knows their way around locally would suggest * Voice instructions are clearer, easier to understand and timed better * Walking directions are easier to understand * The UI is less annoying. In Google…

> * Re-route when an Autobahn is closed completely (I am located in Germany). It's a hot mess for some reason, while that's working relatively fine when there are accidents/congestions.

Apple Maps are pretty good about that in the US I think, just today the app was making me avoid a construction closure which hasn't been there last week. However there is still the human error of me thinking that the app couldn't possibly know that so fast so I still drove towards the closure and had to turn around. I think Google Maps tell you if part of the route is closed, not in the Apple Maps though.

Re: Apple Maps Gradually Winning over Google Maps Users, Report Suggests

#46

Post by frantathefranta »

hospitalJail wrote: post #39
mrtksn wrote: post #10

Google Maps is yet another decaying Google product, unfortunately. However it has a moat that is hard to overtake: Business information. Apple Maps is a superior experience as long as you can find the business(shop, restaurant etc) but unfortunately it's still far from matching Google at this. It's even annoying me on Bing. I've switched to Bing and I'm pretty happy so far but when I search for a shop or something, t…

Hate that Google defaults to the 'eco' route that takes a few minutes longer. Otherwise my initial experience with Apple maps was so bad that I havent tried it since. It basically would wait until the last possible moment to tell me to turn, not exactly possible going 45mph.

Are you sure your car isn't set to hybrid or EV in the maps settings? I think it defaults to eco if that's the case.

Re: Apple Maps Gradually Winning over Google Maps Users, Report Suggests

#47

Post by a_happy_egg »

starbugs wrote: post #27
ajross wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> * No dangerous shortcuts where I risk to damage my car Can you elaborate on this? This seems like a personal anecdote and not a software feature. How does one even define that? You're saying that there are special roads that Apple knows not to travel bug Google does? That seems odd, since the real world doesn't really mark its roads like that.

> This seems like a personal anecdote and not a software feature. It might be. > How does one even define that? One example would be a road that is very narrow, but not one-way. Basically so narrow that only one car can drive there. Where I live, there are many such roads on the country side. They tend to be used as shortcuts so that one doesn't need to take the main roads (shorter total distance). But they are dange…

I believe what you noticed is true. That Google Maps does have a tendency to prefer slightly more difficult roads as "shortcuts".

For example, Waze, which is another decent GPS app that Google owns and sources data from, even has an option for this!

It is called something like "avoid difficult roads/intersections".

Re: Apple Maps Gradually Winning over Google Maps Users, Report Suggests

#48

Post by Scubabear68 »

I had to finally give up on Google Maps in my car because after 15 minutes or so into a route, Google maps would start to lag reality by about 20 seconds. It got very difficult to actually use to drive a route. I thought it was poor GPS signal, my head unit’s slowness with Carplay, etc. Finally I tried Apple Maps out of desperation and it just worked.

As a bonus, it is better at giving useful driving directions. It will say things like “the right at the second stop sign”, which is a great signal to use to a driver.

I do occasionally use Google maps for finding businesses, but that’s it.

Location - NJ, USA. Car - Kia Telluride with CarPlay.

Re: Apple Maps Gradually Winning over Google Maps Users, Report Suggests

#49

Post by bobbobarker »

I'm a fan of the Apple Maps UI over Google and they have some really nice features like the 3D view. However, the one problem I have with Apple Maps is that their satellite imagery is often times out of date compared to Google. This doesn't matter as much for getting directions, but I enjoy looking around on satellite view to find hidden beaches or get to know my surroundings better than a street map can offer.

Re: Apple Maps Gradually Winning over Google Maps Users, Report Suggests

#50

Post by smith7018 »

guhidalg wrote: post #20
starbugs wrote: post #8

In my experience, the following things are notably better in Apple Maps vs. Google Maps: * No dangerous shortcuts where I risk to damage my car * Routes make much more sense in general and are nearer to what someone who knows their way around locally would suggest * Voice instructions are clearer, easier to understand and timed better * Walking directions are easier to understand * The UI is less annoying. In Google…

> Finally, as an iPhone user, my location data is already at Apple. Why give it to someone else? I see their plan is working! By the way, do you install any 3rd party apps that require location services?

> By the way, do you install any 3rd party apps that require location services?

You already read that they are cognizant of installing 3rd party apps that handle their location data... You're coming off as condescending and for what, exactly? Someone's preferred map app?

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