Apple Maps Thread - iOS 15

[MozMan68]

This is a Wiki Thread for the latest updates to the Apple Maps app. Note that some of the updates listed below may only be available in the latest beta software and not necessarily publicly available until iOS15 is released.

The thread for new Maps updates that occurred during iOS 14 can be found HERE.

The thread for new Maps updates that occurred during iOS 12 and iOS 13 can be found HERE.

Please simply click on "EDIT" at the bottom of this post to make changes to the noted areas below.

Please post observed/confirmed changes to the Apple Maps imagery and POI's (from all formats; iOS, iPadOS, MacOS and CarPlay) as new posts to this thread.

Thanks!

Updated Maps Areas
Countries are listed alphabetically. Where an entire country did not roll out at once, areas within the country are listed in the chronological order in which they rolled out.

• Australia - Preview released October 19, 2021, Wide release December 10, 2021 (via)
• Canada - Preview released October 20, 2020, Wide release December 10, 2020 (via)
• France - Preview released May 29, 2022, Wide release July 7, 2022
• Germany - Preview released March 4, 2022, Wide release April 21, 2022
• Ireland - Preview released August 22, 2020, Wide release October 1, 2020 (via)
• Italy - Preview released July 29, 2021, wide release September 10, 2021
• Japan - Wide Release -- August 4, 2020
• Monaco - Preview released May 29, 2022
• New Zealand - Preview released May 29, 2022, Wide release July 8, 2022 (via)
• Portugal (Not included: Madeira, Azores) - Preview released April 22, 2021, Wide release June 7, 2021
• Singapore - Preview released March 7, 2022, Wide release April 21, 2022
• Spain (Included: Canary Islands, Balearic Islands. Not included: Ceuta, Melilla) - Preview released April 22, 2021, Wide release June 7, 2021
• United Kingdom - Preview released August 22, 2020, Wide release October 1, 2020 (via)
  • Crown Dependencies:
    • Guernsey, Jersey and the Isle of Man - Preview released August 22, 2020, Wide release October 1, 2020
  • Overseas territories:
    • Gibraltar - Preview released April 22, 2021, Wide release 7 June 2021
• United States of America -- Preview started July 3, 2018, Wide release completed January 30, 2020

Look Around
Countries are listed alphabetically. Where an entire country did not roll out at once, areas within the country are listed in the chronological order in which they rolled out.

• Australia
  • Entire country added on December 10, 2021
• Canada
  • Nearly every major city as well as most of their suburbs and main highway system across the entire country!! -- Added December 10, 2020
• Germany
  
  • Munich -- Added April 21, 2022
  • Frankfurt -- Added May 19, 2022
  • Stuttgart -- Added May 19, 2022
• Ireland
  • Dublin -- Added October 1, 2020
• Italy
  • Entire country including San Marino and Vatican City when wide released on September 10, 2021
• Japan
  • Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, and Nagoya -- Added August 4, 2020
  • Fukuoka, Hiroshima, and Takamatsu -- Added December 4, 2020
  • Sendai and Kanazawa -- Added May 17, 2021
• New Zealand
  • Entire country added on July 8, 2022
• Portugal (Not included: Madeira, Azores) - Released June 7, 2021
• Singapore
  
  • Entire country added April 21, 2022
• Spain (Included: Canary Islands, Balearic Islands. Not included: Ceuta, Melilla) - Released June 7, 2021
• United Kingdom
  • London -- Added October 1, 2020
  • Edinburgh -- Added October 1, 2020
  • Overseas territories:
    • Gibraltar - Added 7 June, 2021
• United States of America
  • Hawaii (Island of O'ahu) - Added June 3, 2019
  • Las Vegas metro area - Added June 3, 2019
  • San Francisco/San Jose metro area - Added June 3, 2019
  • Los Angeles metro area - Added September 30, 2019
  • New York City metro area - Added September 30, 2019, Expanded September 20, 2021
  • Houston, TX - Added November 18, 2019
  • Santa Cruz, CA - Added December 18, 2019
  • Boston, MA - Added February 19, 2020
  • Philadelphia, PA - Added February 19, 2020, expanded on December 16, 2021 with release of detailed city experience
  • Washington DC -- Added February 19, 2020
  • Chicago metro area -- Added April 20, 2020
  • Seattle, WA -- Added June 29, 2020
  • Phoenix, AZ -- Added October 7, 2020
  • Miami, FL metro area (including Ft. Lauderdale) -- Added December 16, 2020
  • Detroit, MI metro area (including Ann Arbor, Pontiac and Rochester Hills) -- Added December 16, 2020
  • Denver, CO metro area (including Boulder) -- added December 16, 2020
  • San Diego, CA metro area (including South to the Mexican border and as far North as Escondido and Carlsbad) -- Added February 3, 2021
  • Portland, OR metro area -- added February 3, 2021
  • Atlanta, GA metro area -- added May 12, 2021

iOS 15 Notable Changes

• Interactive globe - Discover the natural beauty of Earth with a rich and interactive 3D globe, including significantly enhanced details for mountain ranges, deserts, forests, oceans, and more.
• Detailed new city experience- Explore cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, and London with unprecedented detail for elevation, roads, trees, buildings, landmarks, and more.
  • San Francisco available as of initial beta release on June 7, 2021
  • Los Angeles available as of developer beta 5 release on August 10, 2021. Updated with additional detailed POI's on August 26, 2021
  • NYC available on iOS 15 release day, September 20, 2021
  • London available on September 27, 2021
  • San Diego and Washington DC available on November 11, 2021
  • Philadelphia available on December 16, 2021
  • Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal, CANADA added on March 24, 2022
  • Atlanta, Miami and Seattle added on August 5, 2022
• New driving features - An all-new driving map helps you see traffic, incidents, and other details that affect your drive at a glance. See incredible road details like turn lanes, bike, bus, and taxi lanes, medians, crosswalks, and much more. When approaching a complex interchange, Maps switches to a 3D road-level perspective to help you find your way.
• Immersive walking directions - Get where you’re going with step-by-step directions shown in augmented reality
• Redesigned transit - The transit map has been redesigned for the new city experience and now shows key bus routes. While you’re riding transit, a new user interface makes it easy to see and interact with your route with one hand. And when you’re approaching your stop, Maps notifies you that it’s almost time to disembark.
• Nearby transit - Frequent transit riders can now get one-tap access to all departures that are near them. They can even pin their favorite lines so that they always show up at the top if they are nearby.
• All-new place cards - Completely redesigned place cards make it easy to find and interact with important information for businesses, explore details about cities, and learn about physical features like mountain ranges.
• Editorially curated Guides Home - It’s now easier to discover great places with the all-new Guides Home, an editorially curated destination where you can find Guides for places you’ll love.
• Improved search - When looking for places like restaurants, you can filter your search results by cuisine or whether they offer takeout. Or you can choose to see only places that are open right now. When you move the map while searching, Maps automatically updates your search results.
• User profile - Maps users can now find their most used settings all in one place, including their preferred mode of transit, reported issues, favorites, and more.
• Redesigned Maps contributions - With an all-new design, it’s faster and easier to report an issue in Maps.
• Always-On display on Apple Watch - Maps now works with the Always-On display on supported Apple Watch models, which is useful when you're getting directions.
• CarPlay
  • Incident Reporting
    • Now available in pull up menu during a route
    • Available on main screen when not routing so reports may still be submitted
  • New graphic update while routing (major city visual enhancements as well as enhanced road graphics)
    • Coming by the end of 2021
• City Data - When searching for a city or even small towns, Maps provides statistical data such as population, elevation, area and distance from your current location at the top of the info card (not all info is available for all cities/towns).
• Weather Alerts - Maps will provide weather alerts along your route.
• "Alerts Only" Sound Option - One can now select to have routing/guidance announcements "On," "Off," or "Alerts Only." "Alerts Only" limits announcements to major routing updates and alerts (construction, hazards, speed traps, accidents, etc.) versus voicing every turn-by-turn guidance option.

Report Errors Without Using The App
https://www.apple.com/feedback/maps-ios-ipados.html

Feature Availability by Region
https://www.apple.com/ios/feature-availability/

Apple Vehicle & Pedestrian Image Collection Schedule
https://maps.apple.com/imagecollection

Business/POI Edit Site
https://mapsconnect.apple.com/

Maps Developer Site
https://developer.apple.com/maps/

Maps Data Providers List

Acknowledgements

 

[Speedman100]

Here we go again!

 

[MozMan68]

Since I'm waiting for the public beta, things I would love to see:

• Pics, Pics and more pics!
• How has reporting issues changed? Just tied to addition of personal profile or something more?
• User profile details.
• If anyone is in the SF area...video of zoom transitions and 3D lane guidance while routing.
• It says it has changed the way traffic and incidents are shown on the Map so they are more clear...pics!

 

[CTU Kyoto]

If anyone who has the beta could demonstrate via pics how the new map experience is for cycling directions and real-time navigation in London, I would be very grateful!

 

[MozMan68]

I don't think you will see anything different until they release the new detailed version of the London area map. Hopefully, that is soon, but the cities could be released throughout the beta cycle or closer to Sep/Oct depending on remaining work needed.

 

[Dunk the Lunk]

I know the developer release is available but given that the public release isn’t, shouldn’t the Iberian peninsula updates go under iOS14, not 15?

EDIT: Also given that updates to Maps/Look around are not OS specific and there have been request for lists of where the new maps are available (eg https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/the-ios14-apple-maps-thread.2237669/post-29959466) would it be possible to put this somewhere? Rather than having to cross reference multiple threads?

 

[Dunk the Lunk]

As well as Spain and Portugal the Look Around release for the Iberian Peninsula also includes Gibraltar. It looks like a fairly comprehensive release.

 

[MozMan68]

They were officially released yesterday at the same time as the iOS15 developer release, so I thought it made sense to include on here as well. If it was released this past Friday, they would have stayed on the iOS 14 thread.

Checking the Look Around coverage....was a quick copy and paste to get the thread going this morning. Thanks!

 

[MozMan68]

I know the developer release is available but given that the public release isn’t, shouldn’t the Iberian peninsula updates go under iOS14, not 15?

EDIT: Also given that updates to Maps/Look around are not OS specific and there have been request for lists of where the new maps are available (eg https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/the-ios14-apple-maps-thread.2237669/post-29959466) would it be possible to put this somewhere? Rather than having to cross reference multiple threads?

Yeah...I think this has been the biggest point of contention. Will copy the release info over in a simpler format to see how that works for everyone...thanks!

 

[MozMan68]

First post updated with all release dates (compressed where appropriate). Feel free to update as needed.

 

[Dunk the Lunk]

First post updated with all release dates (compressed where appropriate). Feel free to update as needed.

Grand, yeah I think that works well seeing a list of all the map updates, and a separate list of iOS updates.

?

 

[G1Ravage]

Now we're in that odd transitional period where I have to remember to check two different threads again.

 

[iOS Geek]

Alright, here’s a quick CarPlay summary.

I don’t live in the SF Bay Area, so I do NOT have any of the 3D features during navigation. There ARE a few differences I was able to notice though. (Sorry, didn’t take screenshots, so I’ll explain the best I can).

1. Navigation shows less (but I’m not saying this in a bad way. For this particular point, it is not impacting anything in a negative way). The 3D building models, at least on my drive to and from work today, did not show on straightaways (they did on iOS 14). They show up as the screen zooms in, but I wouldn’t call it consistent. The outlines showed at different zoom levels usually when a turn was coming up. I actually think there may be a bug involved here because this triggered at different zoom levels.

2. The way the map actually moves while following your location marker seems different. Smoother, in a way. It also seems to move more.

3. Going back to point 1 regarding navigating showing less…on straightaways, it seemed like I couldn’t see as far ahead, but stop lights/signs seemed to pop up earlier than they did on iOS 14. I was almost always seeing the next 2 lights or signs. The third pops up VERY early. And I mean so early that you can’t really determine how soon it comes after the second one. It could be at the intersection that follows…or it could be more than a mile after.

4. The new ”night” map. I LOVE it! Whether looking at the map on iOS, or looking at it during navigation, the new night map solves my biggest complaint about Maps in dark mode. It is no longer “too dark”. It looks great! It’s much easier to see the different colors in dark mode now. Same goes for light mode. Everything is richer (for lack of a better word). Everything, to me, is more distinguishable.

5. Can’t speak on how incident reports are displayed because I did not come across any on my way too or from work. My work commutes occur during ”quiet” traffic hours. Like basically all of my work commutes are uneventful and enjoy very light traffic.

So far, I can not speak on how traffic is displayed because at the times I was driving today, traffic was very light

 

[G1Ravage]

Alright, here’s a quick CarPlay summary.

I don’t live in the SF Bay Area, so I do NOT have any of the 3D features during navigation. There ARE a few differences I was able to notice though. (Sorry, didn’t take screenshots, so I’ll explain the best I can).

1. Navigation shows less (but I’m not saying this in a bad way. For this particular point, it is not impacting anything in a negative way). The 3D building models, at least on my drive to and from work today, did not show on straightaways (they did on iOS 14). They show up as the screen zooms in, but I wouldn’t call it consistent. The outlines showed at different zoom levels usually when a turn was coming up. I actually think there may be a bug involved here because this triggered at different zoom levels.

2. The way the map actually moves while following your location marker seems different. Smoother, in a way. It also seems to move more.

3. Going back to point 1 regarding navigating showing less…on straightaways, it seemed like I couldn’t see as far ahead, but stop lights/signs seemed to pop up earlier than they did on iOS 14. I was almost always seeing the next 2 lights or signs. The third pops up VERY early. And I mean so early that you can’t really determine how soon it comes after the second one. It could be at the intersection that follows…or it could be more than a mile after.

4. The new ”night” map. I LOVE it! Whether looking at the map on iOS, or looking at it during navigation, the new night map solves my biggest complaint about Maps in dark mode. It is no longer “too dark”. It looks great! It’s much easier to see the different colors in dark mode now. Same goes for light mode. Everything is richer (for lack of a better word). Everything, to me, is more distinguishable.

5. Can’t speak on how incident reports are displayed because I did not come across any on my way too or from work. My work commutes occur during ”quiet” traffic hours. Like basically all of my work commutes are uneventful and enjoy very light traffic.

So far, I can not speak on how traffic is displayed because at the times I was driving today, traffic was very light

Interesting. CarPlay-wise, Apple Maps on iOS 12 and earlier also showed 3D buildings earlier, and while zoomed out further. It got a bit more stingy with iOS 13 and 14, and now apparently is getting more stingy on iOS 15? That's a shame. I really like seeing the 3D outlines of buildings while driving on local roads, and I've given that feedback to Apple many times. This seems to be a CarPlay thing, because on the phone itself, the buildings display almost always while navigating. The default highway zoom out is *just* outside of the range of allowing buildings to show, so once the map started zooming in slowly within one mile of your exit, the buildings would instantly appear.

I'll have to see this for myself. Apparently, as CarPlay can resize itself to best fit your car's display, it's possible things could appear differently if you have a huge widescreen display.

Perhaps compare CarPlay navigation with just navigating off the phone. At least the phone navigation you can set to record the screen a little bit.

 

[iOS Geek]

Interesting. CarPlay-wise, Apple Maps on iOS 12 and earlier also showed 3D buildings earlier, and while zoomed out further. It got a bit more stingy with iOS 13 and 14, and now apparently is getting more stingy on iOS 15? That's a shame. I really like seeing the 3D outlines of buildings while driving on local roads, and I've given that feedback to Apple many times. This seems to be a CarPlay thing, because on the phone itself, the buildings display almost always while navigating. The default highway zoom out is *just* outside of the range of allowing buildings to show, so once the map started zooming in slowly within one mile of your exit, the buildings would instantly appear.

I'll have to see this for myself. Apparently, as CarPlay can resize itself to best fit your car's display, it's possible things could appear differently if you have a huge widescreen display.

Perhaps compare CarPlay navigation with just navigating off the phone. At least the phone navigation you can set to record the screen a little bit.

Yeah, due to there being a lack of consistency between how close or how far the zoom level was when buildings were shown…that’s why I mentioned my thinking that it might actually be a bug. There were turns where the map would zoom in and then the buildings would show up…but then there were turns where the buildings would show up before it zoomed in.

I’ll try and remember to do a comparison with the phone!

 

[G1Ravage]

Yeah, due to there being a lack of consistency between how close or how far the zoom level was when buildings were shown…that’s why I mentioned my thinking that it might actually be a bug. There were turns where the map would zoom in and then the buildings would show up…but then there were turns where the buildings would show up before it zoomed in.

I’ll try and remember to do a comparison with the phone!

Similar behavior occurs currently. If you have a turn coming up, but there's a second turn not long after, the map won't zoom in quite as far, thus allowing you to visually see the second turn near the edge of the map. When that happens, often the buildings won't appear, because the map didn't zoom in far enough.

 

[iOS Geek]

Similar behavior occurs currently. If you have a turn coming up, but there's a second turn not long after, the map won't zoom in quite as far, thus allowing you to visually see the second turn near the edge of the map. When that happens, often the buildings won't appear, because the map didn't zoom in far enough.

Hmm, I’ll have to pay more attention next time!

 

[TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️]

Can someone upload area map for Las Vegas, Nevada please.

 

[G1Ravage]

Justin is on it.

It seems there's more to this than meets the eye. Colors are now different for the roadways in the UK, and the elevation data looks gorgeous when zoomed out.

 

[MozMan68]

Justin is on it.

It seems there's more to this than meets the eye. Colors are now different for the roadways in the UK, and the elevation data looks gorgeous when zoomed out.

Have been staring at it since last night. Can’t wait for the public beta…maybe it’s time to get my license again. Hah

 

[Dunk the Lunk]

Justin is on it.

It seems there's more to this than meets the eye. Colors are now different for the roadways in the UK, and the elevation data looks gorgeous when zoomed out.

Hmm not sure I like the use of a single grey colour for the all the roads. In the London example Justin has posted it’s impossible to pick out the main roads, and there’s also a bit of lack of contrast with the dark grey place names. The LA example (different scale) isn’t as bad because you’ve got different shades of grey and line weights.

Really like the super detailed mapping of San Francisco though.

 

[G1Ravage]

Hmm not sure I like the use of a single grey colour for the all the roads. In the London example Justin has posted it’s impossible to pick out the main roads, and there’s also a bit of lack of contrast with the dark grey place names. The LA example (different scale) isn’t as bad because you’ve got different shades of grey and line weights.

Really like the super detailed mapping of San Francisco though.

I'm hoping (and trusting) that Apple is smart enough to know what people really liked about the current maps. And that if any of the functionality or ease of use is lost at the moment with the new maps, that it'll be fixed before wide release in the fall.

 

[CTU Kyoto]

I think I quite like the London map redesign! Will have to see in usage.

Now I hope they bring the macOS Maps feature of forcing light appearance regardless of system appearance being set to dark. I find dark mode maps pretty illegible.

 

[G1Ravage]

iOS Geek, could you perhaps show us some differences in the new map layers?

Perhaps how the San Francisco area looks (zoomed out a bit) between the normal layer, traffic layer, etc.? Since apparently there are differences in appearance.

 

[MozMan68]

iOS Geek, could you perhaps show us some differences in the new map layers?

Perhaps how the San Francisco area looks (zoomed out a bit) between the normal layer, traffic layer, etc.? Since apparently there are differences in appearance.

...and Las Vegas as requested above.

...and actually, can you just take pics of every city in the USA??