You can tap the Share ETA button when you’re in driving directions 4 and it will send an update via iMessage to the contact(s) of your choice, along with the ability for them to tap a link and follow you on your route. It’s one of those features that Apple does best, taking a common task-letting someone know when you’ll arrive somewhere-and making it simpler. My other favorite feature is the new Share ETA option, which officially arrives in iOS 13.1 at the end of the month. The new Share ETA feature keeps contacts of your choice updated about where you’re going. Of course, that’s something Google Maps has offered for a little while, so it’s another place Apple is playing catch-up, but it’s such a worthwhile addition that it’s hard to make too much fuss now that it’s arrived. The real-time data makes transit directions much more useful, since it gives you concrete information rather than a rough estimate. 2 (You will, however, need to make sure you’re on iOS’s Transit layer, accessible by tapping the Info button in Maps’s top right corner.) This also includes information about delays, all the stops along the route and estimated times of arrival at them, and data on future arrivals. Previous version of Maps did have transportation information, but it was pulled from schedules, and anybody who uses public transit regularly knows that, like battle plans, no schedule survives contact with the enemy.Īs of iOS 13, however, if you tap on a bus stop or subway station in Apple Maps, you’ll get a list of when you can expect the next bus or train to arrive based on actual live GPS data. The first is the addition of real-time transit data. Live transit is finally here, so you can know exactly how late your bus will be.īut of all the features added in iOS 13, I have two personal favorites. Apple claims it will also provide flight information, though I haven’t yet seen that in action. For example, I now have detailed layouts of Boston’s Logan Airport, including where gates and restaurants are, which is super handy. I have, however, noticed Apple’s internal mapping game improving. Apple says it will roll out to more cities throughout the end of 2019 and internationally in 2020, but right now it’s still hard to tell whether or not the good map fairy has descended upon your area. Apple took the unusual step of announcing this initiative more than a year ago, and, in the words of William Gibson, the future is here-it’s just not evenly distributed. There’s a lot to like in iOS 13’s Maps-it’s possibly the biggest update since the app was first launched-but chief among them is the improvements to mapping data. Here’s hoping it’s something the company is working on and, ahem, rolls out before long. Which is disappointing for a company like Apple, which seems to put so much of an emphasis on being environmentally friendly. Note: After the publication of this article, friend (and Rogue Amoeba CEO) Paul Kafasis pointed out that one big thing Google Maps still has over Apple Maps are biking directions. This is the year in which it feels like Apple is finally getting all its fundamentals squared away and started looking at new features. Personally, I’ve always bounced back and forth between Apple Maps and Google Maps, but I’ve been impressed by the strides Apple has made, especially in iOS 13. People felt burned from what they saw as Apple pulling out the rug from under them, and that kind of trust can be hard to earn back. ![]() Enough so that it’s been a solid competitor to Google Maps for some time now, even if there is still plenty of distrust resonating from some quarters 1. It’s a decision that was controversial at the time and still affects Apple today, despite Maps’s steady pace of improvement over the last seven years-yes, at this point, Maps has been without Google longer than it was with it.īut improve Maps has, year after year. If there’s been anything in the history of iOS that one could perhaps legitimately slap with a term as strong as “debacle”, it would probably be Apple’s choice in 2012 to bid goodbye to Google as its location data provider of choice and launch a wholly new version of Maps. Note: This story has not been updated for several years.
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