Apple iPhone users of a certain vintage will remember the excitement of when Google Maps was released on iOS, given how clunky and inaccurate the native Maps app was. Over the years, Apple worked hard to improve Maps, and generally did a solid job of it.
Yet, I’d place a decent bet that many people still use Google Maps on their iPhones, and I am one of them, especially as I do use a lot of other Google tools and have Chrome as my main browser across multiple devices. However, with the arrival of iOS 26, I decided to take a look at Apple Maps to catch up on the changes and new additions.
And with that, there’s scope for my head to be turned from Google Maps or, at the very least, I’d have a flirtation with Cupertino’s mildly refreshed Maps.
Having not used Apple Maps for a while, at least not for an extended amount of time, I was pleasantly surprised with how clutter-free and slick the interface feels, and how tapping on a store or building serves up useful information in a way that doesn’t overwhelm. Google Maps does this and quite well, but sometimes it can feel like there are too many options to parse and innovation to absorb at a glance.
I’m not wholly sold on the Liquid Glass material integration, as it’s not very noticeable. But I do feel it makes the app feel a little slicker, compared to Google Maps and an older version on my iPad mini, although this could be just a quirk of my perception.
However, what’s really caught my eye is the pair of new features: Preferred Routes and Visited Places, both introduced with iOS 26.
Preferred Routes is, as the name would suggest, a tool that learns your everyday activity and the routes you commonly take and then proactively alerts you to any delays on your commute. It’s not a feature I’ve used yet, as I think Apple Intelligence will need to learn more about my routes, but it seems like a cool feature that Google Maps doesn’t have. Sure, there are traffic alerts and indications of potential delays on the route once you’ve plotted it, but it’s hardly proactive.
Visited Places, currently in a beta mode, is another new feature I’m keen to take for a spin. As my colleague Jamie Richards put it, Visited Places acts as a form of Spotify Wrapped for your travels in that it automatically detects and records the places you visit, from restaurants to shops, allowing you to then easily look them up for a useful reminder or more information.
While some people are concerned about privacy, I do like the Google Maps Timeline that records your routes and the places you’ve been, which is ideal for someone like me who will often have a wander after a few alcoholic drinks and struggle to remember where my walks took me. However, I’ve not always found Google Maps to be reliable, and it will often say I was at a location for a certain amount of time when I merely passed it; it’s not bad by any means and is still very useful, just far from perfect.
I don’t expect Visited Places to be perfect either, but I do feel Apple is very good at refining these information-centric features, so I’m definitely keen to give it a go and could see it as a means to fill in any gaps left by Google Maps.
With these new features, some nips and tucks to the interface, and a widget option for Maps, I think I’m going to try and give Apple’s native iOS mapping app more of a chance than I have in the past. And while it may take a bit more for me to fully leave Google Maps, I can definitely see myself tapping more into Apple Maps than ever before.
What do you reckon? Are you someone who’s been a Maps user for ages, or has Google Maps always kept your attention? Let me know in the comments below.
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