It's only been a few weeks since a major shake-up made Apple Maps accessible on any device — turning up the heat on the competition, Google Maps. And now, we've had an early glimpse at what could be coming next from Apple to try to tempt some of Google Maps' one billion monthly users over to its solution.
Code unearthed within the beta version of Apple Maps suggests that a significant expansion of Look Around could be on the horizon. For those who don't know, Look Around is a direct competitor to Street View in Google Maps, which made its debut back in May 2007 with a handful of US cities.
Since then, Google Maps has expanded Street View across the vast majority of roads, towns, and cities on the planet, as well as mountain trails and ski pistes.
Apple Maps launched in 2012 and has been included as the default navigation tool on every iPhone and iPad since then. Despite a rocky start, the US company has made huge improvements to its tool, including introducing a slick Flyover feature that lets you tour high-resolution 3D models of various landmarks. Apple uses drones to collect detailed data on the buildings and applies accurate lighting to these landmarks at night.
SCOOP (for @VirtualStreets_): Apple Maps' vector tile format, used in the web beta version, leaks "Look Around" coverage lines, as discovered by skzk. it reveals a much larger network of future Look Around coverage.
— ryan fae (@RhinozzCode) August 10, 2024
here's a review of what's next to come for Look Around
🧵 pic.twitter.com/kClNfG6Lj2
However, its answer to Street View, dubbed Look Around, has been limited to major cities in the United States and across the globe. In the UK, large swathes of London are covered by Look Around, but Manchester and Glasgow aren't covered, for example.
According to a leak shared with MacRumors, Apple is poised to launch Look Around across highways, smaller cities, and rural towns. Apple Maps users in the United States will be first to benefit from these improvements, with the dramatic expansion of Look Around set to continue globally in the coming months.
As well as upgrading coverage in areas that already enjoy Look Around, Apple looks set to bring the feature to several countries for the first time, including Morocco, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, China, Belarus, Turkey, Bulgaria, Mexico, and Slovakia. Some of these places don't have widespread coverage on Google Maps' Street View — offering a clear incentive for users to switch to the alternative from Apple.
Aside from its Streetview competitor, known as Look Around, Apple Maps now offers the same features that iPhone, iPad, and Mac owners have enjoyed for years on desktop PCs
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As always, it's worth taking these rumours with a pinch of salt. The markers indicating the forthcoming Look Around roll-out unearthed in the beta version of Apple Maps aren't finalised yet, MacRumors reports. As such, Apple could change its mind or shelf the project to prioritise something else.
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It's unclear how long you'll need to wait before these improvements start rolling out to Apple Maps users.
Last month, Apple announced a swathe of new features for its Maps application specifically designed for those travelling to Paris for the upcoming Olympic Games.
Next month, the release of iOS 18 promises to bring a slew of updates to Apple Maps, including the search in any part of the map — not just around your current location.
