Get started with Maps
From turn–by–turn directions to curated travel guides, Apple’s Maps app has your back
WRITTEN BY KENNY HEMPHILL
WHILE APPLE’S MAPS got off to a bit of a slow start, it’s now a rival to Google Maps and Google Earth. macOS Big Sur and iOS 15 bought big new additions, enabling you not just to get directions to places, but to research and plan trips ahead of time, as well as get live on–the–move navigation.
The inclusion of travel guides from well–known publishers means you can fully immerse yourself in your intended destination long before you get there. And, if that destination happens to be one of a handful of major cities, you can even fly over it in Maps to get an even better feel for where you’re going.
Many of the really impressive features in Maps on the iPhone rely on the A12 Bionic chip (or later), so you’ll need an iPhone with that in it to use them. Perhaps the most useful are those that use augmented reality (AR). If you’ve set up directions to a location and are using them as you walk, you can hold up your iPhone to see the directions overlaid on the scene in the live camera view.
Driving features in iOS 15 are excellent too. For example, if you’re following a route, when you approach a complex junction, the view on screen switches to a 3D view at road level so you can see exactly where you need to go.