Overhauled Apple Maps is live in France, Monaco and New Zealand, based on Apple’s own mapping data which it began collecting back in 2018.
- Apple customers will now enjoy an updated mapping experience when using Apple Maps on their iPhone, iPad and Mac in France, Monaco and New Zealand.
- The improvements include three-dimensional landmarks, better shopping mall views, driving routes with better navigation, rich details and other perks.
- You don’t need to manually update your iPhone software: These features are automatically available when using Maps in any of the above countries.
Overhauled Apple Maps live in France, Monaco and New Zealand
Mapping enthusiast Justin O’Beirne was first to spot that the richer Apple Maps experience is now available to customers in France, Monaco and New Zealand. “After thirty-nine days of public testing, Apple’s new map data was expanded to France, Monaco, and New Zealand on July 7, 2022,” O’Beirne writes.
Everywhere the new Apple Maps experience is available
Apple’s iOS Feature Availability webpage lists the countries and regions where specific Apple Maps features are available, such as detailed city experiences, speed cameras, augmented reality walking directions, indoor maps and so on. The redesigned experience is not on that list. Thankfully, Justin has been dutifully tracking these rollouts for several years now, which has enabled him to put together and maintain a quick list of countries where overhauled Apple Maps are available:
- Andorra
- Australia
- Canada
- France
- Germany
- Ireland
- Italy
- Monaco
- New Zealand
- Portugal
- San Marino
- Singapore
- Spain
- UK
- US
- Vatican City
iOS 16 will bring detailed maps to even more countries. And in Santa Monica Pier, Atlanta, Chicago, Las Vegas, London, Los Angeles, Melbourne, Miami, Montreal, New York, Philadelphia, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Sydney, Toronto, Vancouver and Washington DC, iOS 16’s Maps will bring even more information than before.
Creating better maps is an expensive affair
The overhauled Apple Maps experience originally made its debut in the United States back in 2018. Since then, it’s been slowly but surely expanding to other markets. Mapping is an extremely expensive business to be in. To bring significantly more detail to the service, Apple has taken the difficult route of collecting its own ground data instead of licensing third-party databases. The company’s sensor-laden vehicles have been roaming the streets of the world’s biggest cities for years now, collecting data that serves as the backbone of the new mapping experience. Read: How to customize Apple Maps
3 new features in Apple Maps on iOS 16
iOS 16’s Maps is not as big of an update as iOS 15, which brought walking directions in immersive augmented reality, rich city experiences, driving routes with better navigation and more. Apple Maps on iOS 16 offers three new features: Multi-stop routing, transit cards and transit fares. With multi-stop routing, you can create a driving route with multiple stops on your Mac, then sync it to an iPhone. Integration with transit cards lets you not only add transit cards to the Wallet app but also see low balances and replenish your card without ever leaving Maps. Apple Maps has supported transit apps for years. With support for transit fares in iOS 16’s Maps, you can now see how much your journey will cost with transit fares.
Last but not least, Apple Maps will expand coverage to the following countries and regions with the releases of iOS 16, iPadOS 16 and macOS 13 Venture:
- Belgium
- France
- Israel
- Liechtenstein
- Luxembourg
- Monaco
- Netherlands
- New Zealand
- Palestinian territories
- Saudi Arabia
- Switzerland
iOS 16 and other Apple OS updates will be released publicly in the fall.