Apple Launches Apple Maps Web Portal
Finally! 🎉
July 2024

Twelve years after Apple Maps’s launch and five and half years after first providing map tiles to DuckDuckGo, Apple has finally launched a web portal of its own for Apple Maps.¹

That said, many of the most notable additions to Apple Maps in recent years are missing—such as multi-stop routes, transit directions, cycling directions, indoor maps of airports and malls, Apple’s street view imagery (a.k.a. “Look Around”), and the road markings, trees, and colorful 3D models at the core of the “Detailed City Experience”.²

But perhaps the most glaring—and baffling—omission is any obvious way for users to report an issue with the map, such as a missing or misplaced place. (One would think that crowdsourced error reports would be the primary driver behind the portal’s launch?)^{3, 4, 5}

In fairness to Apple, the product is currently designated as “Beta”—so hopefully we’ll see more features added soon. But even the cartographic differences between the web and iOS/macOS maps are fascinating:

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1  Not to pick on Apple, but it’s really weird how long this took—especially given that Apple seems to have been working on this for years. ↩︎

2  This truly feels like an “MVP” product—the smallest feature-set that Apple could get away with shipping while still offering something compelling. With the exception of the 3rd party created Guides, it’s essentially the 2013 Apple Maps feature-set. ↩︎

3  Given how widely the news of the launch is already spreading, this really seems like a missed opportunity on Apple’s part—as many are likely to briefly try the service but will be unable to report issues. ↩︎

4  U.S. map usage tends to peak in the summer months, so perhaps Apple was rushing to get this out now in the heart of the travel season? ↩︎

5  Nearly two years ago, a Bloomberg report suggested that ads were coming to Apple Maps. Though the ads have never materialized, the web portal’s launch combined with recent POI icon changes in the iOS 18 Betas seem to hint that promoted places might be coming. ↩︎