Ask HN: Apple maps vs. Google maps today? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Apple maps vs. Google maps today?

37 pointssoftwareman60 comments

How do they compare? Should Apple release their map app on Android?

I use Google Maps, Apple maps, Bing maps and OpenStreetMap

Some comments:

- Apple maps were pretty awful when they first came out but now seem good enough (and I generally use them for walking directions in cities)

- Google StreetView is great - satellite view where we are in the UK is about 12 years old so useful for a historical view

- Apple and Bing satellite views are good, much more up to date that Google's and often better quality

- Bing in the UK has Ordnance Survey maps down to 1:25,000 which is awesome

- OpenStreetMap often has details (particularly footpaths) that no other map has

Edit: Was impressed with the speed that Google had the new Queensferry Crossing bridge on their maps - neither Bing or Apple have this on their maps yet. OpenStreetMap does, of course!

Edit2: Use my cars built in sat-nav, mainly because of the ergonomics (big buttons) and multiple displays.

Do they all support an offline mode, where specific maps can be downloaded in advance?

I'm very old school when it comes to offline mode - if I'm going somewhere where I need a map (e.g. up a mountain) I'll either buy the relevant OS waterproof map, or print out a map and carry it in a waterproof case and use with a compass.

Edit: I don't know if anyone has died in the Scottish mountains because their smartphone battery ran out but I've certainly been in plenty situations where if I didn't have some kind of navigational aid I'd have been in serious trouble!

Commendable. A map that doesn't need batteries is the best map.

I recently tried to use Google Maps offline mode while abroad. I had a local SIM but limited coverage and limited data allowance. I also had created some saved maps via Google My Maps with pins of points of interest. It exposed a lot of bugs in the app. Off the top of my head:

- Without coverage, the offline maps work well and show the pins from my saved maps. Search also worked well.

- As soon as I came back into coverage or wifi, it would close the saved maps and then not load them again if the connection was poor.

- Also, if there is a connection, it constantly tries to load address/photos/reviews for your pins and refuses to show the name you've given them. Not much use in a national park.

- When online with a poor connection, search doesn't work and doesn't fall back to the offline maps.

- When routing, you can't add a via point when offline as it refuses to use the offline search index.

- Disabling mobile data usage for the app just caused chaos.

All in all, it was a maddening experience. It's a classic case of Google offering more features, but with less polish. I used to use other pinning apps for holiday planning, but they've all shut down or stopped working properly (Pindrop, Rego). I was hoping the increased integration between Google Maps and Google My Maps would solve the issue but unfortunately it's very buggy right now.

Of course, Apple doesn't really have offline maps so, although I use Apple Maps as my main maps app, they score poorly here. Of course, this fits with their traditional approach of no feature is better than a badly implemented feature.

Not all with the same capability. Try OSMAnd - it allows you to download a country/state/city map in advance, and then displays and routes offline from that (it's an offline-first app, but can fall back to online maps). Uses OpenStreetMap, so check coverage beforehand, but unless in the literal middle of nowhere, it tends to exceed Google's.

Apple Maps is fine. The rendering is still slightly worse than Google Maps when it comes to putting relevant information in the viewport (street names, primarily.)

But the search ... good grief, the search still sucks donkey balls through a molecular straw. It seems to lack any sense of your local context and location - which is kinda relevant for maps!

e.g. frequently when I used to search for "charing cross" whilst in London, it would offer "Charing Cross, Glasgow" as the default. (That's been fixed now)

There was another time I was searching for something in, IIRC, Dover, UK whilst in Dover, UK and it offered me something in Maryland, USA. Absolute dogshit.

And it just plain doesn't know about real places - searched for Leigh Library the other week (whilst about 400yds away!) which lives on Civic Square (part of its official quoted address) and the only "Civic Square" it offered was in Motherwell (Scotland!)

I've noticed the search is crap too. The other day I searched for a restaurant and it found nothing. Asked for directions anyway and it directed me to the right place so it knew where it was!

I use Apple Maps most of the time, although I keep GMaps installed just in case.

Full ACK, the search should be contextual, but I get US results in Switzerland! Or when I search for "Train station", then I expect it to suggest me the closest ones until I continue refining my search. But I get results from other countries or that are very far away. Also "Train station <city>" doesn't always give the same result as "<city> train station".

It seems to have a real blind spot about "things" - almost like you have to get the exact rendering of the name they have because there's no semantic labelling.

e.g. "X station" often wouldn't find "X train station" or "X underground station"; same for "X tube" in London (although both of these have improved for me on 11b8.)

Once I searched for a métairie in the French speaking Jura mountains (a métairie is a mountain hut offering food and rest) and got Metairie, LA.

100% this. Geocoding is the real weak spot in Apple Maps. (Though it's getting slowly better. Siri successfully navigated me to Brize Norton village the other day, where previously it had refused to associate the name with anything other than the RAF Brize Norton airbase.)

Google is pretty bad often too. I have been recommended a closed cafe in the UK when visiting Seattle as the nearest cafe.

Google Maps is heinous for putting street names on all the little back streets, and leaving them off the big arterial roads that might actually give you a chance of orienting yourself. It's really frustrating.

The biggest issue that I (being in Melbourne, Australia) have with Apple Maps is that it is incredibly slow. It was barely usable because of the speed on my iPhone (even on 4G) before I removed the app, and is pretty much unusable on my Macbook. I’m talking up to a minute before an actual map would display, and often up to 30 seconds when zooming in. I know quite a few other people have the same problem - even the Macs in the nearby Apple Store take ages to load anything. I can only assume that Apple doesn’t have a data centre in Australia or south-east Asia that serves the Maps app.

Google Maps is pretty reliable. I do use it a lot for walking though, and there are some issues in that department: strange routes, especially if there isn’t a road nearby, often useless time estimations, etc. Plus up until recently public transport wasn’t supported in Melbourne (but was on Apple Maps), which was a pain. Public transport support still isn’t 100%. My main qualm is that the web version drains my laptop’s battery at an alarmingly quick rate - and on my phone it certainly doesn’t help battery life either.

OpenStreetMap’s data is far superior to both Apple Maps and Google Maps in my experience - the only problem is that not being commercial means that search and routing are pretty much useless. I would happily use an app that offered all the features of Google Maps but used Mapbox tiles (and gave me a choice of map style).

I would add that offline mode in google maps is a lifesaver. I am in Iceland right now and was able to download a huge area and can navigate without any data usage. Wonderful!!

You might want to check out Eraser, made by Mapzen. Eraser is a Google Maps like app that uses OpenStreetMap data and is backed solely open source software and open data. It's a little rough around the edges (especially when it comes to transit routing).

https://github.com/mapzen/eraser-map https://mapzen.com/blog/erasermap-beta/

Thanks, will have a look.

I'm in Adelaide, Australia and I've never had this problem; I get maps within a second on both iOS and macOS, ADSL and LTE (Telstra in both cases).

(As an aside, from what I've heard, public transport support being terrible in Vic is mostly on PTV's head, not Apple or Google.)

Strange - I just tried Maps on my Mac again and it was ~20s from the window opening to a map appearing (but much quicker when zooming out/in). I’m on TPG ADSL, which is usually able to stream 4K Netflix/YouTube with very few problems. But as I said, even the Macs in JB HiFi and the Apple store take a long time to load Maps, and I’ve had the same delays in Tasmania as well.

Yeah I wouldn’t be surprised if PTV bureaucracy had something to do with it but it’s not as though they themselves are bad at technology, given their own app has been able to track trams and some buses for years...

Apple is still pretty far behind, in my view.

Here’s an excellent in-depth comparison: https://www.justinobeirne.com/cartography-comparison/

It's not complete without the equally amazing followup https://www.justinobeirne.com/a-year-of-google-maps-and-appl...

Strangely, Patricia's Green is now fully fleshed out with paths and green (at least on iOS 11b8.)

Very good comparision, thx for posting.

From using both iOS maps and Google maps on streets in NYC and SF - I like both. In case iOS maps is light on detail I open Google maps or Uber app to inspect things nearby.

Switzerland here. Apple Maps is still pretty bad compared to Google Maps.

While Apple Maps is indeed usable, Google Maps is just so much better. Recently I searched for a train station like "Bahnhof Flamatt" and Apple Maps gave me something in the US. Another day I searched something in Bern and Apple Maps gave me results for New Bern in the US. On another day I suddenly got black and white (!) maps in Apple Maps, then I got blurry maps. All of areas that were just fine before.

Edit: typos

Apple Maps also has this nice button to direct you to the nearest gas station. Unfortunately it doesn't know all gas stations so in Switzerland you'll get results that are too far away, when the next station would be just nearby.

I occasionally use Apple Maps while driving because of the nice integration. But then you can't see the current song anymore! Is anyone at Apple using this??? I can't believe they didn't consider this and use a small portion of the screen to show the current song and allow prev/next/play|pause.

I'm not a heavy user of Apple Maps, but from my personal non scientific tests, the support in Italy is pretty bad, so I guess it might be bad elsewhere outside the U.S. As an example, Google Maps knows a lot about my city, including public transportation and most of the shops, while Apple Maps does not.

We've been sailing Europe, so had plenty of opportunity to compare maps in different locations.

Google maps is great for navigating cities you're unfamiliar with. It gives you public transport information (not complete, missing buses here in Porto for example, but pretty good), points of interest (with funny gaps though), place reviews with photos and the search is really good. On my aging iPhone 4S both the app and the maps and search results load faster than Apple maps. The web version has recently gotten more horrible and is the usual Javascript overloaded catastrophe that just doesn't work at all on crappy internet connections (which is the norm when traveling). I have a bookmark for the old (now called "lite") version. The phone app is okay but has the horrid habit of nagging you ceaselessly about wanting you to log in and share your everything with Google.

Apple maps search is _atrocious_. Even pasting in an exact address, it will often find some completely irrelevant spot in a small town in the US instead of anything over here in Europe where I am. Searching for things like "library" is even more hopeless, it'll show me something like "Library road" in a village in Cornwall rather than the library in Porto just around the corner from where I'm standing. The only time I ever use it is if I want to show people on a far zoomed out view where we've been, because the OS X client is faster than Google maps web and really nice to navigate by touchpad.

Bing maps has often more recent and higher resolution satellite images than any of the others. I can't speak of any of their other features as I only ever use it via SAS.planet, but when I want to check my nautical charts with satellite images I often end up using Bing's data.

I use Apple Maps pretty regularly since I have a car with CarPlay. Most of the time, it works fine. But for trips in heavy traffic, I always turn to Google Maps to find the best route. I'm considering getting an Android phone as my next phone just to have Android Auto. Is Google Maps missing in CarPlay because Apple doesn't want to allow it or because Google doesn't want to provide it?

As far as I know, Apple allows only audio apps I guess

It depends on Region. But Generally speaking Google is still the best, and Apple is (only) good enough for certain places.*

I was searching for news on iPhone NFC-F / Suica, ( Simply the best NFC tech there is and has been for the last 20 years and still have not picked up stream due to various stupid reasons ) I stumpled upon

https://atadistance.net/

* I dont know the site owner nor affiliate with it.

It basically explain in details how crap the Apple Map in Tokyo are. And it is the same in many other places in SEA Region. My guess is that most part of EU aren't any better.

Edit: I am not sure if anyone on HN can shine any light on the process. Why do Apple buy data from third party sources and not at the same time create their own? And if Google buy data sources as well?

Apple maps is "ok" here (Czech Republic) but there's really no reason to use it, mapy.cz and Google Maps have everything Apple does but also things like transit stops, more businesses (mapy even has building numbers and cycle routes) and it also tends to be slightly more accurate.

Here's a comparison of the three on my current location because I'm bored waiting on something:

https://imgur.com/gallery/cFpcx

...and OpenStreetMap, even more detailed: http://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=17/49.17020/16.62639

I was travelling recently in Russia and Asia for a few months. My impression was that Google Maps is in general by magnitudes better and more helpful than Apple Maps.

It depends a bit on the country though as for some countries Google does not own the Map data and services are limited, i.e. in China and also Japan afaik.

OpenStreetMap is usually a good alternative especially if you are not able to read local languages. Otherwise you'll be fine with local versions such as baidu maps, etc.

I use Apple Maps for 99% of my needs. I only use it as a driving aid and don't really care about cartographic accuracy. I prefer the directions Apple Maps give since they seem to use less complex routes. I really dislike how Google Maps will use tiny side roads that are impossible to find and exit, just because it's 1 minute faster. Most of the time, I lose that benefit because those side roads are not easy to navigate.

Apple Maps is still pretty much unusable in New Zealand, missing or bad information, no finer detail than maybe street name or even suburb, almost non-existent search capability that seems to guess the wrong place if it can't find what you're looking for. The list goes on. Google Maps however seems fully functional over here, including Street View.

Apple Maps is good enough for me ninety-five times out of a hundred (in the UK), and it's a lot faster than Google Maps. Between that and Galileo on iOS (OSM data), I'm pretty covered though I do keep Google Maps lying around just in case. Apple Maps has improved by at least an order of magnitude since it was first released.

Disclaimer: I live in Poland, not US, so my view can be a bit different.

I use Apple Maps very often as I use CarPlay in my car (it does not have Google Maps interface). And I really appreciate how good these maps are, especially when I compare them to the initial release. They have very good coverage and are updated often enough.

The other advantage is that it really has good live traffic info. I sometimes compare it to what Google Maps or Waze offers (either when I'm stuck in traffic or with my passenger) and it usually better reflects current conditions.

The only think worth improving is calculating routes as sometimes it doesn't want to get current traffic conditions into considerations (especially when there is long route). And it is sometimes very slow in calculating routes.

I find that in richer countries with more iPhones, Apple Maps is on par with Google Maps. But in places with fewer iPhones, it can go a bit haywire.

Here's a couple of Apple/Google maps comparisons I've noticed and taken screenshots off. First one in San Andres (Colombia), second in East Jerusalem. http://imgur.com/a/QgnS3

I also noticed that Apple Maps would translate street names, in lots of Colombian countries, streets are laid out in a grid. With the streets that go east to west called "Calles", and north to south called "Carreras" (i.e. Calle 69 con carrera 4).

Apple maps would translate these to be called Street 69 and Road 4.

Sorry to object, but: Switzerland is a rich country with more iPhones then Android phones (until recently that is). Apple Maps is definitely not on par with Google Maps here.

Apple Maps has slowly gotten better and better over the years. I use it now mostly over Google Maps, however that is mostly because of all the integrations with iOS Homescreen/Apple Watch/CarPlay etc and the UI, etc. In the end, it's a better experience than Google Maps on iOS, but would definetly not recommend an Android version since all those iOS benefits wouldn't apply on Android, and at the root of it, Google Maps still has superior data, so I don't see people on Android using Apple Maps, but rather tha opposite, would make them like Apple even less and not want to switch. In my opinion.

City navigation + smartwatch is much better for me with Apple Maps than it was ever with Google and Android Wear :-) I switched entirely to Apple Maps lately, car navigation is flawless as well :-)

I have Car Play so use Apple Maps a lot. If I am going somewhere new I check the route on google maps as well to see if they agree. I used Apple Maps a lot in France this year on holiday and always got to where I needed to go. Routes chosen were sometimes questionable in terms of using the best road but I have had this with a Garmin in the past as well. It's unfortunate that you cant download an area as you can on google maps but the new european data roaming directive has helped this somewhat.

Apple maps has better traffic information in Paris. Google will happily send you to a closed station and it does not have marked exists. Both are shit compared to City Mapper though. However in general Apple has far fewer locations and generic search works less well (e.g. looking for a cleaner). Apple maps has better integration (but that is a low blow) and better interface for walking.

Google has better offline mode and caches maps for longer, so it works better without internet connection.

I switched from Android few months back. Tried Apple Maps and it was awful and lost me on several occassions. Maybe it is where I am located. I stay at Johannesburg, South Africa. Google Maps is always up to date where I stay and closed streets are updated. Google Maps always avoid roads which are under constructions. With Apple Maps, it is not the case. Decided to stick to Google Maps. I will try Apple Maps in 2-3 years.

I use navigation every day on the iPhone. Google maps is superior in my view (in the USA) over Apple maps because:

1) You can turn off the voice navigation. 2) Google maps show you which lane to be in for an oncoming turn. 3) Google maps have a better "sense" of which lane you are in when you are in an initial turn. Apple maps seem to get lost and start to re-route.

I think Google Maps is way more advanced when it comes to peripheral information such as business listings.

For example, a small stationery shop near where I live was marked as closed in Apple Maps, when Google Maps (correctly) showed that it was open for a couple more hours. That sort of thing makes Google Maps the winner IMO.

I prefer the design of Apple maps... but as a full-time traveler I need the offline capabilities of Google maps.

The maps.me app has decent offline support (downloadable regions) although the rendering is a bit garish.

I drive a lot in Europe, country to country. NOTHING beats Google maps to get me from A to B while avoiding whatever would slow me down. As much as I enjoy particular features of Apple Maps (Better indicators of particular highway splits), it is just lousy at having a clue what is up ahead.

I've switched from Google maps to Apple maps as of about 6 months ago, I find that in Melbourne (Australia) recent street changes seem to be updated more frequently on Apple maps, I also find the app to use less battery. I'm sure it differs city (or maybe country) by country.

I live in a place with a lot of roundabouts and I will say Apple Maps gets them right 1/3 of the time while Google Maps has never been wrong.

In Switzerland Apple Maps is missing the public transport, which Google has - a killer feature.

I use Google Maps for their biking routes which seem to work pretty well.

No bike routing on Apple Maps.

Apple Maps still lacks cycling directions, which is a killer feature for me.

In google maps I had to switch back to car directions anyway, there are a number of places with awful bike paths running near the direction I'm travelling and the directions keep trying to force me onto them.

Russia. Apple maps are useless compared to Yandex or Google maps.

Is there any non-Russian app that works better than Russian one in Russia anyway? ;-)

I deleted apple maps as soon as I could

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