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Comment by starbugs | Hacker News Reader

In my experience, the following things are notably better in Apple Maps vs. Google Maps:

* No dangerous shortcuts where I risk to damage my car

* Routes make much more sense in general and are nearer to what someone who knows their way around locally would suggest

* Voice instructions are clearer, easier to understand and timed better

* Walking directions are easier to understand

* The UI is less annoying. In Google Maps, I find it quite easy to miss the compass button when walking, which causes the map view to freak out and makes me lose context.

What's better in Google Maps:

* Better metadata about shops, locations, crowdedness etc.

What both cannot do right:

* Re-route when an Autobahn is closed completely (I am located in Germany). It's a hot mess for some reason, while that's working relatively fine when there are accidents/congestions.

Finally, as an iPhone user, my location data is already at Apple. Why give it to someone else?

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> Finally, as an iPhone user, my location data is already at Apple.

Fun fact about that:

--snip from https://www.idownloadblog.com/2019/03/13/apple-maps-navigati... --

When you use Apple Maps, your route from A to B is fragmented into scrambled sections on Apple servers because nobody else should know your entire route. Not even us. In fact, we don’t even know who requests a route.

// But doesn’t Maps already know who requested a route from their IP address?

Apple Maps uses a random identifier, which means any route requests made on your iPhone are assigned a random identification value rather than labelling you as the sender. So both you and your routes stay anonymous.

I do enjoy Apple's privacy protections, it's a huge selling point for me and definitely has kept me in the ecosystem. It's why I originally dropped Google products in the first place.

Two more things that annoy me about Google Maps

- Related to the routes make more sense, Google seems to prefer side streets to save one minute but then you get dumped back on the main road not at the light and need to cross traffic and might lose your minute back just waiting for a chance to cross. I'd much prefer a main route with a light that guarantees a safe turn.

- Google Maps advertisements on the map. No I don't want to see a Whole Foods with a sale two miles away over other landmarks.

My biggest gripe about GMaps is a minor one but when it happens it's crucial:

Sometimes I'll see a road that looks like it may be a good shortcut or something, but it doesn't show the name. So I zoom in, and in, even to the point that the road itself is taking up my entire phone screen. Still no name! Very tedious and aggravating when it's on the fly.

Yes this is infuriating. The old google maps was excellent at adding street labels everywhere using just the font size and layout. It was more on par with his traditional paper maps used to be designed. Maximize the information for the user. Nowadays online maps are no longer thought to be used as traditional maps in the sense of using them as a tool to explore / navigate. Now they’re 100% focused on giving you directions. Make it easy to understand the directions, suppress other useless detail because all you need to focus on is the next turn.

This change happened around 2018. Super infuriating that Google made the map less useful for manual navigation.

In which country do you see ads in Google Maps? My Swiss phone (a Samsung) doesn't show anything of sorts.

United States, they highlight retailers or restaurants on the map that are paying for ads alongside other large landmarks.

Yep. This is increasingly pushing me away from Google Maps. Once offline mode comes to Apple, I'll move over completely ...just wish i could bring all my saved locations over.

I'm using the iOS 17 beta so not sure if it is only on 17 or works on 16 also, but you can download parts of the map on the Apple Maps app now

Not only that, but if one of your turns is adjacent to, say, a corner with a McDonald's that's on the map, the direction narration will actually say something like "In 1000 feet, turn right, past the McDonald's on the right." It's so blatant and makes me laugh.

I never stop, FWIW.

There are ads on Google Maps in Switzerland. Example:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Pfister+Z%C3%BCrich+Letzip...

Scroll around Zürich and you should see several.

The United States definitely has ads/promotions on the map.

> Google Maps advertisements on the map.

Ad company puts ad on product. News at 11. =)

Another set of things annoying about Google Maps: - Google shows pins for locations on the map. Often if I try to click one, it zooms in on a new pin on a random lat/lon next to it. This mostly happens when zoomed out with a wide view of the city. Obviously I was going for that random location, not the ad you were trying to show me. - It routinely shows me illegal routes, some of which I don't notice until I'm well on my way to the route. I know some of this is a data problem, but I don't think the cops will care that Google told me to turn at a "no turns during rush hour" place.

That is a good point that I missed in my list. In fact, I think in a recent update, they made the pins dots in an apparent attempt to declutter the map view. Now what you described got even worse, because the points have an even smaller hit box than the pins.

> * Re-route when an Autobahn is closed completely (I am located in Germany). It's a hot mess for some reason, while that's working relatively fine when there are accidents/congestions.

Apple Maps are pretty good about that in the US I think, just today the app was making me avoid a construction closure which hasn't been there last week. However there is still the human error of me thinking that the app couldn't possibly know that so fast so I still drove towards the closure and had to turn around. I think Google Maps tell you if part of the route is closed, not in the Apple Maps though.

I was assuming this was a Europe thing. It seems as if they don’t have correct and complete data of the closed entries and exits. The closure itself was on the map, but the algorithm still failed to plan an appropriate detour. I have had multiple times where I was routed to closed entries over and over to the point where I’d have to park the car and ask a local for directions.

Always tried both apps in those cases and they both didn’t seem to get it.

* Cycling directions, where available, are vastly superior to Google Maps's.

My cycle computer uses Google Maps. I frequently see myself planning a route on Apple Maps, then replicating it on Ride With GPS, then importing it into the device. It's a pain but has allowed me to avoid some pretty bad routes.

> My cycle computer uses Google Maps. […] [Replicating Apple Maps directions is] a pain but has allowed me to avoid some pretty bad routes.

(Sorry for aggressive quote edit.)

Google Maps cycling directions include routes that go against the direction of traffic, even though cycling against traffic is illegal as is riding on sidewalks (where I cycle).

Apple Maps cycling directions take me to the nearest intersection of a destination and instruct me to dismount if the remaining leg would require wrong-way cycling.

Yeah Google also sends me through car tunnels to cross the river. These tend to be quite hazardous, full of exhaust smoke and without any chance to stop for whatever reason (tyre puncture, coughing my lungs out, whatever...).

> Finally, as an iPhone user, my location data is already at Apple. Why give it to someone else?

I see their plan is working! By the way, do you install any 3rd party apps that require location services?

I try not to, but there are some apps whose main purpose depends on location data. In those cases, I check who's behind those apps and try to restrict the times at which they are able to attain location data as best as possible.

> I see their plan is working!

I sense some cynicism here and I partially agree. The thing is: I am currently using an iPhone for lack of an alternative/platform lock-in and so my personal risk/benefit is skewed towards limiting the data sinks to preferably one, which would be Apple. That's just the way it is. Would I like the world to be different? Oh boy, yes...

The big one for me is Citi Bike, and Lyft which require them to work. But it's only while using the app. Otherwise I actually have location services turned off for almost everything and try to just use a zipcode instead.

With Maps I enjoy not using location services because I end up knowing wherever I am better. It's a bit of a pain sometimes to try to figure out where in a city you are based on some street signs but it's really neat when you can talk about a whole neighborhood before the friends you're visiting can!

> By the way, do you install any 3rd party apps that require location services?

You already read that they are cognizant of installing 3rd party apps that handle their location data... You're coming off as condescending and for what, exactly? Someone's preferred map app?

> You're coming off as condescending and for what, exactly? Someone's preferred map app?

I am the author of the original comment. I might come across as an Apple fanboy to some. While I get your point and I think you're right, please let's stop fighting. As long as we fight against each other, they win.

One thing to add.

Google Maps supports Satellite mode on Apple Carplay.

Apple Maps does not.

Its a personal preference thing, but thats 99% where we use maps apps in my house. My wife prefers Sat view. I dont care.

Living in an area where new houses are built and new roads created, Apple is much more up to date than Google. Neither are perfect.

- For Apple, street view has a higher view point, which makes it easier to look at the scene.

There is an option to show the route without highways

> * No dangerous shortcuts where I risk to damage my car

Can you elaborate on this? This seems like a personal anecdote and not a software feature. How does one even define that? You're saying that there are special roads that Apple knows not to travel bug Google does? That seems odd, since the real world doesn't really mark its roads like that.

Apple will take you on the straightforward route that you’d have plotted on a map 30 years ago. The traffic optimization isn’t as aggressive as Google Maps or Waze.

Google will also over-optimize for routes with imperfect information. Here’s an example: Yesterday I was leaving Manhattan for points upstate around 6:30 PM (bad idea) and was routed by Google to the Lincoln tunnel. Google’s route was trash — it magically shaved 20 minutes off the trip by optimizing me onto a side street that would let me cut the line of mayhem to get to the tunnel. The problem is, making a left turn on 10th avenue to get to that road would easily take 20 minutes. Google’s metrics aren’t able to account for that.

Apple’s directions were optimal - West Side Drive to George Washington Bridge. I figured out that I was “getting googled” quickly l, and was able to get out of the gridlock and ultimately arrive at my destination ahead of schedule.

> This seems like a personal anecdote and not a software feature.

It might be.

> How does one even define that?

One example would be a road that is very narrow, but not one-way. Basically so narrow that only one car can drive there. Where I live, there are many such roads on the country side. They tend to be used as shortcuts so that one doesn't need to take the main roads (shorter total distance). But they are dangerous in the sense that you have to pay much more attention when driving there. Google just tends to prefer those for some reason.

> You're saying that there are special roads that Apple knows not to travel bug Google does?

No. I am saying that the directions suggested by Apple Maps tend to avoid those roads, while Google Maps oftentimes doesn't even display an alternative.

> That seems odd, since the real world doesn't really mark its roads like that.

Ever driven on a gravel road slowly to not get stones hitting your car? I am sure there is a way to index the road quality and that this is even easy based on satellite and air photo data.

I believe what you noticed is true. That Google Maps does have a tendency to prefer slightly more difficult roads as "shortcuts".

For example, Waze, which is another decent GPS app that Google owns and sources data from, even has an option for this!

It is called something like "avoid difficult roads/intersections".

Two examples with Google Maps:

1. In the US, driving in a rural area, Google took me down a five-mile stretch of gravel road between two farms. It's questionable whether this was actually a public road, as I got an odd look from a farmer on his tractor. Admittedly, this saved about 30 minutes.

2. In the UK, Google Maps routinely tries to lead me down narrow country lanes to save 1-2 minutes. In many cases, it will take me off an A road (read: main route) onto a single-lane country lane flanked by hedges. It's bad enough that when I'm using Google Maps, I specifically look at the map at each turn it suggests to see if it has an alternate route highlighted that keeps me on the main road, and I choose that route instead.

I don't experience these things as much with Apple Maps, which seems tuned to keep me on main routes.

Google maps is very eager to re-route around traffic which ends up taking you down back roads (atleast in the US). Which are narrow, not controlled-access, poorly lit, and maybe windy and poorly maintained depending on where you are. And it does all this to save a couple of minutes at best. Everyone is using Google maps and getting the same rerouting suggestion so the backroads get filled and slow down eliminating any benefit.

Apple Maps is much more likely to use the “typical” option which is usually a controlled access freeway which are MUCH safer (in my opinion and I believe the traffic accident rates support it).

The user might mean that Google decides to encourage side roads or dirt paths where Apple sticks to main thoroughfares. This could be related to the input it gained from acquiring Waze, which often took people down residential roads to avoid main road bottlenecks. https://www.streetlightdata.com/waze-traffic-effect-4-steps-...

Google will assume all tertiary roads are equally passable. Apple’s algorithm appears to deprioritize such roads unless there’s no other possible way.

I know in Waze at least there is an option to enable tricky junctions, I don't think Google Maps has any such concept.

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