Apple Maps Ads Are Here, and There's No Way to Turn Them Off | Hacker News Reader

Apple Maps Ads Are Here, and There's No Way to Turn Them Off

macrumors.com

48 pointsrobtherobber15 comments

People are annoyed at apple’s recent lack of polish in software, but the increasing monetization and push into services are a bigger issue imo. You pay the apple premium for hardware and the hardware is indeed great, but you’re increasingly treated like a piggy bank. Line must go up.

In regard to Maps: if all you want is a gps, there’s many apps that use OpenStreetMap data. I use CoMaps myself. You download the map(s) you want and it just works, no forced updates or ads or anything in the way of upselling.

Strangely enough I often use Google Maps on my iPhone because I'm looking for businesses that have no presence on Apple Maps. I don't see the opportunity for companies to present themselves in Apple's app as a net negative for users.

Line must go up.

The margins in the services category are much higher (76.7%) than hardware (38.7%) [1] and much easier to grow in an already saturated smartphone market. So yeah, time to throw the customers under the bus.

[1] https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/apple-earn...

when I switched from Windows to Apple the amount of ads was the same. The only thing that changed was that they were Apple's ads. Apple hardware is great, but it's being severely botched by it's software. Seems like software is hard, no matter how much money you have.

They should have said "No": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8eP99neOVs

Are there any privacy focused, non profit alternatives?

No, because in maps category, people demand no inconveniences or compromises at all. Often the same people, who put up with Linux distros' shenanigans, curiously.

I use Organic Maps (on android, I assume the ios version is decent too).

https://organicmaps.app/

I just installed this just out of curiosity and it seems to be very well polished. Gonna try it on my next drive.

I used it too and it gets you from A to B but there is nothing that tells it if there is a road closure, traffic jam, other road issues that makes the drive longer etc etc.

I just got informed by a friend about the controversy surrounding the app.

https://itsfoss.com/news/organic-maps-fork-comaps/

https://www.comaps.app/

CoMaps: The Offline App That Guided Rescuers Without a Signal in Venezuela - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49452671 - August 2026

For-profit, but privacy focused and 100 % Web and open-source, no ads : https://cartes.app (I'm the main dev)

Think just the same

‘Enshittification is the gradual process where online platforms and services decline in quality as companies shift from pleasing users to ruthlessly maximizing corporate profits.’

Reply on news.ycombinator.com