(pocket-lint) – Apple Maps has come a long way since it was first launched in 2012. With a decade under its belt, and some major improvements over the years, now there’s definitely an argument for Apple users to choose Apple Maps. Alternatives like Google Maps offered integration with the rest of Apple’s ecosystem.
There are also some great tips and tricks within Apple Maps to help you get the most out of it. Here are 14 of our favourites.
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make a guide
Apple Maps has a feature within it called Guides. For example, maybe you’re planning a day trip to London and you want to make sure you visit several places, whether it’s a landmark, bar, restaurant or park.
You can create your own guide in Apple Maps to help organize your trip.
Find a location > Swipe up from the bottom card > Tap the Guide button > New guide > Name your guide > Create.
Once you’ve created your guide, you can continue to discover other places and add them to your guide by swiping up from the bottom, tapping the guide button, and selecting your guide from the list.
Tapping on the guide you’ve created will show you a list of the places you’ve put it in, and some useful information about each location, like opening hours. You can also sort by date pair, name and distance.
If you want to view or edit your guide, swipe up from the bottom of the search bar in Apple Maps and scroll down until you reach My Guide. Tap on your guide and tap Edit in the bottom left corner. From here it’s also possible to share your guide with anyone who has a guide link to view its contents.
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Explore Curated Guides
If you don’t want to create your own guides, Apple Maps also has curated ones created by various outlets like Lonely Planet, Culture Whisper, and TimeOut, to name but a few.
To view curated guides, swipe up from the search bar at the bottom of your screen and scroll until you reach Guides We Love. You can then scroll through guides selected by Apple, or you can tap Explore Guides and filter by different categories, such as Food & Drink, Things to Do, and Nightlife.
Once you’ve selected a guide to view, you can press the “+” next to each location to add it to a new guide or an existing guide that you’ve already started.
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look around
Apple Maps has a feature called Look Around that works similar to Street View in Google Maps.
Whenever you see the binocular icon in the lower left corner of a map, you can tap on it to reveal a pop up at the top of the map that allows you to see how the location really is in real life. Looks.
The pop up only covers the top half of your screen by default, but if you tap on the arrows in the top left corner of the pop up, it will spread over your entire screen. You can also move your finger on the pop up to, well, look around.
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share your ETA
Apple Maps allows you to share your ETA so it’s easy for the person you’re meeting to get real time updates on what time you’ll be arriving. They can’t track your status, but they’ll get an update if you’re not on time.
To share your ETA, start the directions to the location you’re going to and press Go. At the bottom of your screen, you’ll see your arrival time, the time taken to travel, and the number of miles or kilometers.
To the right of this information is a gray arrow, tap it to expand the menu and then tap Share ETA. The person you want to share your ETA with may be in the list of contacts, if not, tap Open Contacts and select the person you want to share your ETA with.
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3D. Flyover your favorite city in
There’s a really cool feature on Apple Maps called Flyover, which essentially allows you to see some cities from above in 3D and either take a tour or walk around, which you can do by moving your phone or Can do by using your fingers.
Find the city you want to “flyover” and tap Search. If this facility is available for that city, then next to the Directions button, you will see the Flyover button.
Tap the flyover button and then either tap “Start Tour” or move your phone or finger around to look around.
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reduce interruptions
If you’re listening to a podcast or audiobook and you don’t want spoken directions from Apple Maps to disturb them, you can change the settings so they don’t and your new favorite podcast or book isn’t interrupted When you have to take the next left.
On your iPhone, open Settings > Scroll down on Maps > Scroll down to Spoken Directions > Toggle Directions Pause Podcasts.
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Find out where you parked your car
Apple Maps will remember when you park your car so you don’t have to. This is great for times where you might have to drive on an extra road to park that you don’t even know about, or when you’re in an area you don’t know at all.
A connection to your car’s Bluetooth or CarPlay stereo is required for this feature to work, but as long as you have it and your location can be determined while parking, the location map of your parked car But will be shown later.
Open Settings > Scroll down to Apple Maps > Scroll down to Show parked location and toggle it on. You also need to make sure that Location Services is turned on for your device, and that System Services has Critical Locations turned on.
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add a stop
Ever started taking directions to get somewhere and realized you needed petrol, or wanted to stop for coffee along the way?
Apple Maps allows you to add a stop to your current directions without having to start over. When you start taking directions, tap the gray arrow at the bottom of the screen and tap ‘Add a Stop’.
You can then choose from Diners, Petrol Stations, Coffee, Parking, Corner Shops and Banks. Tapping on any category will bring you a list of options, where you can select it and press “Go” to add it to your itinerary.
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Scan nearby buildings to find your location
When you first start getting directions from Apple Maps, it can be a little confusing to figure out, especially when you’re using the app for walking directions.
You can scan the buildings around you though to get a better idea of where you are and which direction you should go.
Start your directions as normal and when you’re in Directions mode, you’ll see a hexagon shape in a circle appear on the right edge of the screen, below the mute button.
Tapping on it will allow you to scan buildings across the street to help you better define your location. It needs good lighting and won’t work for all routes, but it’s worth a try if you’re a little confused.
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use compass mode
If the building mode in the tip above isn’t available for your route, there’s also a compass mode. When compass mode is on, your phone will become compass and the map will rotate based on your phone’s position.
To turn on Compass Mode, start your Directions as normal and then tap the wiggly line icon on the right edge of your screen. Then you just need to move your phone around and you should be able to figure out which direction you need to proceed.
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allow third party extensions
This is a great tip, although there aren’t many third party apps that are compatible with this feature of Apple Maps at the moment.
There are two categories of extensions that will work within Apple Maps when enabled. These include ride booking and restaurant booking. For ride booking, you can choose to toggle on an app like Uber so that they show up when you’re looking for directions for example and you’ll get a ride directly through Apple Maps, rather than having to switch between Apple Maps and Uber. Booking is allowed.
For restaurant bookings, a similar principal applies, where you can toggle on compatible apps like OpenTable to show the restaurant’s available tables as seen in a map.
To toggle on third party extensions, open Settings > Tap on Apple Maps > Scroll down to Extensions. Tapping on Ride Booking will show you compatible apps in this category that you’ve downloaded to your device, you can toggle off individually, while Restaurant Booking will do the same for this category.
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Turn on Do Not Disturb
If you don’t want to be bothered by notifications while driving, you can use Driving Focus to set Apple Maps to automatically turn on Do Not Disturb mode when it senses you’re on the road.
Notifications will still arrive on your device, but you won’t be able to see them until you turn this feature on. Open Control Center on your device and tap on the focus tile.
If you tap the “+” at the bottom of your screen, you can select Driving Focus from the list. Tap Next and set your preferences. You can choose to allow calls and notifications from certain contacts or choose not to allow anyone. The next time you start driving, notifications will be turned off automatically unless you stop someone who isn’t on your list.
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Use fingers to change view
You can switch different views on Apple Maps with just two fingers. Swiping up or down with two fingers will switch the view between 2D and 3D.
To zoom in on Apple Maps, tap the screen with two fingers and separate them from each other. To zoom out, tap the screen with two fingers and move them closer together.
You can also move the map by tapping with two fingers and rotating them in a circle.
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take a look inside
Apple Maps provides maps of the inside of certain places, such as airports and shopping centers, to help you navigate around.
For example let’s say you are in London Heathrow Airport Terminal 5, you can use Apple Maps to find toilets, check in desks, gates, shops and restaurants. On the right edge of your screen, you can select different levels and if you swipe up from the bottom card, you can filter by the different things you’re looking for, like toilets or restaurants.
Written by Britta O’Boyle.
