Apple Maps: Complete Guide to iOS 13

 In iOS 13, Apple applied changes to several of the built-in iOS applications, and Maps is no exception. The latest version of Maps has a long list of new features intended to make the Apple Maps app more capable of competing with other companies' mapping applications.

A new Look Around street view level feature is available, a Collections feature to aggregate lists of your favourite locations, a Favorites option to quickly get to your most frequently visited places, and several other smaller updates worth knowing about.

Maps Redesign

In iOS 12, Apple released a reconstructed, modified Maps app that uses a Maps engine developed by Apple to provide more detailed views of items such as trees, pools, houses, pedestrian paths, and more.

In iOS 13, the development completed in iOS 12 continues with Apple extending the new Maps app to the United States as a whole as of January 2020. Apple also plans to carry to Europe the revamped Maps app.

 These map updates were listed by Apple on stage when unveiling iOS 13 and promised improved information for highways, beaches, parks, houses, and more. Overall, iOS 12 maps look similar to iOS 13 in states where new maps have already been rolled out, but more information could come in the future and some minor improvements are worth pointing out.

Road Hazards and Traffic Conditions

The app now shows road hazards and traffic conditions while viewing the main Maps interface, so you can see the route ahead at a glance. This information was previously available, but only when turn-by-turn directions were enabled.

In iOS 13, traffic information is visible on the main map too.

Junction View

A Junction View feature is introduced by iOS 13 to help drivers avoid wrong turns and directional misses by lining them up before a turn or an elevated road in the correct lane.

Siri Directions

In iOS 13, Siri offers more natural directions. Siri will instead opt to say "in 1,000 feet turn left," instead of saying something like "turn left at the next traffic light," which is an easier instruction to obey since there is no distance calculation involved.

Venue Navigation Improvements

Apple Maps now provides enhancements that are ideally suited to getting you to your end-point destination while you are navigating to something like a concert at a large venue.

Real-Time Transit Schedules

In order to provide improved overall route planning, the Maps app also provides real-time transit schedules, arrival times, network stops and system connections for transit directions.

Real-time information like outages, cancellations, and other changes are also listed in the Apple Maps app.

ETA Sharing

There's a new way for friends, family and colleagues to share your approximate time of arrival. Your ETA will be dynamically changed, adjusting even when there is a large pause in traffic. During the subsequent beta, this feature was withdrawn from iOS 13, but could be re-added in the future.

Flight Status

Maps will now show up-to-the-minute flight terminal information, gate locations, departure times, and more.

Place Cards for Businesses

To be more helpful and simpler to use, Place Cards for companies have been revised. For example, when you look up an Apple Store, you'll see data like Today times at Apple sessions, or movie times when you look up a movie theatre.

Look Around

Look Around is a new feature for Apple Maps that is supposed to be the equivalent of Google Street View for Apple. Look Around gives a street-level view of what's around you or a spot in the Maps app that you're looking for.

Whenever there is a pair of binoculars visible, you can use Look Around in the main Apple Maps display. Tapping the binoculars icon delves into a small card with a close-up street level view of the area, which you can tap again to get a full screen view of Look Around.

Look Around can also be brought up when searching for specific supported locations by tapping on the Look Around card in the search results.

Tapping on the monitor helps you to pass around the Look Around area while in Look Around mode, and tapping a spot far off in the distance does a cool zoom in manoeuvre that is fun to watch.

In Look Around all prominent points of interest are illustrated with the recognition of landmarks and place names, such as restaurants, businesses, parks, and more, so you can say what is what.

Look Around is restricted to places where a car can go because it uses data on a vehicle taken from a 360-degree camera. That means that for example, you can't zoom into areas such as parks or beaches, but you can see what's visible from the street.

Look Around was limited to parts of California, Nevada, and Hawaii at launch, but since then it has spread to Los Angeles, Houston, New York City, Boston, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. In 2019 and 2020, Apple plans to continue the expansion.

Collections

Collections allow you to check for lists of various locations, such as restaurants you might want to try or places you might want to visit, and compile them.

Collection lists can be shared, so you can make up lists of places for friends and family visiting you in your city and then share it with them, for example.

Favorites

Favorites is a new function for Maps that allows you to scan for certain locations and then add them to a list. Favorites are intended for regularly visited sites, and Home and Work are already added by design.

You can add to the Favorites list any location you go to sometimes, such as a favourite restaurant or coffee shop, or the house of a friend. Tapping on one of your favourites automatically brings up directions to that location, so consider it a speed dial choice for maps.

Maps Feedback Form

In iOS 13, Apple launched a new customer feedback interface, designed to make it easier for users of Apple Maps to request corrections for items such as incorrect addresses, company locations, or hours of service.

CarPlay

CarPlay has been added to all of the latest features implemented in the Maps app on iOS 13, such as Favourites, Collections, and Junction View. The Maps app also offers modified route planning, scan, and navigation in 'CarPlay'.