In context: Apple has at all times saved its Maps app locked away in its walled backyard. The corporate not too long ago began increasing entry to it. Final yr, it launched a beta model of Apple Maps for internet browsers – although it was a piece in progress.
Initially, customers may solely entry the Maps internet app from desktops or tablets. Now, Apple has quietly dropped the beta tag from the URL and opened the service to different cell units, together with its rival – Android.
Whether or not Android customers will need to use Apple Maps is a wholly totally different query. The net app capabilities extra like an internet site than the native Maps app. We examined it and located no inherent benefit over Google’s market-leading Maps app. It is a pretty restricted expertise and would not help logins for saved information, transit maps, 3D buildings, and different superior options.
It feels subpar for Apple merchandise. It looks like a minimal effort to appease regulators. The Cupertino powerhouse has confronted intense antitrust strain domestically and overseas. Regulators, notably in Europe, have pushed the corporate to open its ecosystem. So now Apple Maps has an online app. No one mentioned it have to be good, and Cupertino has little interest in competing within the webspace.
Regardless of the motives, any consumer on any machine can now entry Apple Maps from any browser by going to “maps.apple.com.” The net app helps search and navigation capabilities. It additionally has Apple’s Look Round street-level imagery (added a number of months again), much like Google’s Road View.
Customers who need a extra seamless native-app-like expertise can add the net app to their residence display screen. Simply faucet the “Add to residence display screen” button on Chrome. Doing this creates a rapidly accessible shortcut to the web site for many who plan to make use of it continuously.
Apple has not too long ago expanded its providers footprint, step by step bringing merchandise like Apple TV+ and Apple Music to rival Home windows and Android techniques. So, who’s to say a local Apple Maps app for Android is not within the playing cards? Nonetheless, Cupertino would probably want a financial incentive to make that transfer.
