by Josh Teder

Introduction

Google Maps and Apple Maps are the two biggest players in maps that you can use today. And I’ve been using both of these apps for well over six months. And in this video, I’m not just going to put their routing to the test, but also their design features and hopefully be able to give you a better sense of whether Google Maps is still the best option or if Apple has actually caught up and surpassed the competition.

First Road Trip Test

All right, so this is our longish road trip, about 2 and 1/2 hours. I’ve already got our destination on both Apple Maps and Google Maps. Interesting. They both routed me the exact same way. Now, let’s see which one does better. Continue on road.

Okay, both about even there.

There’s a severe thunderstorm warning and Apple was basically like, “Hey, do you want a safer route to go that goes around this thunderstorm?” And I was like, “Yeah, sure.” So, that’s an interesting feature. I didn’t even realize Apple did that. Google doesn’t appear to. All right. And we just arrived back. In general, I think Apple Maps is just slightly more helpful. What do I mean by that? Instead of telling you “in half a mile turn right,” Apple Maps will actually say “at the light turn left onto Southeast Maynard Road. In 1,000 ft, turn left onto Southeast Maynard Road.” It’s just a bit more plain English than Google is and doesn’t make you calculate like, “Wait, what does 2 miles actually feel like?” But the other thing that makes Apple Maps generally, I feel like, a little bit more helpful: It will just give you more of a heads up when you need to turn than Google Maps does. It’s not like Google Maps gives you the thing and then immediately you’re turning. It does also give you a bit more warning as well, but Apple Maps gives you even more notice than Google Maps does. All right, so that was one trip. But before we get to the next one, let’s dive a little deeper into both of these apps because there’s actually more of a difference than you might think.

App Design Differences

From opening both of these apps up, you can clearly see some pretty significant design distinctions. When I open Google Maps, I see a search bar, categories of places I might like to go, and then a “latest in the area” slide with places of interest if I’m looking for something to do in a particular area. Apple Maps opens to a map with a search bar at the bottom, sometimes featuring suggested places it knows I frequently visit and not much else. Another significant difference from Apple Maps you’ll notice at the bottom of Google’s is that it has three distinct tabs at the bottom of its app, which highlights one of the biggest differences I think there is between Google Maps and Apple Maps. They have an entire tab dedicated to contributing to their massive amount of data with Google reviews and images. You can contribute photos you take at places and review places you go to, all from within the app to help make Google Maps better. Another place where I’ve noticed a difference is with store hours accuracy. At least in part of the U.S. I’m in, I’ve had much more trouble with Apple Maps not having accurate hours, saying a place is open when it’s temporarily closed. Whereas Google Maps has had better data here. I’m guessing store owners feel the need to just update Google Maps hours because that’s also typically going to affect their Google listings page when people search for them on Google. And it’ll cover both Android and iPhone versus Apple Maps, which just covers iPhone. So people just don’t think of it as much, which does hurt its data accuracy.

Multi-Stop Routing Design

Now, speaking of design differences, let’s talk about multi-stop routing design. I like Apple Maps’s overall layout for this. First, there is a prominent “add stop” button, “share ETA,” “report an incident,” and then navigation volume. A few simple, highly used options. Google Maps has a few more options, but it’s weird to me at least that “add a stop” isn’t the first thing you see. Though, their “search along the route” option is similar and gives you the ability to add a stop. It’s also not at the top of the list. They also have a directions list if you want to see that view. Though, I do like Apple’s design of just being able to pull down a tab at the top to fluidly access it. Once you actually start driving though, when it comes to actually navigating, there are some noticeable differences which will become clear as we take a look at trip number two.

Second Trip and CarPlay Experience

Trip number two with Apple Maps and Google Maps. And I was able to actually put them in a vehicle’s display. So, you can kind of see what CarPlay looks like with both of these apps. Google Maps will actually show you your current speed and what the speed limit is, where Apple Maps just shows you the current speed limit, but does not show you your current speed at all. The one difference between the two that I thought Apple Maps was a little bit better at is it makes what lane you need to be in a bit more prominent when driving. That’s a really nice feature for CarPlay. The only other difference I did notice between the two, again, kind of going back to the theme of Apple Maps just being a little bit more helpful, is it was just more consistent at telling you what lane you needed to be in in order to make the next turn correctly. Google Maps does give that information often. It’s just not as consistent as Apple Maps. Additionally, Apple Maps has a cleaner aesthetic that I personally find a bit more pleasing to look at and a bit easier to read, but that is completely subjective. And if you disagree or agree, let me know in the comments.

Sponsor: Plaud Note

And speaking of technology used to plan and track, now let’s talk about this video sponsor, Plaud Note, which you can use to capture and organize information in a way that’s actually useful later. The Plaud Note is an AI notetaker as thin as a credit card. Measuring just 2.9 mm and weighing only 29 g. It features 64 gigs of storage allowing for up to 480 hours of recordings and can record continuously for 30 hours on a single charge. That’s right. It’ll record the audio of a meeting that you’re having so you can stay engaged without having to worry about taking copious notes. After the meeting, it can automatically transcribe your recordings into 112 different languages, creates summaries, mind maps. It identifies different speakers, removes filler words, and organizes everything into readable notes that you can search through later. All by using the GPT-4o and Claude 3.5 Sonnet models. It’ll easily slip into your pocket or into a MagSafe case, so it’s easy to bring with you. You get 300 transcription minutes per month to start. And then for heavier users, there’s a pro plan with 1,200 minutes and professional templates. Check out the Plaud Note today by using the link in the description and pinned comment. It’s backed by a 30-day money back guarantee and a one-year warranty, so you can try it risk-free today.

iOS Integration and Visual Features

Another nice feature is that Google Maps will keep your directions as a live activity in iOS and Dynamic Island so you can easily get back to it. Apple Maps will be in the Dynamic Island but will just take up the entire lock screen itself. An example of Apple giving itself an ability Google doesn’t have access to on the iPhone. I do like that Apple has that little street view explorer icon in the corner. Though in the areas that I’ve checked it with recent development, at least here in my city, Google seems to have more frequent updates to their Street View images than Apple does. Speaking of visual features, one of Apple Maps’s classic differentiating features is Flyover. This feature allows you to click on a city’s name and tap Flyover, providing a tour of points of interest within the city. It’s even now expanded to smaller cities like Raleigh. Google has a feature that’s similar called Immersive View, but instead of giving you a flying tour of a city, it allows you to see different landmarks at various points throughout the day. Like the Golden Gate Bridge with interactive traffic. Google Maps does have 3D versions of its mapping software like Apple’s, but oddly it’s not in satellite view. You’ll need to download the Google Earth app to explore places with a 3D view.

Public Transit and Alternative Transportation

Now, up until this point, I’ve been a bit too focused on driving directions, but of course, not everybody drives everywhere, like we unfortunately have to do almost everywhere in the United States. If you’re lucky enough to have decent public transit, how do these apps fare for that? Google Maps overall has better global transit coverage. Apple Maps does have real-time arrival times and subway station layouts in select cities like San Francisco and the Bay Area though, which is very cool. I do wish Apple Maps and Google Maps integrated with more transit systems so you could see where the trains were in real time. Both Google Maps and Apple Maps will show you the fare cost when applicable. And if biking is more of your thing, Google Maps is more robust worldwide, while Apple Maps has limited coverage from what I’ve seen reported at least. But in my area, both seemed pretty equivalent, giving me not only different route options, but elevation along the route. And Apple Maps even alerted me to a steep tunnel where I might need to walk my bike.

Map Downloads and Trip Planning

When it comes to downloading maps, both have that ability, and Google can auto-download recommended maps for you, like maps around your home, so you use less data. Apple has similar settings, but they’ll only appear when you start to download a new map or have previously downloaded one. Another really important feature of any map app is trip planning and finding cool and interesting places to check out. When I plan trips to places, I typically start with Google Maps to get a sense of the city, including landmarks, parks, things to do, nearby hotels, and restaurants. I also look at photos and reviews, all from Google Maps. Now, that’s not to say that Apple Maps doesn’t have this either, but it’s not first-party data. Here in the U.S., at least, they’re pulling the images and reviews from other partners like OpenTable, Yelp, and Foursquare. Google just does a better job when you look at a restaurant. Google Maps gives more screen real estate to photos, which I personally find helpful. They also have a better feature for viewing menus. You can see photos of menu items people have taken. When you click a menu on Apple Maps, it just links you to the actual restaurant’s menu, which is helpful, but I personally prefer Google’s approach here. And with reviews on Google Maps, I can go straight to looking up the reviews, unlike with Apple Maps where it’ll often kick me over to another provider like Yelp.

Saving Places and Collaboration Features

This all ties into another important feature for planning any sort of trip, and that’s being able to save places to lists. This is actually part of how I plan all of my trips. You can see all of the places I flagged during my Ireland and Iceland trip last year, which helped us decide exactly where we wanted to go, as well as the cool shops and restaurants nearby. Google Maps also makes it really easy to invite other Google Maps users to your lists, so you can both collaborate together on trip planning. Apple’s similar feature called Guides is somewhat hidden. You need to click on the three dots menu to view it. Apple does something kind of interesting with places, though. You can just add them to your personal library, kind of like a song in Apple Music. Your work, home, and other addresses like school can all be saved here, too. You can also click on a place like your home for example and click on “add person” under “share ETA” to automatically notify another person every time you navigate to this pin which is a fantastic feature for couples and families and something I can’t believe Google doesn’t also have. This makes it so your spouse will know your ETA every time you’re navigating home.

Search and Apple Watch Integration

Now, another big part of both of these apps is, of course, search. Both can allow you to do searches like “coffee shop with outdoor seating,” but again, Google’s layout is just a bit nicer with larger images, a snippet of a review or description of each place next to it. And as you’d expect, Google just lets you search more specific types of places. For example, it allowed me to search for a “bean-to-bar chocolate shop,” which Apple Maps does not allow you to do as a category. It only allowed for “chocolate shop” as a category. Though, Google did surface chocolate shops that weren’t actually bean-to-bar. So, it works, but kind of doesn’t. Another nice integration for both in theory is Apple Watch support. Apple Maps has had tap for turn-by-turn navigation directions for a while now. But nowadays you can do this too with Google Maps on the Apple Watch. Though you’ll need to start navigating somewhere with Google Maps on your phone and then open the Google Maps app up on your watch to get this to work. With Apple Maps, it’ll automatically open on your watch when you start navigating from your phone.

Walking Directions Test

All right. Now, these Maps apps aren’t just for driving or public transit. Of course, they’re also for walking. So, now let’s put that scenario to the test. All right, it’s nighttime and I’m here at the downtown Kerry Park and I’m going to do walking directions on my phone now to the train station just down the road. It’ll give me a good sense for how each app routes at night on pedestrian streets. Couple things I noticed. One, Apple Maps actually gave me directions through the foot paths in the downtown Kerry Park, which is very impressive given that park is quite new. It’s not even 2 years old yet. The directions it gave me though were not quite correct. It was trying to put me on a path that you’re not really supposed to walk down and stuff. So I just kind of went back to the road and had it redirect me. Another thing that was interesting is Google will actually show you the steps, the foot path alongside the road that you need to take, including a jut out at the intersections that Apple Maps’ view does not show you when being a pedestrian just doing walking directions on a city street. And the last thing, I wasn’t able to trigger it while the directions were running or after for some reason in my location, but both Apple Maps and Google Maps have an AR overlay mode that’ll show you arrows of where to go next that overlay the live feed from your phone camera.

Final Verdict and Conclusion

So, after multiple types of trips, looking at both apps and their designs, which is better? Unfortunately, I think it’s actually a bit of a tie because as I’ve been editing this video and seeing how these two maps apps have performed, there are actually two key categories with two distinct winners, if you will. For the first category, which I would consider just using a map, trip planning, Google Maps is the clear winner. It just has way better features and better data for that type of use case. But then there’s the other use case that a lot of people use these apps for, which is navigation. And that is where I think Apple Maps really shines. It just does a better, more consistent job and is more helpful with actual navigation. So, those are my thoughts, but now it’s your turn. I know based on your location, the navigation differences between Apple Maps and Google Maps might be significant. So, let me know if you agree with my take or disagree in the comments, and that’ll help other people determine which app is best for them to use. And if you want to see more of my popular comparison videos, like my phone comparisons or comparisons between Apple Music and Spotify, you can get to those by clicking here. And you can click here to see reviews on some of the other devices you saw me using in this video, like the Meta Ray-Bans or the iPhone 16 Pro Max. And you can see all of the products I recommend at any time by visiting sixmonthslater.net/shop.

For Six Months Later, I’m Josh Tedder. Thanks for watching.