Roger Fingas
Google on Tuesday updated the iOS version of Google Maps with CarPlay support, taking advantage of iOS 12's ability to employ navigation options beyond Apple Maps.
Although Google Maps lacks integration with Siri, the app offers its own voice search tool. The app also automatically carries over home, work and bookmarked addresses associated with a Google account, and users can choose to push an address to an iPhone via the web.
Google's CarPlay interface is in many respects similar to Apple's, including some identical pop-ups. It of course relies on Google's mapping data and has custom settings, which can be used to toggle things like a satellite view or avoiding toll roads.
Drivers can moreover access their personal place lists and navigate offline if they've already cached data in a particular area.
Support for third-party navigation has been one of the most common demands from CarPlay users. Google's maps and directions are typically considered more reliable than Apple's, and even today Google Maps is the seventh-most popular free app at the App Store, despite Apple's option being built into iOS.
Google is meanwhile working on adding CarPlay to its other navigation app, Waze. A compatible update is already in beta testing.
William Gallagher
Mike Wuerthele
Chip Loder
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Marko Zivkovic
Malcolm Owen
28 Comments
While I might not use this over Apple Maps, choices are good, and might encourage more investment by car manufacturers to support CarPlay, including one day, I hope, wireless carplay.
BMW already has wireless CarPlay. I'm assuming some other manufacturers are offering that as well?
I’d really like to see Apple Maps add waypoints and the ability to adjust routes like Google Maps does (can’t believe I said anything from google has capabilities I like).
For me personally, I think Apple Maps look so much better compared to Google Maps. On Apple Maps, all the houses and buildings are in 3D in my area and that looks way more aesthetically pleasing on the eye compared to Google Maps. One big pet peeve of mine on Google Maps is the lack of labeling on bodies of water. While trying out Google Maps in CarPlay this afternoon, I drove over a river and next to a lake. Neither were labeled. On Apple Maps, they are. There is a setting to show speed limits, but so far, I haven't seen any while use Google Maps in CarPlay. Apple Maps shows speed limits on all the roads where I live.
Although I’m incredibly unlikely to ever use Google Maps, as I don’t want them to know where I travel to and try to sell me stuff based on that or sell that information elsewhere, I’m delighted that third-party navigation app are now available. And for those few people where Google Maps is in fact better (or Waze, to name a better example) than what Apple Maps offers (this perception was true once, but now it’s more myth than reality IMO — Google Maps has gotten me lost plenty of times!), it’s great that they have the option.
Rob53’s point about waypoints is certainly a true advantage, though I find I just say “hey Siri, directions to [destination 1]” and then ask Siri for directions to the second destination [et al], so I haven’t missed waypoints. It would be nice for Apple can add that feature in the future, but “adjusting routes” is a thing already built into Apple Maps now. When asking for a given destination, the Maps app usually offers me at least two options on how to go — and of course if I choose to veer off the selected route (say, due to traffic) and join the other route, Maps just recalculates and eventually puts me on the other path. In my case, if I need to go seriously off-route because of a problem, I generally call up Waze and have it give me an alternative.