Apple Maps’ more detailed, three-dimensional cities that launched with iOS 15 are coming to Canada, offering better driving navigation, transit directions, and an augmented reality walking experience. The company has announced that the new city experience is available in Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver. The feature was previously available in a half a dozen US cities — Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, San Diego, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. — as well as London in the UK.
It’s a welcome expansion. When we reviewed iOS 15 last year our only real issue with the enhanced mapping experience was its extremely limited availability. But, where available, it offers a sizable improvement to how cities look in Apple’s software, and even includes 3D models of major landmarks. From a functional perspective, these improvements help with driving directions, like showing more detail about which road lanes to use.
:format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23344412/Apple_Maps_update_2022_CA_cycling_directions.jpg)
As well as driving navigation, directions for public transit will also see improvements in the added cities. Apple Maps will give you a notification when it’s time to disembark, and there are also user interface improvements like letting users pin their favorite transit lines to make their preferred routes more easily available. Walkers also benefit, and can get step-by-step directions in augmented reality, while cycling directions (a feature that originally came to Apple Maps with iOS 14) are also now available in Montreal.
