Apple Maps’ new detailed maps are rolling out to new countries. Here’s the complete list of which countries have the new detailed Apple Maps…
It’s hard to believe but Apple Maps is a decade old as of early 2023. Later this year it will turn 11. But it wasn’t until Apple Maps turned 6 in 2018 that the app moved closer to being an actual competitor with Google Maps.
2018 is when Apple started rolling out new, hyper-detailed maps to states in the United States. In the years since, these detailed maps have expanded to more countries – with another half-dozen that’s just received the updates as of April 2023.
Here’s everything you need to know about the detailed Apple Maps – starting with which countries now offer them.
What Countries Have The New Details Apple Maps? 2023 List
This month Apple announced it was expanding its detailed Apple Maps to six more countries: Austria, Croatia, Czechia, Hungary, Poland, and Slovenia. With that, Apple’s new detailed maps are in more places than ever. But just how many countries sport the new maps?
There’s an excellent Apple Maps blog run by Justin O’Beirne, who is somewhat of an expert on Apple’s mapping software, and thanks to his work, we now have a complete list as of April 2023. The countries that support the new Apple Maps are:
- Andorra
- Austria
- Australia
- Belgium
- Canada
- Croatia
- Czechia
- France
- Finland
- Germany
- Hungary
- Israel
- Italy
- Ireland
- Liechtenstein
- Luxembourg
- Monaco
- The Netherlands
- New Zealand
- Norway
- Palestinian Territories
- Poland
- Portugal
- San Marino
- Saudi Arabia
- Singapore
- Slovenia
- Spain
- Sweden
- Switzerland
- United Kingdom
- United States
- Vatican City
That’s 33 countries and territories so far. Unfortunately, there are 195 countries in the world (if you go by UN figures), which means Apple Maps still has a way to go in its detailed maps rollout.
Justin O’Beirne has actually crunched the numbers after the latest Apple Maps additions of Austria, Croatia, Czechia, Hungary, Poland, and Slovenia and found that Apple Maps’ new detailed maps now cover 21.6% of the planet’s land surface, which holds 11.7% of the global population.
Obviously, Apple seems to have been concentrating on the new maps rollout in some of its more profitable regions so far – mainly North America and Europe. However, the detailed new maps are still lacking in many major Apple commercial territories including Japan, China, and India.
What Is New About The Detailed Apple Maps?
In short, Apple Maps’ new detailed maps are much richer in detail than the original Apple Maps maps. You can notice a better representation of buildings, a better color pallet, and things like crosswalks and other street markings.
Announcing the newest Maps rollout to Austria, Croatia, Czechia, Hungary, Poland, and Slovenia, Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Services, explained:
“Maps has been rebuilt from the ground up, with better navigation, richer detail, more accurate information for places, and remarkable features that only Apple can deliver, like Look Around, Natural Language Guidance, and more. Now it is easier than ever for users to find the places they love and get to where they’re going.”
Eddy Cue
It’s fair to say that the new detailed Apple Maps actually look better than Google Maps. And the new Look Around feature, which is Apple’s version of Google Maps Streetview, is nothing short of stunning. Look Around makes Streetview look archaic.
However, Google Maps still beats Apple Maps on some fronts. An area where Google Maps dominates is point of interest (POI) information. These are the cards that appear when you tap on a business or landmark. Google’s POI data – from photos to reviews is so much more detailed than Apple Maps’ POI data.
For how much longer, though, remains to be seen. It’s likely Apple will introduce more Apple Maps improvements in iOS 17.
