Apple has improved Apple Maps frequently over the years. Considering how widely criticized the app was when it first launched, Apple has been successful in rehabilitating its web mapping and direction app for iOS. It may now even be some iPhone users’ map app of choice.
However, Google Maps still reigns supreme in the category. Others prefer Waze, another navigation app from Google.
Unfortunately, for those iPhone users that never quite warmed up to Apple Maps, there hasn’t been a way to change iOS’ default Apple Maps app to an alternative — until now.
Changing the default navigation app in iOS 18?
Apple is finally going to let some iOS users change their default maps app from Apple Maps to one they might prefer such as Google Maps or Waze.
The news comes from a report that Apple released last week, which detailed how the company is preparing to comply with the EU’s new Big Tech regulations known as the Digital Markets Act (DMA).
Apple makes mention of changes to the maps app default in a sentence first noticed by AndroidCentral.
“Apple also plans to introduce a new default control for users in Settings for navigation apps,” reads the document. Apple says its working towards making this available by March 2025.
It’s unclear whether Apple will roll out this feature to change the default maps app to all users. However, it’s certainly going to be made available to EU users, as new laws require it.
Mashable previously reported on Apple’s DMA compliance report, detailing some of the major upcoming changes to iOS and iPhone as a result of the DMA. However, we somehow overlooked this one-liner from Apple. And it’s a fairly significant development.
Apple’s timeframe for launching this feature appears to line up with it being released within a future update for iOS 18. The company will likely launch the beta version of the latest iOS in June for developers, followed by a public release in September.
iOS 17.4 was released earlier this month, so it seems plausible that EU users can look forward to changing their default maps app by iOS 18.4 next year.
