Apple Reportedly Moving Ahead With Ads in Maps App
Apple Reportedly Moving Ahead With Ads in Maps App
www.macrumors.com
Apple Reportedly Moving Ahead With Ads in Maps App
Comments
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It already has ads. Those businesses it highlights for no reason at all when you’re scrolling around.
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yeah google doing this made me stop using it as much. still need to find a permanent alternative
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Google does it so much I’ve had trouble finding favorite places because they’d rather show an ad that overlaps it.
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I'm still using Google for looking up places but I stopped using it for car navigation because holy shit it sucks ass. Using waze now and it's so much better. No idea of they're FOSS tho
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I thought if people pay for things, like extreamly expensive Apple hardware, no ads can exist there? Must be confused or hearing things.
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The business majors are about to learn an important lesson about open source.
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If you're not paying, you're the product. If you're paying, you may still be the product.
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Open source is the exception, and it's important to note that.
Now you may be thinking "well duh", but I've seen plenty of people, even fairly techy people, refuse to use good FOSS software because they think they're being monetised somehow and that because there's no ads, it must be from secret data theft.
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and sometimes you don't pay and aren't the product, yay open source!
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Enshitification isn't a problem of people being bad at buying stuff.
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Removed by Moderator — Modlog
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Oh fuck dude. You made coffee come out my nose.
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Use OpenStreetMaps
Yeah I know it could be incomplete at times but its our job as a community to improve it if we want "free" software
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But, but I want my stuff to work perfectly without me putting any effort or paying monies 😭
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Try CoMaps, it works great (as long as the area is mapped in OSM)
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That’s the dumb thing. I’m always willing to concede that you need to make things as smooth and seamless for your users as possible, but let’s get away from this culture of no stakes investment. Let’s work together to buy in.
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remember when apple didn't have ads because they were premium?
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CoMaps is a nice offline alternitive. Not perfect,but it respects privacy
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to be clear this isn't a privacy issue. they are allowing companies to pay to be featured more prominently in the app.
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Removed by Moderator — Modlog
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Sure, but one can argue that data is being exchanged for ads.
Regardless, CoMaps is still a solid offline app that is being worked on. I wish we had a better version of Google or Apple maps without the bloat
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Might give it a spin, currently using Organic Maps.
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It was forked off if Organic Maps because if a difference of philosophy. Organic Maps wanted to add more proprietary components to their app.
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So you overpay them for crappy iPhone and have to pay them again by watching ads?
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Don’t forget web users. Duck duck go uses Apple Maps.
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I guess DuckDuck pays them, so Duck users would be spared of the ads?
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I love how everyone is calling Apple users dumb here when Google has been doing the same thing for longer and both platforms let you install other map apps.
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Yes, but apple has been charging double the price for their products on the basis of 'privacy' and 'premiumness'
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So I'm actually a moderately tech-savvy individual. Software engineer, been using Linux since Karmic Koala (of course I've used many other distros since then, including Gentoo for a few years and now I'm using TumbleWeed on one computer and NixOS on another). I can even figure out how a printer works, believe it or not.
I just hate this whole "only stupid people who don't know about tech buy iPhones" rhetoric.
Samsung and Google have caught up in prices. I guess only Google is a tiny bit cheaper, Samsung is definitely right up there with Apple.
OnePlus was a good option if you wanted a cheaper flagship, but they both 1) ruined their OS and 2) went more expensive.
I actually bought an iPhone for 4 primary reasons:
- Lightning port is easier to clean out than USB-C and I get a LOT of pocket lint for some reason.
- Carplay used the entire screen in my S205 whereas Android Auto had the Android Auto logo on like 1/3 of the screen.
- Back when I did it, Apple was the only one giving 5-6 years of major OS upgrades to their old phones and OnePlus only gave me 3, lagging far behind AOSP and the whole OxygenOS to ColorOS switch RUINED the phone for me. I did use a custom ROM for a while before that, but my bank app stopped working with that regardless of whatever I did, so I switched to stock ROM and then upgraded to ColorOS and the phone became nearly unusable. It was 3 years old (the model, anyway; the phone in question was 2 years old). Every single one of my iPhone using friends said that never has a major OS upgrade inconvenienced them in any way.
- I just felt like I don't have time to play with custom ROMs and stuff anymore and since I don't, I might as well go with the option that works great out of the box, rather than the one that I can infinitely customize to my liking.
Now, this whole issue: It's not actually using user data AFAIK, so there are no privacy implications in this specific instance IMO. They just allow companies to pay to show up near the top in Maps. Not a move I'm a fan of, but I'm assuming Google has been doing this for a decade or 2 at least.
Does that mean I trust Apple? Fuck no. They're still a for-profit corporation. They still want to make as much profit as possible.
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I don’t think Apple is “premium” since 5-10 years. Google pixel and Samsung galaxy series caught up
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Both sides of the duopoly are shit. Some variances in the type of shit, but still.
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Apple has really lost its identity.
Apple Silicon is really all that seperate them.
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Eh. Even mediatek chips are getting to the point where they’re enough. Chip doesn't really matter anymore.
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mediatek chips are garbage compared to qualcomm and apple. anytime i had to use a phone with a mediatek chip in it, or a chromebook, it was so bad.
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Qualcomm is getting close with Elite series, but Apple still has the lead. Others are pretty behind in performance. Mediatek is fine if your only use case is watching YouTube.
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i just wish OSM was more complete… it’s fine for big cities, but when you live in small rural areas it’s practically useless. my village only has its roads mapped, nothing else.
(and yes i know you can edit the map. and that it’s the entire point of OSM. i know that. but it takes a ton of effort, and it’s an ongoing effort because cities change!)
OSM contributors, you are amazing and cherished and your work does not go unappreciated. i just wish there was more of us…
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I know of a few rural places that have far more information on OSM than Google. Especially if those areas have a lot of hiking trails. Looking at the logs, it's typically a small handful of people adding things over significant time. It's worth keeping both on your device, and making edits on occasion. Rural areas change pretty slowly typically.
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Funny thing, over here, OSM actually got weird rural stuff for a couple of rural towns I visited frequently about a year before Google Maps (and other proprietary services) was usable there. I think it had to do with some open-data drop from the government.
And seeing the services grow side by side also kind of gave away what their priorities were. Google: putting the local businesses and services on the map. OSM: document every single cool and convenient foot and bike trail.
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All of these Big Tech companies are slimy fucks actively working to enslave humanity. There are no good guys. I puked in my mouth watching Tim Cook fawn over Trump. None of these people have a shred of decency. Fuck Apple. Fuck Google. Buy a paper map.
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Better yet, help support open data initiatives like OpenStreetMaps or alternatives. No reason why maps can't be digital without ads.
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Tried to, but they block some vpn IPs and ne some mail domains, notably mail aliases
Plus they basically stopped replying to me. Are mail aliases really used as spam? I believe it’s a made up thing
And anyways, when contacting them manually, it should be enough to understand that it’s not automated. It would be so easy to spam register using non flagged IPs and non flagged domains but they’re still rigid about these rules. I hate when services do that.
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support open data initiatives like OpenStreetMaps
Yes!, continue supporting OpenStreetMaps so Apple, Mapbox, Microsoft, Uber and Lyft can continue turning your free work into millions of dollars.
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buy a paper map....no man we went away from that for a reason.
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Once you create a monetization team that puts ads in shit, they’re going to want to keep putting more ads in stuff. They’re all judged on how much better they do year over year.
Apple should’ve never created a team that sold ads on their platforms.
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Removed by Moderator — Modlog
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Is CoMaps the only alternative besides google maps?
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OSMAnd
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Magic Earth
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They'll probably make "Maps+" soon after.
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Only until they rename it the week later: Apple Maps Pro Max 4K (2026 gen 2)
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Mac user for over 30 years, no problem - they make it easier and easier to say goodbye, which it's now time for, thanks to Apple adding on to Trump's mansion with a huge donation after the gold award earlier this year.
Steve Jobs wasn't sure Tim was right for the creative side of the Mac, but he knew the business side would keep humming. And now here we are, Apple the IBM of 90 years ago, so happy to help out the fascists.
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Removed by Moderator — Modlog
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That will inconvenience the Apple map user. I'm sure they're devastated by this news.
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I’m done.
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We need a jingle for Enshittification.
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This is good! They dont deserve it.
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Can’t say I’m surprised but it’s such a shame. I’m guessing this ties inter their newly launched timeline feature. Maps was at least up to this point a better alternative to Google Maps.
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Magic Earth has been great to use 🙂
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Aye, its a great app!
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Removed by Moderator — Modlog
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I don't use Apple, but honestly Apple is ruining everything, while Organic Maps and others are winning.
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I love Apple Maps. I’ve been using it since it came out and it’s been great. This bums me out.
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Well shit.
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Bye bye Apple Maps hello CoMaps
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Nice just what I always wanted.
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There’s people who use that? That’s news to me.
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I was bc it didn’t have ads, ironically.
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It is used by DuckDuckGo
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Huh, I didn’t know that. I would’ve guessed they’d use some open source alternative.
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, just What I needed - another good reason never to touch Apple. (But hey, there's money to be made - Google advertising revenue 230+billion USD... remind me again of all the good that these companies are doing in the world with their wealth???).
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meh just gunna use my google maps. idc about ads anymore.
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I dont think they will to be honest.
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As long as they are tasteful, that’s fine. Like little Dunkin Donuts indicators or whatever if they’re in the normal driving view and take up a very small amount of visual space, great. Waze has done this for years. No bother, no forced waits, no delays in navigation.
If you put banner, UI-blocking, and/or full-screen ads in my maps app, go fuck yourselves.
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How’s the boot taste? I paid out the ass for my devices, they already made their money off of me. Get the ads out of my face.
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Issues that don't affect me
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thanks for your input
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first I did not speak up because I was not an apple user.
then I did not speak up because I can use adb to install my apps anyway.
then I did not speak up because I have already switched to linux on the desktop.
at the end there was nobody to speak up against windows-only forced secure boot.
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The next headline will read, OpenStreetMaps gains users as Apple adds ads to maps.
After that, Apple would ban OSM apps from their store.
I could totally see this happen.
Not in a direct manner, but something about "OSM not living up to Apple's high standards of privacy" or similar strategy.
why would they do that when Google Maps and Waze are already bigger competitors?
I wish it were good enough to be a viable alternative but it really isn’t.
If it's missing data (such as locations) that is the issue, then you can update the map yourself and help others migrate at the same time. Every little bit helps, even if you don't plan on fully moving over. I've done over a thousand changes to my local area and it's actually more accurate than Google Maps in a lot of the commercial areas. You don't have to do a thousand things though, like I said, every little bit helps.
Of course, it doesn't help for outside of your area if you only do changes locally, but if enough people were willing to update the map, things could change.
i recommend people get streetcomplete too so you can help build out osm! :)
Be realistic, not many people using apple devices (or any mobile devices tbh) are going to care or be intelligent enough to pull an open source alternative
“People using devices I don’t like are stupid” is among the dumbest of takes.
won't care? yeah probably. aren't intelligent enough? that's an insane generalization, knowledgeable about technology ≠ smart
Be more realistic and try it. You'll find obsolete and missing information, no review, and no info about opening times. I'd be happy to use it, but quite frankly it lacks all the features I need.
What the heck did I (an iOS user) do to hurt you?????