Google Maps becomes first third-party navigation app with Apple CarPlay support

AppleInsider

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.

eightzero

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. 

coughingllama

BMW already has wireless CarPlay. I'm assuming some other manufacturers are offering that as well?

rob53

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).

boltsfan17

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. 

edited September 2018

chasm

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.

edited September 2018

eightzero

coughingllama said:

BMW already has wireless CarPlay. I'm assuming some other manufacturers are offering that as well?

Haha. Good one.

urashid

Finally I have a reason to use Apple Carplay!

ayoo

eightzero said:

coughingllama said:

BMW already has wireless CarPlay. I'm assuming some other manufacturers are offering that as well?

Haha. Good one.

Wireless CarPlay works flawlessly in my M2.  

My one criticism on CarPlay (not exclusive to the wireless implementation) is that it doesn’t play that nice with factory infotainment.   Which I still need for my digital music collection on my cars hard drive, terrestrial radio and satellite radio (the CarPlay enabled Sirius XM app would use data).  You need them to work together since CarPlay is not a complete replacement yet. 

There are a few nice touches like being able to decide whether or not to send your voice command / Siri command to Apple Maps or BMW Navi.  But they are few and far between. 

Most of of the time the two systems are stepping on each other’s toes.  The most innocuous actions on the iPhone might cut off the satellite radio audio and dump you into the car play home screen.  

Out of all the cars I’ve rented with CarPlay enabled I’d say Volkswagen has come the closest to a seamless integration. 

edited September 2018

entropys

That sounds like a problem with your particular infotainment system, Ayoo.
Carplay is the same regardless of the head unit brand, which all work in different ways.

seankill

boltsfan17 said:

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. 

chasm said:

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.

I used Apple maps for quite sometime but finally switched back to Google maps when I found it to be more accurate on average than Apple maps in my experience. Much better was google suggesting alternative routes, while Apple maps would just add the time to the commute and not offer other routes. It actually got to the point where I would pull up google when I noticed my ETA went up a great deal with no reason. As I got close to the traffic, google suggested other routes. So it became worthless to use two apps. Maybe the experience has gotten better in the last two years but it takes a long time to regain my trust. I only use GPS on long distance traveling or to look out for wrecks. 

jwsc

boltsfan17 said:

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. 

I wish Siri could just tell me what the speed limit is on the road I am driving, instead of referring me to a web site while I’m driving!  😣

theoneuk

entropys said:

That sounds like a problem with your particular infotainment system, Ayoo.
Carplay is the same regardless of the head unit brand, which all work in different ways.

No I don’t think that’s it. I’ve got a BMW M760Li and I’m in two minds around car play. In theory I generally like it and for most cars it’s likely great but only BMW’s navigation will project onto my HUD. Also in fairness I think their navigation is generally very good so I’ve no issues using that.

Then if you take music. With just normal Bluetooth and no CarPlay my iPhone pushes my playlist to the car. I can then scroll through my playlist on the HUD to pick what songs I want. With CarPlay all I get is back and forwards a track.

With Bluetooth connectivity again I can pick contacts to call on my HUD, navigate to addresses from the Address Book, etc with the native nav. With CarPlay I lose that as well.

Those are the main items that are annoying. I’ve got it switched on still but I do sometimes consider switching off CarPlay to go back to Bluetooth. I think if you’ve got a car without a HUD then you’ll simply not have hit any of these issues. However more cars are going to get HUD’s, not less. So I think I’m a way they’ll need an API or way to extend CarPlay into a HUD, otherwise as more cars get HUD’s it’ll make less sense.

wanderso

It’s funny - I have CarPlay in a Pioneer deck I installed in our car and I actually prefer the phone to be wired, rather than wireless. Why:

*battery being charged while driving, especially important when using navigation (battery hog)
*very reliable connectivity for voice calls; more so than my experience with Bluetooth
*phone is away from my hands so that I’m not tempted to break the law in our state and handle it while driving

There are other reasons, but these top my list. 

libertyforall

STILL waiting for TrackAddict CarPlay support! 
http://racerender.com/TrackAddict/

Do Apple's CarPlay API rules restrict options like this app?

wood1208

Carplay suppose to mirror supported App on car's infotainment system display. Like to know if Google map displays the same feature/details on Car;s display as iPhone ?

kkqd1337

At last! Apple Maps is sooooooo terrible in the UK 9 times out of 10 you’re better off just guessing the way there. 

slurpy

seankill said:

boltsfan17 said:

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. 

chasm said:

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.

I used Apple maps for quite sometime but finally switched back to Google maps when I found it to be more accurate on average than Apple maps in my experience. Much better was google suggesting alternative routes, while Apple maps would just add the time to the commute and not offer other routes. It actually got to the point where I would pull up google when I noticed my ETA went up a great deal with no reason. As I got close to the traffic, google suggested other routes. So it became worthless to use two apps. Maybe the experience has gotten better in the last two years but it takes a long time to regain my trust. I only use GPS on long distance traveling or to look out for wrecks. 

Apple maps has improved massively over the last 2 years, so your comment is pretty outdated. Not sure why you took the time to type it out if you haven't used Apple maps for 2 years. It now routinely offers alternate routes based on live conditions. Based on heavily using the two everyday, I actually think Apple Maps is superior for navigation, while Google Maps has a slight edge when it comes to POIs, etc. 

edited September 2018

cheesefreeze

But can it be controlled with Siri?

bestkeptsecret

CheeseFreeze said:

But can it be controlled with Siri?

FTA: Although Google Maps lacks integration with Siri, the app offers its own voice search tool.

xyzzy01

boltsfan17 said:

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. 

Apple Maps' capabilities varies by location.  Driving in Norway and Sweden, I've yet to see anything 3D. I don't think I miss it, though. No speed limits either. And while the POI database of Apple Maps is orders of magnitude better than when it was launched, it's still far behind Google's offering.

For non-Carplay purposes, I could also add that Google maps shows public transport, while Apple maps doesn't support this.

From my limited testing yesterday, Google maps was also much better at interpreting spoken addresses than Apple Maps via Siri.