Apple Maps introducing "Look Around" (Google Street View competitor)

[JoePCool14]

For those of you with any Apple products, you might have noticed the iOS 13 update was released today. And if you open up the Apple Maps app, you may notice that Apple is trying to compete with Google Street View with their own "see the road before you go" sort of function which they call "Look Around". If you try it, it feels very similar to Street View. You can look around in all directions, travel up and down the road, etc. It's only available in a few cities at the moment, I know of at least San Francisco and Honolulu, but I assume they intend to expand this to cover many more places.

Anyways, what are everyone's thoughts on it? Aside from the lack of coverage, would you say it is a better experience than Google Street View? In my opinion, it seems to work fairly well, especially considering I was using it on my iPhone. It felt more optimized than Street View did. It's also nice to have some genuine competition to Google in this market. But I'm curious how everyone else feels about it.

[1995hoo]

I'm waiting until next week to download iOS 13 so as to let other people deal with the inevitable bugs.

[ozarkman417]

I saw an Apple Maps van in Olympic National Park a couple years ago so if they are only launching it now I wonder that it was doing out there. I don't see myself using it as I have a Samsung S9+.

SM-G965U

[JoePCool14]

I'm waiting until next week to download iOS 13 so as to let other people deal with the inevitable bugs.

So far, I have not noticed anything abhorrent. No performance drops either. 

I saw an Apple Maps van in Olympic National Park a couple years ago so if they are only launching it now I wonder that it was doing out there. I don't see myself using it as I have a Samsung S9+.

I do wonder how long it took them to collect their current amount of data. Could indicate how long it takes for them to increase coverage.

[CtrlAltDel]

I saw an Apple Maps van in Olympic National Park a couple years ago so if they are only launching it now I wonder that it was doing out there. I don't see myself using it as I have a Samsung S9+.

SM-G965U

I saw an Apple Maps car in suburban Chicago about a month and half ago. It's possible that I'm in the image, so I'm curious as to when that area will be available.

[Rothman]

And now Google has a function to give you live directions as you go around, using Street View and arrows -- almost like virtual reality.

[oscar]

Yesterday I saw an Apple Maps camera car parked at a Giant grocery store, about two miles from my apartment.

It will be awhile before it catches up to GMSV's coverage. But if Apple Maps is collecting data in Honolulu, it might quickly overtake GMSV's rather dated Hawaii coverage.

[JoePCool14]

I saw an Apple Maps car in suburban Chicago about a month and half ago. It's possible that I'm in the image, so I'm curious as to when that area will be available.

Hopefully soon, considering that's where I live. It would be incredibly convenient for me to use when going places.

[Mr. Matté]

For those who have seen it (I can't as I'm Android), does the imagery give a date as to when the pics were taken? I was on my bike in 2017 through eastern Monmouth County, NJ and definitely saw an Apple vehicle with cameras on top driving by. I don't know if those cameras were of the quality to take 360° images along the roads. I've seen on another website that they were using such cameras to verify business information and the like on their maps platform, but I'm interested in finding out if I appear on Apple Maps. I know I'm probably appearing at least once on StreetView some time soon.

[Elm]

For those who have seen it (I can't as I'm Android), does the imagery give a date as to when the pics were taken?

Yes, it gives the month and year, like "Imagery last updated August 2018"  (that one for a random point in San Francisco).

When you're in full-screen 'Look Around' and no location is selected, the update month is at the bottom of the card/overlay that gives the area or address where you're looking.