Ads already appear in some Apple apps, including the App Store, Apple News and some live sports on Apple TV. Now there’s a new app to add to the list, as Apple has confirmed that ads will soon be coming to the Apple Maps app as well.
Ads are coming to Apple Maps
Apple confirmed ads are coming to Apple Maps soon. Starting in the summer of 2026, ads will appear in the Maps app when people use the search function in the US and Canada. Promoted businesses can appear in these results and also appear in the new Suggested Places feature, which includes recommendations for nearby businesses.
Apple has said it will protect user privacy ensuring that all personal data remains on users’ devices and is not shared with Apple or third parties. Your location will not be disclosed to any business, and none of the ads you interact with will be linked to your Apple Account.
Being ad-free was the best Apple Maps feature
It lost its main advantage over Google Maps
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There is Apple Maps has gotten better over the yearsalthough it has never been able to change its reputation for some people as a poor imitation of Google Maps. For many iPhone users, Google Maps is still their navigation app of choice.
Apple Maps has long had one main benefit Google Maps did not matchand that’s the lack of ads. Google Maps didn’t start with ads when it launched in 2005, but eventually Google began allowing businesses to pay for better positions in search results. In 2016, Google introduced Promoted Pins, which allowed businesses to pay to have their logo displayed on the map interface instead of the standard pin icon.
Ads on Google Maps are increasingly targeted. You can now view personalized offers based on your travel history or promotions for businesses located along your current journey. All of these ads require you to access a lot of your information travel history and location history, which isn’t great for privacy.
Until now, as an iPhone user who wants to maintain privacy, you can always use Apple Maps instead. The app may not have been as good as Google Maps in the early days, but at least it was ad-free.
Apple Maps wasn’t great when it launched, but it’s improved a lot and now it’s a perfectly adequate replacement for Google Maps if you don’t want to be bombarded with ads. Unfortunately, Apple Maps is about to lose one of the best things it has going for it and add the worst feature of Google Maps.
Apple’s focus on advertising is not a good sign
Equipment may not make enough money
Apple’s inclusion of ads in Apple Maps is not a good sign. 10 years ago, services were the biggest driver of Apple’s profits, making up a relatively small portion of revenue. This share has consistently increased, while the share of revenue from hardware has decreased.
It’s possible that higher margins from Apple’s current services aren’t enough to make up for the shortfall from declining supply revenues, especially with the rising costs of components like memory. can’t trust hardware sales As before, it may be that Apple is forced to try to extract more money from services.
If so, that’s not a great sign for Apple. Introducing ads to services isn’t something consumers will be too happy about, so the fact that Apple is taking this step suggests that things aren’t going as well on the hardware side. Apple may be forced to look for additional ways to generate revenue, and ads may find their way into other parts of the Apple ecosystem.
Apple isn’t the only one doing this
Ads appear on paid services
Apple is far from the only company to turn to advertising to boost its revenue. There are many other companies that resort to the same tactics to the detriment of their users. The trend is not limited to navigation programs.
Streaming services are an example. In some cases, even when you pay for a subscription, such as Amazon Prime or HBO Maxyou will still be view ads at standard levels. If you really want an ad-free experience, you’ll need to pay an additional premium on top of your standard subscription price.
This kind of humanization is a sad fact of life. As companies try to make more money, it is the user who suffers. It’s getting to the point where we pay companies for the privilege of showing ads. Yet one of the main advantages of streaming is eroding and streaming is becoming more and more similar. cable TV had to be replaced.
- Subscription with ads
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Yes, through Prime membership or $9 per month
- Synchronous streams
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Prime Video has a huge amount of content to watch. Other Amazon benefits are also a bonus.
Advertisements are becoming a fact of life
Advertisements are an easy way for companies to generate additional revenue from their services. The margins are huge and the only downside is that the end user gets a worse experience. Unfortunately, this seems to be less and less important for many companies.
