After months of speculation Apple finally ditched Google Maps from its operating system when it released iOS 6 last week, which was in favour of its own Maps application. Trouble is the app has been met with a number of issues, and we are now looking at Google Maps for iOS to replace the problematic one being used.
We recently compared the two applications and it seems that users still wishing to see a Google Maps application on their iOS devices may get one eventually, but not for a while yet according to The New York Times. There have been rumours that Google had even submitted an application for approval by Apple, but the chairman of Google, Eric Schmidt, has denied this.
The two companies’ still have a contract for Google Maps to be a part of iOS for a while yet, but Apple’s new application has been the subject of much criticism since its launch for a number of faults and inaccuracies.
Sources are still claiming that Google will develop an application for iOS users, but the company’s position has got trickier since Apple first revealed that it was replacing Google Maps with its own solution. Another possible issue is that Google would like to have an application with 3D imagery so it can offer a comparable experience to Apple’s offering, which it already has with Google Earth.
Trouble is this is a separate application that uses a different code from Google Maps, and this will take a time to combine the two. Then it will be down to Apple to approve any app that Google submits, and we all know how the company likes to lock down much of its products.
Meanwhile an article over at IGN has found a way to get Google Maps on iOS 6 all be it not in the usual way or by jailbreaking your device . First users need to load up Maps.Google.com on their mobile browsers, which is basically Google’s web application. This even has the added bonus of a beta in the form of a bike routes tab, which wasn’t even available on Google Maps in iOS 5.
You may not want to keep opening up Safari every time you need to go somewhere, but luckily Google has a way around this. When the site is opened for the first time users are met with a banner that asks if you want to install the app on your device, and then the share button that is being pointed to needs selecting.
After this you will need to select the add to home screen from the selection of icons that appear, and then you get the choice of naming the icon, or you can just leave it as Google Maps. Then you have a shortcut to the web version of Google Maps sitting there on your home screen, which is still going to be better than the Apple offering in its current state.
Do you miss Google Maps in iOS 6?