Google Maps has long been the gold standard of free GPS apps, and its latest incarnation is no different. It beats the pants off Apple Maps, and performs better than MapQuest and Waze. It's full of features: you can get walking, driving, bicycling, and public transit directions, and its maps are more accurate than most. Add to that offline access to maps and a new night mode for iOS, and you have a star. Google Maps remains our Editors' Choice for GPS apps.
Interface and Points of Interest
The iPhone version of Google Maps is very similar to the Android and desktop versions, and you can access most settings directly from the app, rather than going into the phone's general settings, as you must with Apple Maps. You can choose between several map views: traffic, public transit, biking, satellite, terrain, or Google Earth. Other settings include notifications, distance units, voice search, and languages, multitudes of which are available. I also like that you can adjust the voice guidance volume separately: softer, normal, or louder. You can also play voice prompts over Bluetooth if you want to use your car's speaker.
A number of shortcuts are available. You can save your home and work address, as well as your favorite destinations. If logged in on your desktop or other device, you can see recent searches on all platforms. If you enable notifications, you can use the Send to Phone feature to share directions from your computer, which is handy.
Google Maps found all of the retail stores and restaurants that I searched for, including a recently renamed restaurant in my neighborhood. When I searched using its old name, that entry was marked as permanently closed. It's worth noting that it found Fairway Market in Harlem, which is not in MapQuest's database.
Similar Products
MapQuest (for iPhone)
Waze (for iPhone)
Scout by Telenav (for iPhone)
Garmin U.S.A. (for iPhone)
TomTom (for iPhone)
Traffic is powered by Waze, which Google owns. Waze is still available as a separate app. If you want to report or confirm an incident to Waze, you can open it from within the Google app. In Google Maps, you can see the same icons for construction, incidents (like car crashes and potholes), and police presence. As with Apple Maps, color-coding is used to indicate the amount of traffic. One difference between Waze on Google Maps and the standalone app is that on Waze, you can see how fast or slow traffic is moving and whether it's at a complete standstill. Both Google and Waze will recalculate your route if there is a way around traffic.
Car Navigation
Voice prompts are relevant and timely, but Google doesn't quite hold your hand like Apple and MapQuest, both of which will keep reminding you to continue straight over a long period of time. I don't need a ton of voice prompts, but at one point Google Maps remained silent as I drove straight for 40 blocks, and if I didn't know the area, I would've been worried that I was going the wrong way or that the app had shut down.
For the most part, car navigation is very smooth, with helpful lane guidance when applicable, and easy-to-understand voice prompts. You can use voice search powered by Siri, by pressing the microphone icon in the search box.
Google Maps guided me to Fairway in Harlem in the most direct way from my location, as did Waze, not surprisingly. MapQuest, though it doesn't have Fairway Harlem in its database, got me there using the street address, though in a slightly indirect way. Apple Maps mislabeled a nearby highway, and got me completely lost.
New to this version of Google Maps for iPhone is Night Mode, which dims the screen and darkens the graphics to make it easier to view after dark. Night Mode is linked to your iPhone's clock and switches on automatically; this worked well in my tests.
Google Maps (for iPhone) (2015)
Transit, Pedestrian, and Cycling Navigation
Google Maps has long had built-in transit directions, and it continues to excel in this arena. I was easily able to navigate to the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx (train/bus combination) and to the St. George Theatre in Staten Island (it provided both ferry and non-ferry options.) I also requested transit and pedestrian directions to Historic Fort Lee Park, located just across the George Washington Bridge from where I was located. Google Maps correctly suggested buses from the GWB bus terminal, and walking directions using the pedestrian crossing. Both Apple Maps and MapQuest sent me downtown to take a ferry across the Hudson, a rather large oversight; neither seems to know that the GWB is pedestrian-friendly. Smaller transit systems, such as the Fire Island Ferry on Long Island, are not integrated into Google or Apple Maps.
Bicycle navigation is great too, offering you the safest routes using bike paths and bike lanes. Google Maps even indicates places where you're supposed to walk your bike, such as across bridges with narrow pedestrian lanes. Travel time is rather ambitious and doesn't account for hills, though. Topography is one feature I'd like to see integrated into GPS apps, since I happen to live in a rather hilly neighborhood.
Google Still Trumps Apple
Google Maps is hard to beat, no matter what form of transportation you're using to get around. It's easy to use, and has features typically found only in standalone GPS units, such as lane guidance. It schools Apple in particular when it comes to car and pedestrian navigation, and its accurate maps mean you'll never get lost. Add to that accurate traffic information from Waze, and Google Maps is an easy pick for our Editors' Choice award.
Google Maps continues to lead the pack of GPS apps with its excellent maps, generous features, and general reliability.
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