During hands-on testing, it becomes obvious that objects such as cars, light poles, and trees are separate objects from other parts of the backgrounds, a cool pseudo-3D effect that makes each image look more realistic. When the feature was announced at WWDC, it was quickly derided in some quarters as “Apple inventing Google Street View,” but the truth is that it’s a reinvention of Street View with features Google will be hard-pressed to mimic without re-mapping every street in the world. Currently available for testing in Northern California, the feature provides better than 360-degree street level views of major roads and destinations: You’re able to pan left, right, up, and down, even seeing (limited) 3D depth in each image. The most stunning addition to Maps is the photographic product of mapping vehicles Apple has been sending out across the world, apparently starting in California: Look Around. Pinch on the map to zoom in and you’ll receive a live and interactive Look Around view in the minimised window.Look Around: Google Street View, reinvented

If you want to navigate quickly or precisely to a different location in the city, tap the minimise button in the top corner of your device and scroll around on the map view.

Tapping on roads, meanwhile, will move you along the route in that direction.

Pinch to zoom if you want a closer look at anything. Once in Look Around, touch with one finger and drag to move your view around 360 degrees. You’ll be zipped into an interactive first person view of that location. Look for the ‘Look Around’ tag and tap the image thumbnail. Just open up Apple Maps and head to a city like San Francisco, Las Vegas or Honolulu (the first three supported cities). It’s extremely easy to access Look Around in Maps. Apple’s Look Around implementation is way smoother and more seamless than Google Street View, if not anything like as extensive at present.Īpple plans to have the whole of the US added by the end of 2019, however, and will start adding other countries in 2020. Just like that rival effort, you can touch and drag to explore your environment.

It’s very similar indeed to Street View on Google Maps.

Apple maps look around