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Apple Maps got a rare spot in the limelight today, following a rare and major outage suffered by Google Maps on Friday.
The navigation app was rendered useless for many users, who struggled with searching for driving, walking and cycling directions during the outage.
“We’re seeing reports of difficulties accessing some Google Maps and Google Maps Platform services. Our team is investigating and working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible,” Google said at the time.
The outage lasted a matter of hours, with the company saying on Friday evening: “We can confirm that the technical issue from earlier today is now fixed.
The Down Detector website recorded a peak of 12,402 outage reports from around 10am eastern time in the United States on Friday, with users around the world noting their inability to access the vital GPS-based tool on desktop and via the mobile app.
I was driving home from the beach today and decided to swing by the record store. For a second I thought I was going to have to make my own way, as Google Maps on my iPhone wasn’t playing ball. Heaven forbid!
Was it the limited cell service down at the beach? No! I had all my bars, and 5G was working fine for other apps. Then I remembered, as if it were a long-lost work colleague, I had more than one maps app on my phone.
So I dug into the Utilities folder on my phone and there it was! Apple Maps! I noticed how Apple’s own apps never ‘offload’ when you don’t use them for ages, like third party apps often do after a few weeks of inactivity. But then I was happy to report Apple Maps has come a long way since its reputation was shattered out of the gate by a terrible launch in iOS 6.
As Mashable notes, not everyone was as keen on switching to Apple Maps. Ouch.
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