For years, Google Maps has held the title as the top choice for navigation, but Apple Maps has been steadily closing the gap with major updates. Now, according to reports from Bloomberg, the app is about to adopt a feature its competitors have used for a long time, in-app advertisements.
Apple is expected to roll out these changes later this year, with an official announcement potentially arriving this month. If the current timeline holds, users could see ads appearing within the iOS interface as early as this summer. The new system will likely work through a bidding process where local businesses pay for better visibility. For instance, when a user searches for a “bar” or a “restaurant,” the top results would be businesses that won the bidding for those specific keywords.
This shift follows a path already carved out by Google and Bing, both of which have offered similar advertising opportunities to business owners for years. Talk of this move isn’t entirely new; similar reports surfaced last October, indicating that the tech giant was exploring ways to increase its services revenue.
The app has come a long way since its early days of limited functionality. Recent years have seen the addition of high-end features, including integrations with the MICHELIN Guide and Golf Digest, along with more detailed traffic and commute data.
The big question remains how these “term-search ads” will coexist with the features users value most, specifically “Apple’s privacy protections and location history widget.” Many are hoping the upcoming announcement will clarify how the company plans to maintain its privacy-first reputation while introducing a new revenue stream.
