Battle of The Maps, Round 4: Navigation

Click here to check out a summary of the fight so far!

Maps are so useful because they get you where you want to go. It's the core reason for maps to exist. A good maps app should be able to flawlessly get you to your destination, and round 4 compares each maps apps' ability to do so. FIGHT!

 

Pictured above, both maps apps have a pretty standard view for navigating. Both show where you are on the road, roads around you, your next step, and other misc. information like ETA. Google Maps seems to lag a bit in updating your exact location, which makes the blue arrow's movements a bit choppy. That irks me, but it's easily ignored.

 

Both apps' listed directions are pretty similar as well. The only big differences are that Google Maps not only shows the next step of navigating, it also gives a gauge of traffic.

Apple Maps' navigation is built right into iOS, which is a home-field advantage. I covered its very useful integration in an iOS 6 update in July. Google Maps' voice navigation feature is persistent even outside the app, however, until another app's noise overrides it.

The determining factor in this round is a massive hole in Apple Maps that Google Maps has come equipped with all along. People don't only use cars to get to places. Public transportation and walking (GASP) are still options... unless you're using Apple Maps. Apple still doesn't have the sheer mapping power Google does to include walking directions and routes using public transportation, which are directly integrated into Google Maps' iOS app. And because of that shortcoming of Apple, Round 4 goes to...