You Have to See Apple’s ‘Detailed City Experience’ That Just Rolled Out to Canadians

Detailed City Experience Apple Maps Credit: Jesse Hollington
Text Size
- +

Toggle Dark Mode

Apple has kicked off the next phase of international expansion for its gorgeous new, highly detailed Apple Maps, with the three largest Canadian cities, Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver, joining the club.

Apple officially announced the expansion today on its Canadian Newsroom site, around the same time that I noticed the more detailed map view on my Apple CarPlay screen. As with the expansion to several U.S. cities in December, the new maps offer significant navigation improvements and highly detailed 3D renderings of noteworthy landmarks such as Toronto’s iconic City Hall, BC Place stadium in Vancouver, and Montreal’s Biosphére, to name just a few.

This Limited-Time Microsoft Office Deal Gets You Lifetime Access for Just $39

Sick and tired of subscriptions? Get a lifetime license for Microsoft Office Home and Business 2021 at a great price!

Toronto’s new Apple Maps landscape also includes the Royal Ontario Museum, the Art Gallery of Ontario, Rogers Centre, Massey Hall, Exhibition Place, the Hockey Hall of Fame, and BMO Field.

The expansion goes beyond landmark buildings, however. Street views now include accurate road markings, right down to pedestrian crosswalks, turn lanes, bus and taxi lanes, and 3D renderings of bridges and overpasses. Trees near roadsides and in parks are now rendered as 3D models, and land cover and public transit routes are more prominently and accurately displayed.

Public Transit, AR Walking Directions, and More

The rollout also brings several other iOS 15 Maps enhancements to the three Canadian cities. These include an updated transmit map with improved transit routing features that allow users to pin their favourite lines and notify them to disembark as they approach their destination.

Augmented Reality Walking Directions are also available in Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver, which is a great way to get reoriented when you get off a bus or come out of a subway station. Raising your iPhone will let you scan nearby buildings in the area and then guide you to your destination through your iPhone’s camera.

Interestingly, Apple’s announcement also says it “introduces a new windshield view for drivers” — a term we haven’t seen or heard before. It’s unclear what this means, but you’re not alone if you’re thinking of augmented reality in your car. Sadly, that doesn’t appear to be the case from my testing.

While folks in Toronto and Vancouver already got cycling directions last fall, it seems Montreal gets to join the party, too, with details such as ride elevation. These routes include stairs, voice guidance, and Haptic Touch on the Apple Watch, now also available for cyclists in that city.

Lastly, like the detailed city experience rollout in the other seven U.S. cities, Apple Maps also expands the selection of curated Guides, offering recommendations from Canadian brands such as Toronto Life and Narcity to global brands like Lonely Planet. While the Guides feature isn’t new to Canadian cities, it appears that Apple has improved and expanded them in this latest update.

This latest expansion of the detailed maps experience to Canada represents Apple’s first foray outside the U.S., where it’s currently available in seven cities. The launch quartet of Los Angeles, New York, London, and San Francisco was joined by San Diego, Washington D.C., and Philadelphia near the end of 2021.

These are also the same cities where Augmented Reality Walking Directions are available, suggesting that the two features are intrinsically linked. That makes sense since both likely require the same detail to render and identify buildings and other landmarks.

On the other hand, Cycling Directions appear to have taken a different expansion path, with Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Portland, Seattle, and California the only U.S. regions where this feature is available. Outside the U.S., iPhone users can also use Cycling Directions in Barcelona, London, China Mainland, Toronto, Vancouver, and now Montreal.



Sponsored
Social Sharing