Apple Maps May Soon Get Ads
Once upon a time, Apple’s native apps and interfaces were ad-free. Other app stores might happily show you ads, but not the App Store. Most news sites place ads between every paragraph, but Apple News was completely ad-free. Say what you want about Apple and its products, but you certainly saw far fewer ads than on other platforms. Unfortunately, that’s no longer the case.
Apple has gradually incorporated advertising into its business model to boost profits . You may have noticed it while scrolling through News or searching for a new game in the App Store. Even the Wallet app has been bombarding users with notifications about new movie releases on Apple TV . It’s a strange dichotomy: while Apple’s MacBooks have never been more profitable , the company’s software is beginning to feel less user-focused than ever.
This advertising is only getting bigger. According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman , Apple could add more advertising to its platforms “as early as next year.” If so, it seems the company will start with Apple Maps. Gurman says Apple will allow restaurants and businesses to pay more to have their results appear at the top of search results. If you’ve searched for an app in Apple’s App Store recently, you might be familiar with the feeling: for example, when I open the search tab, I see Instagram at the top of the page, with the word “Ads” underneath, above two other unadvertised apps. Then, when I search for an app like Reddit, it appears second, underneath the DuckDuckGo ad spot.
Gurman says Apple’s plan is to make the experience better than other navigation apps that offer similar ads (Waze, which shows ads for restaurants and businesses every time you stop the car, immediately comes to mind) and use AI to show the user more relevant ads , though Apple’s AI technology leaves much to be desired .
I’m not sure this move will significantly encourage Apple Maps users to choose other options. If the quality of ads in Apple Maps is truly comparable to the App Store, I think most users won’t pay much attention to them. They’ll either ignore all results labeled “Ads” or click on those that seem more relevant to their search. Moreover, the most obvious alternatives also contain ads, so it’s unlikely that anyone tired of Apple Maps ads will necessarily find Google Maps or Waze more appealing.
However, Apple’s very principle of requiring an app to add even more ads to an already expensive interface leaves a sour taste in my mouth. Personally, I prefer Apple Maps to other navigation apps, but in recent years, Apple’s app has seemed like a reliable choice, especially from a privacy standpoint. Adding ads changes that, not only cheapening the experience but also making me wonder what Apple plans to do with my navigation and location data. I’d hope that the company, which makes one of the few relatively private streaming players on the market, would find a way to preserve Maps’ privacy while displaying ads, but only time will tell.