GoKawiilAds have been reportedly destined for Apple Maps for quite some time now. Now it appears that Apple Maps may be on the cusp of introducing advertising from businesses at last.
Mark Gurman at Bloomberg says that Apple is preparing to announce the introduction of ads in Apple Maps as soon as this month:
Apple Inc. is preparing to introduce advertising in its Maps app, part of a broader push to generate more money from services. An announcement could come as early as this month, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
It sounds like ads in Apple Maps will work a lot like search ads in the App Store. However, instead of sponsored slots being for app installs, we can expect Apple Maps search results to include sponsored businesses.
Gurman says the system will work similar to Google Maps, by “allowing retailers and brands to bid for ad slots against search queries” as a way to increase services revenue.
He adds that advertising inside Apple Maps “will begin appearing inside Maps as earlier as this summer” on the iPhone, other devices, and web version. Read the report in full at Bloomberg.
Separately, Apple Maps has seen a well-received upgrade as part of iOS 26.
New features include preferred routes for navigation, a visited places feature for automatically logging where you’ve been, and natural language search with Apple Intelligence.