Apple has made some improvements to its web-based Apple Maps beta. The new update adds the Look Around feature, which lets users see 360-degree views of certain locations, much like Google Street View.
Apple added this feature in a limited beta version back in June, but it’s now available on web browsers for Windows PCs. According to a website that tracks map services, the Look Around feature seems to have been added around December 11, 2024.
Look Around gives a street-level view of selected areas, but it’s currently only available in some specific cities in the U.S., Canada, Australia, the U.K., the European Union, and a handful of other countries. You can check Apple’s website for the complete list of places where this feature is available. While it works well, the web version of Look Around is a bit different from the versions on iOS and macOS. Iit doesn’t have the same 3D visual effect when you’re not moving. However, that effect does appear when you navigate the view.
The Apple Maps web app is still in public beta, meaning it has some limitations. Features like transit maps and 3D building models are not yet available, and users can’t log in with an Apple ID to access personal locations or custom guides. Nevertheless, the beta version does offer basic functions such as exploring maps, searching for businesses, getting directions, and finding guides.
You can try out Apple Maps on the web by visiting beta.maps.apple.com in Google Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and Edge, though it did not work for me on Chrome. Testing it on the former website clearly demonstrated that it was a lot faster than Google Maps. The quality was also slightly better, but that may have been because loading each new area didn’t take as long.
Apple plans to keep developing the web app, with future updates expected to add more features. There will also be support for additional platforms and different languages. While the web version of Apple Maps isn’t at the level of the mobile and desktop apps, it’s clearly getting closer.
Source: 9to5mac
