Is Apple losing its way with the Maps app? Rumor claims adverts are coming in 2026

If Apple goes the advertising route, it'll be with subtle paid promotions in the same vein that Google already uses with its navigation app.

Is Apple losing its way with the Maps app? Rumor claims adverts are coming in 2026
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Tech Reporter
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TL;DR: Apple Maps may soon introduce paid promotions in a similar vein to Google Maps, allowing businesses like restaurants to feature more prominently in search results. The results could be made more relevant and honed using AI, but still - there are obvious problems for some folks with this idea, if it becomes a reality next year as predicted.

Apple Maps is soon to get adverts, much in the same vein as Google Maps, if some fresh speculation is to be believed.

If you're thinking this is just a rumor so it's most likely fine to ignore it, well, you might be right there, but it comes from one of the more reliable Apple leakers, Mark Gurman, in his Power On newsletter for Bloomberg (via TechRadar) - so that gives it a bit more weight than your average rumor.

At any rate, the theory is that Apple will use paid promotion in its Maps app, possibly as soon as next year (it's only a couple of months away now).

This will not be outright ads as such, but like Google Maps, Gurman says Apple will "allow restaurants and other businesses to pay to have their details featured more prominently within the app's searches".

Gurman observes that Apple will need to be very careful about a consumer backlash with this rumored move, and predictably enough, the concept hasn't gone down well with some people who use Apple Maps.

Some of those folks are misunderstanding the nature of the adverts, mind you, as in assuming they would be full-blown ads in the app. You likely wouldn't be too impressed if you missed your exit due to being shown Johnny Depp's cologne advert at an inopportune moment - but of course, that isn't what this is about.

This is more under-the-radar advertising where Apple is surfacing results based on what you want to find - i.e. a good restaurant for lunch - and not just slinging any old thing at you.

Apparently, Apple's plan also extends to the use of AI to make sure that any such adverts are "relevant and useful", and typically the likes of restaurants will be the businesses promoted.

So, the end result may not be as jarring or annoying as you might first expect when you hear that ads are coming to the Maps app.

Still, that said, it's arguably true that any kind of paid promotion is at odds with helping you find the top options, whether AI is involved or not - you'll always be suspicious that whatever you are being pushed towards may not be your best bet in reality. There might always be that nagging feeling of an ulterior motive if Apple does decide to go this route with its Maps app.

As ever, time will tell if that's the case, but for now, this remains idle chatter from the grapevine - albeit with more of a ring of truth about it than most such whispers. Gurman is more often right than wrong in my experience.

Some other recent, more positive, Apple news includes the revelation that the new MacBook Pro M5 has an SSD which is up to three times as fast as the solid-state drive in its M4 predecessor.