Apple is fixing the worst part of its CarPlay software — you'll finally be able to use Google Maps (AAPL, GOOG, GOOGL)
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Third-party navigation apps are coming to Apple CarPlay, its system for plugging an iPhone into a car dashboard.
It means that Google Maps and Waze are coming to CarPlay.
This is huge, and long-awaited.
Apple has announced at its annual WWDC conference that finally, you'll be able to use third-party navigation apps with CarPlay, its tool for connecting an iPhone to a car infotainment system.
Since CarPlay launched in 2014, it's come with one huge, annoying limitation: If you wanted navigation maps to appear on your car dashboard, you had to use Apple Maps, the iPhone's default mapping system. That's frustrating for those of us who prefer Google's navigation apps, like Google Maps and Waze.
With iOS 12, the next version of the iPhone's operating system launching later this year, Apple is leaving the door open for those apps, and others, to come to CarPlay.
To be clear, Apple already lets other developers add CarPlay support to their apps. NPR One provides an alternative to Apple's own Podcasts app, Facebook's WhatsApp is there as an alternative to iMessage, and you can use Spotify instead of Apple Music. But maps has long been the big hole in what Apple has allowed. Sooner rather than later, that hole will be filled.
As a CarPlay user myself, this is excellent news, and I suspect I am not alone.
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