Experienced Apple Maps' latest iOS 26 upgrade, highlighting my preferences and disappointments
Apple's latest update, iOS 26, brings a new feature to its Maps app called Visited Places. This opt-in service automatically logs your visits to places such as restaurants or shops, making it easy to remember your favorite or out-of-the-way spots for future reference.
How to Access Visited Places
To access Visited Places, simply tap on the 'Places' menu or your picture by the search bar, then select 'Places.'
Key Features of Visited Places
All saved places are stored on-device with end-to-end encryption, ensuring your privacy. You can easily view and manage your visited locations in the new ‘Visits’ menu inside your Library, with the ability to remove entries simply by swiping.
Managing Your Visited Places
Controls for keeping visits stored for 3 months, 1 year, or indefinitely, or for clearing out the history, can be found at the bottom of the Visited Places list. There's also a hidden tool in Visited Places for users to get more out of the feature.
Potential Drawbacks
As a new feature still labeled beta, Visited Places may have some reliability or usability issues, as noted by early testers. The automatic logging of locations might raise privacy concerns for some users, despite Apple’s encryption and local storage safeguards. Users must choose to enable the feature at first use, which implies a certain level of user consent and awareness is required.
Since it records detailed location history, there is an inherent risk if the device is compromised or shared, although Apple provides tools to easily delete the data. It's important to note that some location data may go missing during beta testing, and sporadic location logging can occur.
Pros of Visited Places
Despite these potential drawbacks, Visited Places offers several benefits. It automatically logs locations without requiring manual input, making it easy to remember favorite or out-of-the-way places for future reference. The feature complements other improvements in iOS 26 Maps, such as AI-powered natural language search, which adds contextual, easy-to-use search capabilities.
Visited Places organizes locations by category and city, and users can add notes to locations for added utility. The feature is currently available in Australia, Canada, Malaysia, Switzerland, the UK, and the U.S., and is compatible with various iOS 26-supported devices, such as the iPhone 12.
Additional Hidden Features in iOS 26
There are additional hidden features in iOS 26 that can make life easier. For a comprehensive guide on all the new features in iOS 26 and how to use them, check out the iOS 26 guide: All the new features on your iPhone and how to use them.
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