Will Apple Maps Get Street View? What We Know About Look Around and Apple's Ground-Level Imagery
Apple Maps has a street-level imagery feature — it's just not called Street View. Apple's equivalent is named Look Around, and understanding what it is, where it works, and how it compares to Google Street View is key to answering whether Apple Maps will ever fully close the gap.
What Is Apple Maps Look Around?
Look Around is Apple's immersive, ground-level photography feature built directly into Apple Maps. It works similarly to Google Street View: you tap an icon, drop into a photorealistic street-level view, and navigate by tapping or swiping to move along a road or path.
The imagery in Look Around is notably high quality — Apple captures it using specially equipped vehicles and backpack-mounted camera rigs for pedestrian areas. The transitions between positions are rendered smoothly, giving it a somewhat cinematic feel compared to the jumpier navigation in older Street View imagery.
Look Around is available on:
- iPhone (iOS 13 and later)
- iPad (iPadOS 13 and later)
- Mac (macOS Catalina and later)
You access it by searching for a location, tapping the binoculars icon on the map, or previewing a route and selecting the Look Around thumbnail.
Where Does Look Around Actually Work?
This is the critical variable. Coverage is the biggest difference between Look Around and Google Street View right now.
Google has been capturing Street View imagery since 2007 and has coverage across hundreds of countries, including rural roads, hiking trails, and interiors of landmarks. Apple started its Look Around rollout much later, around 2019, and coverage has expanded steadily but unevenly.
As of recent updates, Look Around coverage includes:
| Region | Coverage Status |
|---|---|
| United States (major cities + suburban areas) | Broad coverage |
| United Kingdom | Major cities and growing |
| Canada | Selected cities |
| Australia | Major cities |
| Japan | Major cities |
| Parts of Europe | Expanding, varies by country |
| Most of Asia, Africa, Latin America | Limited or unavailable |
If you're in a covered area, Look Around works well. If you're researching a location in a country with limited Apple Maps investment, you may find no Look Around imagery at all — and that's a meaningful gap depending on your use case.
Is Apple Actively Expanding Look Around Coverage? 🌍
Yes, Apple has been expanding Look Around consistently. Apple Maps underwent a significant rebuild starting around 2018, moving away from third-party data toward Apple-collected, first-party imagery and data. That effort included deploying Apple Maps vehicles — identifiable by their distinctive roof-mounted camera arrays — across new regions each year.
Apple hasn't published a public coverage roadmap, so there's no confirmed list of countries or cities scheduled for future capture. Expansion announcements typically happen either through Apple Maps update notes or when users in new regions suddenly report Look Around availability.
Several factors influence where and how quickly coverage expands:
- Local data privacy laws — some countries have stricter rules about street-level photography, which can slow or block collection
- Licensing and operational logistics — deploying camera vehicles internationally requires permits and local partnerships
- Apple's strategic prioritization — markets with high iPhone usage tend to get earlier attention
How Does Look Around Compare to Google Street View? 🗺️
For users deciding which mapping app fits their needs, the honest comparison looks like this:
| Feature | Apple Maps Look Around | Google Street View |
|---|---|---|
| Image quality | Very high (modern captures) | Varies widely by age/region |
| Coverage breadth | Narrower, growing | Extensive, global |
| Indoor coverage | Limited | Available in some venues |
| Historical imagery | Not available | Available in many locations |
| Integration | Apple ecosystem only | Cross-platform |
| Update frequency | Newer system, fresher imagery | Mixed, older in some areas |
Google's advantage is scale and history. Apple's advantage in covered areas is often image freshness and rendering quality. Neither is universally superior — the answer shifts depending on where you're looking.
What Affects Whether Look Around Works for Your Situation
Several variables determine whether Look Around is a practical tool for any given user:
Geographic location is the biggest factor. A user in San Francisco or London has a rich Look Around experience. A user planning travel to rural Southeast Asia or sub-Saharan Africa will likely find no Look Around imagery at all.
Device and OS version matters because Look Around requires iOS 13 or later. Older iPhones running earlier software won't have access, though most actively used iPhones are well past that threshold now.
Use case shapes the comparison significantly. For local navigation in a major city, Look Around is fully capable. For research into international destinations, historical imagery review, or exploring remote areas, Google Street View's broader coverage often fills gaps that Look Around cannot yet.
Apple ecosystem commitment is another variable. Look Around only works within Apple Maps on Apple devices. Users who work across Android, Windows, or web browsers have no access to it, making Google Street View the only cross-platform option.
The Broader Picture
Apple Maps Look Around is a real, capable street-level imagery feature — not a placeholder or a rumored future addition. It exists today and works well where coverage is available. The question of whether it will fully match Google Street View's global footprint is a matter of ongoing expansion, not a binary yes or no.
Whether Look Around is sufficient, or whether the coverage gap matters, comes down entirely to where you need to look and how you use mapping tools day to day. That's the piece only your own situation can answer.