Apple expands Apple Maps Look Around feature to several Japanese cities
Mike PetersonCredit: Apple
Apple is expanding its Apple Maps Look Around feature to include several cities in Japan, marking the first time the feature has been available for a city outside of the U.S.
Look Around, first introduced in iOS 13 version of Apple Maps, is a rival to Google's Street View that lets users explore various cities from an on-the-ground perspective.
On Tuesday, Apple quietly introduced four new cities in Japan to Look Around, including Kyoto, Nagoya and Osaka. The four Japanese cities mark the first time that Apple has expanded Look Around internationally.
Twitter user @Kanjo first spotted the feature being rolled out in Tokyo earlier on Tuesday. As of writing, it doesn't appear that Look Around for Tokyo is live for users in the U.S.
The feature initially launched in Cupertino, California; Las Vegas, Nevada; San Francisco, California; and Honolulu, Hawaii. Since its debut, Apple has added support for 11 U.S. cities in total.
Although Apple didn't announce the new Look Around additions, its website does note that it has been collecting pedestrian-level image data across Japan since March 2020.
Users should now be able to Look Around the four Japanese cities simply by searching them in Apple Maps on devices running iOS 14.
Wesley Hilliard
Mike Wuerthele and Malcolm Owen
Amber Neely
Bon Adamson
Andrew Orr
Malcolm Owen
6 Comments
We were meant to be going to Japan this year. I guess this will have to do for now.
Damn you Apple!
With your quadrillions of cash, why don't you spend some money and get this Look Around stuff working for Stow-on-the-Wold!
C'mon Apple! You have all the money in the universe, and yet your customers still have to use Google Maps to find some of the best known UK landmarks!
Sort it out, Apple!
Nice. But at this pace...
Maybe Apple is counting on rising sea levels to remove the need for them to cover most places. That would match their seeming timetable.