Though not the flashiest of apps, maps and navigation apps are a fundamental part of the smartphone user experience, and tech companies recognize this and regularly invest in improving their map capabilities. Making a big push to upgrade Apple Maps, Apple announced in June 2019 that it plans to roll out an improved app later this year on iOS 13. Google continues to regularly add features to its Google Maps app, the latest being a feature that alerts users of live traffic delays for buses and predictions on transit congestion.
For a company like Google, which runs ads within the app, it also means opportunities to capitalize on people’s reliance on this tool through advertising.
“Although advertising is still limited, maps have a lot of potential as ad platforms," said Yorum Wurmser, principal analyst at eMarketer. "Users go into these apps often with search queries, which reveals intent and provides possibilities for search ads. Google already has some ads within Google Maps and Waze."
Google Maps is the No. 4 smartphone app among US smartphone users, coming just after YouTube, Facebook and Google, according to March 2019 figures from Comscore. Nearly 64% of Android and iOS smartphone users utilize the map app.