Put Google Maps on your iPhone and iPad Home screens with its new widgets

Apple Maps (Image credit: iMore)

What you need to know

Google Maps has today been updated to support widgets on iPhone and iPad for the first time.
There are two different types of widgets available right now.

Google Maps has today updated its iPhone and iPad app to include support for a feature that was big when Apple released iOS 14 almost a year ago — Home screen widgets. The new update, which is available for download now, includes support for two different types of widget.

After choosing to add a Google Maps widget to their Home screen, users can select one of two options.

A widget that lets users check local traffic and weather conditions for a specific location.
Another widget that includes quick access to search as well as restaurants, gas stations, and more.

Thanks for using Google Maps! In this release, we're launching our first set of Home Screen Widgets to help you plan and navigate to your destination.

Google Maps is arguably the best iPhone mapping app around, despite Appel Maps making great improvements in recent years. The addition of a couple of Home screen widgets might not be a huge deal to most people, but it does at least show that Google is keen to make sure iOS users get to enjoy some new features here and there. Even if widgets did arrive closer to the iOS 15 launch than the iOS 14 one.

Those who already have Google Maps installed can download the new update now. Everyone else can go get it via the App Store for free. Even if you're an Apple Maps user, it never hurts to have more options to hand when going on a trip does it?

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.