Apple Maps Rivals AllTrails on iOS 18 With New Hiking Features in U.S.

Just months after naming AllTrails the iPhone App of the Year in 2023, Apple has added new hiking features of its own to the Maps app on iOS 18.

iOS 18 Hiking Trails Feature
Apple Maps users in the U.S. can browse thousands of hikes across all 63 national parks in the country, filtered by length, elevation, and route type. Users can also create and save their own custom walking and hiking routes, with one-way, out-and-back, and loop routing options to choose from where available.

Apple Maps added topographic maps on the Apple Watch with watchOS 10 last year, and these maps are now available on the iPhone too with iOS 18. Topographic maps and hikes can be saved for offline access with turn-by-turn voice guidance.

These features are mostly limited to the U.S., but topographic maps are also available in Japan, according to fine print on Apple's website.

Here is how Apple describes all of the features:

Apple Maps introduces even more ways to explore the world, including hikes and custom walking routes. Users can browse thousands of hikes across national parks in the United States — filtered by length, elevation, and route type — and save them to use while offline. Users can also create their own custom walking routes with just a few taps to plan everything from a local exercise route to a full-day walking tour in a new city. Additionally, they can save their favorite national park hikes, custom walking routes, and places to an all-new Places Library, and add personal notes about them.

MacRumors contributor Aaron Perris exclusively revealed that these features were coming to Apple Maps on the iPhone earlier this year.

iOS 18 is currently in beta and should be released in September.

Related Roundups: iOS 18, iPadOS 18
Related Forums: iOS 18, iPadOS 18

Popular Stories

New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 18

20 New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 18.2

Monday December 16, 2024 8:55 am PST by
Apple released iOS 18.2 in the second week of December, bringing the second round of Apple Intelligence features to iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 models. This update brings several major advancements to Apple's AI integration, including completely new image generation tools and a range of Visual Intelligence-based enhancements. Apple has added a handful of new non-AI related feature controls as...
iphone 16 apple intelligence

Apple Drops Plans for iPhone Hardware Subscription Service

Wednesday December 18, 2024 11:39 am PST by
Apple is no longer planning to launch a hardware subscription service that would let customers "subscribe" to get a new iPhone each year, reports Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Gurman first shared rumors about Apple's work on a hardware subscription service back in 2022, and at the time, he said that Apple wanted to develop a simple system that would allow customers to pay a monthly fee to gain...
iPhone 17 Pro Dual Tone Feature 1

iPhone 17 Pro Rumored to Stick With 'Triangular' Camera Design

Wednesday December 18, 2024 2:36 am PST by
Contrary to recent reports, the iPhone 17 Pro will not feature a horizontal camera layout, according to the leaker known as "Instant Digital." In a new post on Weibo, the leaker said that a source has confirmed that while the appearance of the back of the iPhone 17 Pro has indeed changed, the layout of the three cameras is "still triangular," rather than the "horizontal bar spread on the...
elevation lab airtag battery

Your AirTag's Battery Will Last for Up to 10 Years With Elevation Lab's New TimeCapsule Enclosure

Wednesday December 18, 2024 10:05 am PST by
Elevation Lab today announced the launch of TimeCapsule, an innovative and simple solution for increasing the battery life of Apple's AirTag. Priced at $20, TimeCapsule is an AirTag enclosure that houses two AA batteries that offer 14x more battery capacity than the CR2032 battery that the AirTag runs on. It works by attaching the AirTag's upper housing to the built-in custom contact in the...
apple tv 4k yellow bg feature

New Apple TV Rumored to Launch Next Year With These Features

Tuesday December 17, 2024 9:02 am PST by
The current Apple TV 4K was released more than two years ago, so the streaming device is becoming due for a hardware upgrade soon. Fortunately, it was recently rumored that a new Apple TV will launch at some point next year. Below, we recap rumors about the next-generation Apple TV. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman last week reported that Apple has been working on its own combined Wi-Fi and...
blackmagic vision pro

Blackmagic Debuts $30K 3D Camera for Capturing Video for Vision Pro

Monday December 16, 2024 4:17 pm PST by
Blackmagic today announced that its URSA Cine Immersive camera is now available for pre-order, with deliveries set to start late in the first quarter of 2025. Blackmagic says that this is the world's first commercial camera system designed to capture 3D content for the Vision Pro. The URSA Cine Immersive camera was first introduced in June, but it has not been available for purchase until...
iPhone 17 Slim Feature

'iPhone 17 Air' With 'Major' Design Changes and 19-Inch MacBook Detailed in New Report

Sunday December 15, 2024 9:47 am PST by
Apple is planning a series of "major design" and "format changes" for iPhones over the next few years, according to The Wall Street Journal's Aaron Tilley and Yang Jie. The paywalled report published today corroborated the widely-rumored "iPhone 17 Air" with an "ultrathin" design that is thinner than current iPhone models. The report did not mention a specific measurement, but previous...
mac pro creativity

Apple Launched the Controversial 'Trashcan' Mac Pro 11 Years Ago Today

Thursday December 19, 2024 7:00 pm PST by
Apple launched the controversial "trashcan" Mac Pro eleven years ago today, introducing one of its most criticized designs that persisted through a period of widespread discontentment with the Mac lineup. The redesign took the Mac Pro in an entirely new direction, spearheaded by a polished aluminum cylindrical design that became unofficially dubbed the "trashcan" in the Mac community. All of ...

Top Rated Comments

robvalentine Avatar
27 weeks ago
Alltrails works around the world, and outside of national parks, so not really rivalling....
Score: 16 Votes (Like | Disagree)
kirky29 Avatar
27 weeks ago
Why does this need to be an iOS 18 thing? Surely out of any app, updating a map should just be anytime and all the time?

I find the Apple approach to updating apps ridiculous. They’re apps, update them throughout the year like Google Maps, Spotify, Facebook and the rest.
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jasonsmith_88 Avatar
27 weeks ago
AllTrails biggest selling point is user-generated content, being able to find unofficial routes and read reviews to determine conditions. Apple, for whatever reason, doesn’t engage in user-generated content, so this will never be a serious competitor to AllTrails.
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
JimmyHook Avatar
27 weeks ago

Perhaps Apple should also focus on the rest of the world. It’s so damn annoying that’s lots of features don’t make it to everyone right from the get go
I mean, the world is a big place. Especially when the task is mapping. It’s hard enough to roll any product out globally, let alone one that literally details the surface of the planet.
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Da_Shiznit Avatar
27 weeks ago
Perhaps Apple should also focus on the rest of the world. It’s so damn annoying that’s lots of features don’t make it to everyone right from the get go
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Chungry Avatar
27 weeks ago

Apple (or AllTrails): make a pay version available that includes satellite access... often when we're on trails we're off network. (AllTrails has downloaded maps, which we use, but are they accurate?)
All trails is plenty accurate. I tested it alongside a Garmin Edge 1040 cycling computer and my Fenix 6 watch. All of them work fine with just GPS. Apple Maps (downloaded) HOWEVER was always WOEFULLY inaccurate. When trying to get driving directions to a well-known trailhead I compared Waze, Google Maps and Apple Maps. The first two nailed it with Waze offering a crazy shortcut as it often does. Apple Maps wanted me to go 40 minutes in the wrong direction into town. These are common trials, well-traveled roads and all of it in or near a national park and daily populous city. Outside cities Apple Maps continues to be an also-ran option (and even still there are issues). We aren’t talking about remote locales either. It’s sad.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)