Apple is considering bringing advertising to Apple Maps search beginning in 2026, according to the Power On newsletter from Mark Gurman. This is part of a larger effort for the company to bring more advertising to iOS.
According to the report, the internal iOS advertising effort is ‘gaining traction’, and Apple now has a plan to bring advertising to Apple Maps sometime next year. Soon enough, businesses will be able to pay for more prominent appearances within search on Apple Maps.
Gurman describes it as ‘quite similar’ to how advertising works on the App Store, where developers can target key words for search. Notably, the App Store also has advertising on its first page, though that isn’t going to be the case with Apple Maps, at least yet.
Apple will also be leveraging AI to ‘ensure that results are relevant and useful,’ and the interface will be better than what Google Maps offers, according to Bloomberg.
Lastly, Gurman points out that there’s a high risk of consumer backlash, especially as the company has already turned the iPhone into a ‘digital billboard’ for its own services in some minor ways:
The big risk Apple faces here is a potential consumer backlash. Some customers are already unhappy that the iPhone has been turned into a digital billboard for services like AppleCare+, Apple Music, Apple TV and Fitness+. The company also pushes web-like ad slots within Apple News. When you consider that an iPhone can cost up to $2,000, some see this as an unseemly money grab.
Only time will tell, but overall it sounds like we should gear up for ads in Apple Maps sometime next year. There isn’t a specific timeline, though this feels like the type of feature that’d probably debut in the spring, so potentially iOS 26.4 or iOS 26.5.
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