Re:Eric Schmidt: Google Hasn’t Submitted A Native Google Map...
by objclxt on Tuesday September 25, 2012 @04:39AM
(#4569293)
This is a platform limitation: however, Apple also dropped the ball a little on this one and if Google had launched a native maps app on day one of iOS 6 they could have had quite a well integrated experience.
Previously, the standard way to open the maps app from within another app on iOS 6 was to call a 'https://maps.google.com URL. Rather than re-directing to Safari, iOS would pick this up and forward the user to the Maps app instead[1].
For obvious reasons, Apple changed this in iOS 6. Trying to open a maps.google.com URL now opens Safari. This means the overwhelming majority of apps that used to hot-link directly to the maps app now boot users off to the Google Maps website (since most apps have not been updated yet to support all iOS 6 features). It would be very straightforward for Google to adapt this to forward users back to their own app.
Previously, the standard way to open the maps app from within another app on iOS 6 was to call a 'https://maps.google.com URL. Rather than re-directing to Safari, iOS would pick this up and forward the user to the Maps app instead[1].
For obvious reasons, Apple changed this in iOS 6. Trying to open a maps.google.com URL now opens Safari. This means the overwhelming majority of apps that used to hot-link directly to the maps app now boot users off to the Google Maps website (since most apps have not been updated yet to support all iOS 6 features). It would be very straightforward for Google to adapt this to forward users back to their own app.
[1]: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/30058/how-can-i-launch-th...