Apple Indoor Maps and Positioning
Version: 1.0.4
Last update: November 15, 2021
Finding your way inside a large and unfamiliar building can be difficult, and when you’re pressed for time, not knowing which way to go can be incredibly stressful.
Apple is trying to make indoor wayfinding easier in two ways.
First, by adding select locations to Apple Maps. These indoor maps provide a beautiful 2D and 3D mapping experience together with a detailed directory of important locations within the facility. There are over 80 airports as well as hundreds of shopping centers live in Apple Maps today.
Second, Apple is providing a way for the developer community to add indoor maps to their own apps and websites, whether the maps be for the general public or for their staff. In either case, Apple allows the facility owner to have full control over who is permitted to see the indoor map.
Indoor Positioning: A Particular Challenge
Just having an indoor map is not sufficient for wayfinding. You also need to know where you are inside the building.
However, when indoors, satellite positioning systems signals can be blocked and as a result location accuracy can be significantly reduced.
Access to your accurate indoor location, or “blue dot,” is a fundamental requirement to support indoor wayfinding. There are also many other use cases where an accurate location is vital. These include room-finders and apps for the mobility or visually impaired.
Indoor positioning can also be used to improve enterprise efficiency when employed in apps for building operations, facilities management, situational awareness or emergency response. Apple provides organizations with the tools to enable accurate indoor positioning inside their facilities by themselves.
Who should join the Indoor Program
The Indoor Maps Program is appropriate for the owners or operators of almost any large venue, public or private.
| Indoor maps for your apps and websites? | Indoor positioning for iOS? | Indoor maps in Apple Maps? | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Airport | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Convention center | ✓ | generally not | |
| Corporate campus | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Factory | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Hospital | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Hotel or resort | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Museum | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Shopping center | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Stadium | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Subway station | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Train or bus station | ✓ | ✓ | |
| University | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Warehouse | ✓ | sometimes not |
The exceptions are as follows:
Convention centers
Accurate indoor positioning requires a relatively stable Wi-Fi network to be present. In the exhibition halls of convention centers this is generally not the case as the Wi-Fi is commonly changed for each event.
Warehouses
It can be difficult to provide accurate indoor in large empty warehouses. However, if the warehouse is filled with equipment, shelves or other objects this is less of an issue and indoor positioning can be made to work well.
Small buildings, offices, shops or restaurants
The basic rule is that if the space is so small you can’t get lost, then indoor positioning is not appropriate.