Indoor Maps in Apple Maps

Apple is adding indoor maps of airports to Apple Maps.

These indoor maps are always based on data Apple receives directly from the account established by the organization that owns or operates the facility. The published maps will only show the publicly accessible areas. In an airport this includes the areas beyond the security checkpoints, sometimes known as the “sterile” areas.

Your organization can choose to authorize Apple to display the floor plans for an eligible location in Apple Maps. If the venue is then chosen for inclusion to Apple Maps, the Indoor Program team will work closely with your organization to make sure that the maps are correct and kept up-to-date, and that only publicly accessible areas are shown in the Map.

While “back-of-house” or “secure areas” are not shown in Apple Maps, these can still be shown in your own apps or websites, using the maps and apps that you develop for your staff.

It is important to note that the indoor maps displayed in Apple Maps are not made available to developers via MapKit or MapKit JS. In this way your organization retains control over which developers are able to use indoor maps of your facilities.

At time of release of this document, the only property types being added to Apple Maps are airports. When additional property types are added, if a newly eligible property has been authorized for use in Apple Maps, the organization will be notified.

Indoor Maps in Your Own Apps and Websites

The Indoor Maps Program can help streamline the inclusion of indoor maps in your apps and websites. For example, you might want to create an indoor wayfinding app for patients at your hospital or an app for your campus allowing students to report emergencies in a building, or a facilities management app for your staff, so that employees can easily report broken fixtures or rooms that need servicing.

In order to make these apps and websites truly useful you will also need indoor positioning. Apple provides the tools that make it easy to enable Apple indoor positioning technology inside your buildings.

Apple indoor positioning works in any iOS app as well as websites viewed in Safari or other WebKit compatible browsers on iOS devices.

In order to use indoor maps and enable indoor positioning you will need to:

  1. Convert floor plans of your buildings to Indoor Mapping Data Format (IMDF) and upload the files to your organization’s Apple Business Register account.
  2. Perform a radio frequency (RF) survey of your buildings using Apple’s Indoor Survey app to enable indoor positioning.
  3. Display the indoor maps in your apps and websites and use Apple indoor positioning via the CoreLocation API or Safari on iOS.

Once your floor plans are converted to IMDF they become easy to display in your apps and websites. Both MapKit and MapKit JS provide APIs with controls for a more stylized presentation of your indoor map.

About Apple Indoor Positioning

Apple indoor positioning can typically provide GPS level accuracy when inside a building. It also returns floor level as an integer value: zero for ground floor, positive numbers for floors above ground and negative numbers for floors below ground.

The technology determines the device location by using the sensors in the iOS device to determine direction of travel and speed, and by using radio frequency (RF) “fingerprints.” It relies on the fact that the RF patterns emitted by fixed Wi-Fi access points inside a building are unique depending on location. The RF patterns are measured using Apple’s Indoor Survey app, running on an iPhone, and associated with known latitude and longitude locations inside the building. The Indoor Survey app requires a floor plan of the building in IMDF to be correctly geo-referenced to latitude and longitude. Thus IMDF allows the Indoor Survey app to tie the RF patterns to precise locations.

Once a building is surveyed using the Indoor Survey app, indoor positioning is generally available within 24 hours. It is accessed via the Core Location APIs or via Safari on iOS. The Core Location APIs are smart enough to use positioning information from satellites when the device is outside and use the Wi-Fi fingerprinting when the device is inside. This makes it incredibly easy for developers to deal with indoor/outdoor transitions as there is only the one API to call in all situations.

It is important to note:

  • An iOS device does not need to be connected to any Wi-Fi network in order to get an indoor position fix
  • Wi-Fi must be "on" on the device
  • The indoor positioning technology uses 2.4GHz Wi-Fi exclusively. If your organization uses 5GHz then the 2.4GHz radio in each Wi-Fi access point should be turned on in “beaconing mode” so that it is broadcasting a RF pattern. The SSID for the 2.4GHz radio can be hidden so that no devices will attempt to connect to that SSID
  • The indoor positioning technology does not use BLE beacons
  • Any 2.4GHz Wi-Fi in the area is used for indoor positioning. This could be public, secure, hidden or even third party Wi-Fi from neighboring buildings.
  • Coverage of indoor positioning can be increased by simply installing additional Wi-Fi access points and enabling beaconing mode. The access points do not need to be connected to any network and their SSID can be hidden so they are not discoverable.

About IMDF

IMDF stands for Indoor Mapping Data Format. IMDF is a data model that is used to describe an indoor space. IMDF is output as a set of GeoJSON files. There are many APIs available to display GeoJSON, making it easy to add indoor maps to your apps or websites. The easiest way to do this is to use MapKit or MapKit JS. Both include APIs for displaying your indoor map in IMDF in Apple Maps. IMDF is intended for the global exchange of indoor data.

On February 23, 2021, the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) added IMDF 1.0.0 to the OGC Standards Baseline as a Community Standard.

Apple uses IMDF inside the Indoor Survey app so that Apple indoor positioning can be enabled inside a building.

There are a number of ways that you can create IMDF from your floor plans.

If your organization owns or operates airports or shopping centers then Apple can help convert your floor plans, which may be in CAD, BIM or GIS formats, to IMDF. Apple will also consider converting floor plans of other large public venues to IMDF on a case by case basis.

Indoor Map Updates

Changes can happen frequently inside buildings. Most common changes involve changes to the occupants of rooms and spaces. For example, in an airport the retail tenants can change often, so the space occupied by a fast food restaurant today might be occupied by a coffee shop next month.

Floor plan changes happen too, usually less frequently than occupant changes. In many cases floor plan changes involve simple splitting and merging of spaces, but in some environments the construction never stops.

Updating Indoor Maps in Apple Maps

Apple Maps shows indoor maps of airports and selected shopping centers. Apple is keen to make sure that the indoor maps are kept up-to-date. In order to do that Apple needs to stay in constant contact with the owners and operators of these facilities.

Occupant changes can be communicated via an updated IMDF or via a simple spreadsheet. Structural changes to the building can be communicated via an updated IMDF or floor plans delivered in CAD, BIM or GIS formats.

Updating Indoor maps in Your Own Apps and Websites

You can update the maps in your own apps and websites on your own. There is no need for any communication with Apple to make the updates. However, if you make major structural changes to your building, for example if you add a new floor or a new wing to a building, then a re-survey of the building using Apple’s Indoor Survey app is required in order to provide indoor positioning in the new parts of the building. Refer to Indoor Positioning Updates

Indoor Positioning Updates

Apple indoor positioning relies on the unique RF patterns created by the radios inside Wi-Fi access points. Minor changes to the set of Wi-Fi access points, such as the addition or removal of a Wi-Fi access point, will have little to no effect on indoor positioning performance. However, if the set of Wi-Fi access points is upgraded or relocated in a building or facility then a re‐survey of the building using Apple’s Indoor Survey app will be required to keep the indoor positioning performant.

Major changes to interior walls might also affect the quality of indoor positioning and may require a re-survey.

Indoor positioning can be tested using the Indoor Survey app by using it in ‘Positioning’ mode. Your organization is free to perform the re-survey using Apple’s Indoor Survey app.