Apple Maps Introduces AI-Powered Natural Language Search in iOS 26 Beta

Apple Maps gets natural language search in iOS 26 beta -- what that means for your navigation

With the public beta for iOS 26 now available, more people are testing the new features coming to the iPhone -- and it turns out there are some hidden iOS 26 tools that Apple didn't even announce. One that should make your Apple Maps experience better is the addition of natural language search via Apple Intelligence, one of the better AI tools coming to your iPhone. Spotted by 9to5Mac, Maps will get a new "Search the Way You Talk" option in Apple Maps that lets you use natural language for searches like 'Find cafes with free Wi-Fi.'" We did some testing of natural language search in Apple Maps and found that currently, it's a bit hit or miss. In one search we tried, "Parks with playgrounds" and Apple Maps did provide suggestions like "parks with a good rating" or "parks with boat ramps." However, not every test worked cleanly. Typing "24-hour diner" brings up results. But trying "all-night diner" brings back no results. So your natural language will vary. There are somethings that Apple may not have in its Maps data. Attempting "parks with restrooms" turned up zero results. From our testing, there are more natural search terms but as with everything in these betas, it is a work in progress. Apple never announced this feature was coming but apparently it's available now for beta testers. It may have even launched with the first iOS 26 public beta, and not the current iteration. I did check on an iPhone 16 Pro that has not been in the beta program, and could not find the natural language search there, so I do believe this is currently only an iOS 26 beta feature. Apple added natural language search to other iOS apps like Photos with iOS 18 and the introduction of Apple Intelligence. We tested it out then and were surprised by the results. "This is a much better approach to finding photos," my colleague Tom's Guide editor Philip Michaels wrote. Though he did caution that it too still felt like a work in progress.

iOS 26 beta gives Apple Maps an AI upgrade - and it might be enough to tempt you from Google Maps

As updated iOS 26 beta versions continue to roll out, we're spotting new features in the software that Apple hasn't officially announced: yesterday it was AirPod charging lights, and today it's AI search in Apple Maps. The team at 9to5Google has spotted that the search function in Apple Maps now encourages users to "search the way you talk" - so you might type out or speak out a search like "find cafes with free Wi-Fi" for example. This is now live in the fifth developer beta version of iOS 26, so you won't see it yet if you're running the public beta. It might also get tweaked or even pulled before the final version of iOS 26 launches in September, though it seems likely that it's here to stay. It's certainly an easier and more intuitive way to search for places, if you need to go beyond the basics and specify some additional criteria for your results - such as Wi-Fi access, food options, electric vehicle charging, wheelchair access, or whatever it is. It's possible that the new functionality has only gone live in the US for the time being, because after updating my iPhone to the iOS 26 developer beta 5, I was unable to get the natural language search feature to show up in Apple Maps here in the UK. What I could do was run a similarly phrased search on Google Maps, and the results were somewhat patchy: it identified cafes without any problem, but it listed several that definitely do not offer free Wi-Fi (and I've been in them and asked). It shows up a limitation in AI features such as these, which is that while the AI might be great at understanding what you're asking for and converting your spoken words into text, it's still relying on cold, hard maps data to get you accurate results. In terms of raw data, Google Maps perhaps still has the edge over Apple Maps - but upgrades like this one in iOS 26 will mean Apple Maps becomes more appealing and useful, and may be enough to grab some users back from Google Maps.