iOS 18 Beta: The Maps App on Your iPhone Just Got This Handy New Feature

Apple released the second public beta of iOS 18 on July 29, more than a month after the company announced the iPhone software at its Worldwide Developers Conference in June. The beta brings a number of new features to the iPhones of developers and beta testers, such as RCS messaging, ways to customize the Home screen, and an improved Calculator app. The Maps app is also getting an upgrade, and one of the new features you’ll see in it is the ability to search within a specific area.

Before iOS 18, if you searched for a pizza restaurant in Maps, the app would show you nearby restaurants that served pizza. But if you live in a densely populated area like New York City, or you want to check if there’s a pizza place in a specific neighborhood, Maps might not be able to help. In the iOS 18 beta, Maps now adds the option to search in a new area.

Read more: Everything you need to know about the new features in the iOS 18 beta

Since iOS 18 is still in beta, I recommend downloading the beta on something other than your primary device. Beta builds can be buggy and cause short battery life, and it’s best to keep those issues on a secondary device. I’m downloading and testing the beta on an old iPhone XR to keep those issues away from my primary phone, the iPhone 14 Pro.

It’s important to note that the beta is not the final version of iOS 18. More features may be available on your iPhone when the software is released in the fall.

If you’re testing the iOS 18 beta, here’s how to search for specific areas in Maps.

How to use Search Here on Maps

1. Open Maps.
2. Type a term, such as “pizza”, into the search box and click Search.

Maps will show you pizzerias in your area. However, if you zoom in or move the search area to one side or the other, Search here button will appear at the bottom of the screen. Tap this button and Maps will search the area on the screen without adjusting or changing the orientation of the map.

If you’re looking for a new pizza place and zoom in on an area, Maps will now show you results for the new area without zooming out or moving the search area.

Keep in mind that iOS 18 is still in beta, so this feature may be buggy or not work properly. There will likely be more betas before the operating system is released to the public in the fall, so Apple has plenty of time to iron out any issues. There’s no word yet on when Apple will release iOS 18 to the general public.

To learn more about iOS 18, here’s my hands-on experience with the iOS 18 betas and our iOS 18 cheat sheet . You can also check out what you need to know about the first iOS 18.1 developer beta .

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