There may be hope for iOS 6 users struggling with Apple’s new Maps app. UK’s The Guardian reports that Google is working on a new Google Maps app to replace the one that Apple removed in the latest version of its mobile operating system. The report is light on details but Google will presumably repackage it as an iOS 6-compatible app and submit it to the App Store for users to download if they so wish.
Google Maps was not the only Google application Apple removed from iOS 6. Also gone is the YouTube app but it a new version now available in the App Store for the iPhone (with an iPad version coming a bit later). It makes sense that Google would take the same route with its ampping application.
Until Google Maps is available in the App Store, users can still use Google Maps in their browsers.
The report provides no timeline as to when the new app might be ready. But a rumour that Google had already submitted the app for approval and that Apple had yet to approve it appears to be incorrect. The very reliable The Loop‘s Jim Dalrymple, had a simple comment on this bit of news: “Nope.”
iOS 6 is the first version of iOS not to feature Google Maps preinstalled.
Read more: The Guardian and The Loop