Apple Maps users may soon begin to see advertisements within the app as early as next year, according to a recent report by Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman.

The tech giant is reportedly planning to follow a similar path as Google Maps by allowing restaurants, retail stores, and other physical businesses to pay for promoted placements in search results.

This move marks Apple’s growing interest in expanding its advertising ecosystem beyond the App Store, where it already runs promotional listings.

According to the report, Apple intends to differentiate its advertising experience through a refined user interface and the use of artificial intelligence to deliver more relevant and personalized results.

However, Gurman raises an important concern: as Apple continues to integrate more advertising into its ecosystem, will loyal users begin to resist the shift toward what could feel like a more commercialized experience?

If implemented, the new feature would signal Apple’s deeper push into the digital advertising market — a move that could reshape how millions of users interact with Apple Maps and the broader iOS environment.

Source: Techcrunch