Why You Still Can’t Transfer Saved Locations Between Apple Maps and Google Maps in 2025

In June 2025, Google rolled out Android 16, its most sophisticated smartphone OS so far, while Apple teased iOS 26 a similarly ambitious upgrade. These releases have brought with them a collection of outstanding features that promise smoother user experiences and more intelligent device performance. Yet one surprisingly ubiquitous gripe has yet again remained untouched: the lack of ability to easily switch saved location data from Apple Maps to Google Maps.

For years now, users have been locked into whatever mapping platform they originally settled on not because it's superior, but out of the sheer hassle of changing. And in 2025, that digital lock-in still holds.

Why Can't We Transfer Saved Locations Between Apple Maps and Google Maps?

Even though Apple Maps and Google Maps are among the most popular smartphone applications worldwide, there's no native feature allowing users to move saved places between them. This deficiency might be favorable to the technology giants by keeping users within their ecosystems, but it's a raw deal for users who just want more control over their own location data.

The absurdity is in the straightforwardness of the data involved: saved places are nothing more than address-book bookmarks. They can be read and understood universally by any maps platform. And still, Apple and Google refuse users a smooth means of exporting this data. Email clients, photo libraries, even contact books permit easy exports and imports—yet for maps, the procedure is cumbersome, laborious, and off-putting.

Apple Maps vs Google Maps

Users often use Apple Maps as well as Google Maps for various reasons. Google Maps continues to lead the way with business listings, live traffic, user reviews, and visual information. Apple Maps, on the other hand, has people buying into a visually refined interface, more streamlined design, and now more reliable navigation aids.

Most users end up alternating between the two for certain purposes—eating out and reviews on Google Maps, and public transport on Apple Maps, and turn-by-turn navigation with a more minimalistic UI on the latter. But this to-and-fro gets irritating when there are hundreds of places you've saved that cannot go along with you to another platform.

Yes, You Can Transfer Data

Even though there’s no built-in transfer feature, it is possible to move saved map data between Google Maps and Apple Maps just not in a user-friendly way.

Transferring from Google Maps to Apple Maps:

1. Visit Google Takeout and select Maps (Your Places).

2. Click Next Step, then Create Export. Google will email you a ZIP file.

3. Unzip the file and locate the Saved Places.json file.

4. Open it using a browser or text editor to view saved locations (with names, addresses, and coordinates).

5. Manually copy each location into Apple Maps, search for it, and tap the + button to save it.

6. Repeat for every entry. This can take hours if you have hundreds of saved places.

Transferring from Apple Maps to Google Maps:

1. Open Apple Maps, tap your profile photo, then Library > Places.

2. Tap on each saved location, copy its address or name.

3. Open Google Maps, search the address, and then hit Save.

4. Again, this process must be repeated manually for each location.

While both methods technically work, they require a huge amount of time, attention, and patience. There’s no automated tool from either company that simplifies this process.

Why Haven't Apple or Google Fixed This?

In a direct question about why there isn't an easy method to export or import saved locations between platforms, both companies avoided the question.

• Apple confirmed that they cannot export saved places but gently reminded users that single saved locations may be shared by hand.

• Google pointed users to Google Takeout and described how data exported there could be brought into a custom "Google My Maps" layer. But this layer does not become part of the standard Google Maps view, making it effectively unusable for everyday navigation.

In effect, neither company has a true solution that reflects the level of ease users have grown accustomed to in 2025.

A Simple Feature That Should Exist by Now

In a time when data portability is a core aspect of digital user rights, it's astounding that carrying over saved map locations is still this cumbersome. If we can export Chrome bookmarks and import them into Safari or transfer iCloud contacts to Google then why can't we export saved places as well?

Apple and Google can well implement this feature. The data involved isn't complicated, and the user demand is definitely there. The absence of such a feature only goes to support the fact that platform lock-in is more of a business decision than a technical constraint.

Until Apple and Google at last admit this is a problem and provide improved tools for cross-platform data transfer, users are stuck with one option: sweat. Although time-consuming, it's the only way now to bring your stored places along with you from app to app.

A pro tip for users bogged down by this dilemma: from now on, save significant locations in both apps as a habit particularly if you use the same app but switch devices or ecosystems frequently. Ultimately, your saved location information is your information. You should be free to use it however and wherever you please.