El COVID-19 it is still present in our lives and more and more. With successive decrees of a state of alarm we remain in total confinement. Large companies make all their artillery available to society to offer medical supplies and all kinds of aid to try to defeat the virus. But the aids can not only be physical, but digital and small changes for users. In the app Apple Maps We can see how Apple prioritizes the essential categories during confinement: hospitals, pharmacies, supermarkets, emergencies ... in this way we can use the application more quickly to find these establishments as soon as possible.
Small changes in Apple Maps in the wake of COVID-19
Apple Maps divides the categories of the establishments in different labels depending on the use of the same. Before the arrival of COVID-19, the categories that topped the list of preferences for users were restaurants, cafes, service stations or shopping centers. However, with the closure of all these establishments due to the different states of alarm around the world, it has meant that users stop looking for these types of shops to look for others of higher priority.
In Spain, for example, you can only go outside in certain situations, although as a general rule, only to buy essential products, working in an essential service or walking the dog, among other situations. Apple has wanted to give an ease to users in its map service Apple Maps. To do this, it has given priority to the categories of establishments that are most in demand with the arrival of the coronavirus and confinement:
- Supermarkets
- Food delivery
- Pharmacy
- Hospitals
- Emergency
- Gas stations
These categories appear first every time we click on the address bar to search for any establishment. However, we miss other options that Google Maps has after COVID-19, such as updating the opening hours of different establishments or personalized warning messages by country.