Application displaying Google Maps JS SDK got rejected by Apple

Ionic Framework ionic-v3
#1

Hi,

We used the Google Maps JS SDK to display a simple map with some markers on a page of our app and we got our application rejected by Apple with this explanation:

Your app’s location feature is not integrated with the built-in mapping functionality, which limits users to a third-party maps app.
Next Step
Please revise your app to give users the option to launch the native Apple Maps app.

Our first guess to solve this would be to provide a link to open the map and/or the direction in Apple Maps, but apparently other applications are not doing this.
Also, we asked developers from Untappd who just released their new app and they did not get rejected while using a similar Google map.

Do someone already faced this situation with the new version?

Thanks :slight_smile:

1 Like
#2

Hello,

I’m facing the same problem, unfortunately. I’m using the Goole Maps JS SDK in my app, and I get a rejection from Apple for the same reason.

I also tried to activate the Maps Capabilities in XCode, but it didn’t fix this issue.

I have several projects using Maps features and I will really appreciate if we can find a solution for that, as I like the Ionic app development approach.

Thanks a lot.

#3

Hmm, this is a new one.

Let me take a look and see what I can find on it.

@255kb you can always email back and ask for more information.

If it’s just missing the ability to open the native Apple Maps app, you can open that app using the maps:// url scheme.

The parameters dont allow for custom markers, but that should be fine.

https://developer.apple.com/library/content/featuredarticles/iPhoneURLScheme_Reference/MapLinks/MapLinks.html

While this url shows https://maps.apple.com, the maps:// url scheme will work just fine. For example, here’s one I used in an app of mine.

<a button clear showWhen="ios" href="maps://?q=Georgia+World+Congress+Center">Georgia World Congress Center</a>
#4

Thanks for your answer,
We will try to reached Apple to get more information.

While adding the possibility to display/open the map in an external map application could solve the problem this is not wanted by our client, and we saw that other apps are not doing it. So we would like to avoid this if possible.

#5

Hi @255kb,

I would appreciate reports on the evolution of this topic.

Regards

#6

Our application has finally been accepted. Following some advice we explained to Apple that the application is hybrid and that we needed to chose a specific library (GMaps in this case) and they just validated the application.

Thanks all for your help! :slight_smile: