Apple has slowly begun enabling indoor maps for select airports and shopping malls, providing an early look at the new Apple Maps feature coming in iOS 11.
On devices running iOS 11 beta, indoor maps are available now in Apple Maps for Philadelphia International Airport and Mineta San Jose International Airport, and for shopping malls Westfield Valley Fair in San Jose, California and Westfield San Francisco Centre in San Francisco, California.
Indoor maps will provide detailed floor plans of major airports and shopping malls around the world, allowing iOS 11 users to plan ahead.
At airports, for example, Apple Maps users can tap "look inside" or simply zoom in to view terminals, boarding gates, security checkpoints, airline check-in desks, baggage claim carousels, information kiosks, restrooms, stores, restaurants, parking garages, and even escalators, elevators, and stairs.
Apple Maps users can browse by floor, or search for shops, food, drinks, or restrooms in a specific terminal. Tapping on a restaurant, for example, brings up a detailed place card with photos, hours, and additional information.
Likewise, at shopping malls, Apple Maps users can zoom in to view the exact location of stores, restaurants, restrooms, escalators, elevators, and stairs on each floor. Users can also filter stores by categories such as clothes, shoes, accessories, beauty, food, and drinks, with detailed place cards for each.
Apple senior executive Craig Federighi previewed Apple Maps indoor maps at its Worldwide Developers Conference earlier this month. Skip to around the 1:07:50 mark of Apple's WWDC 2017 keynote video.
At launch, indoor maps will be limited to select airports and shopping malls, in cities such as Amsterdam, Berlin, Boston, Chicago, London, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Tokyo, Toronto, and the Washington D.C. area. Apple said more locations will be added over time.
The feature is only available in iOS 11, which is currently in beta testing. The second developer beta was released on Wednesday, and a public beta will be released later this month. The software update officially launches in the fall.
