In iOS 26, searching for places on Apple Maps might be easier
Apple Intelligence has a place in the Apple Maps app even though Apple never promoted it.
While the iOS 26 beta brings some new features to Apple Maps, including one that learns your routes, the mapping and navigation app has another new feature that is showing up in the beta. If Apple decides to keep it around for the stable iOS 26 release, some users are going to find it very useful. Already found in other apps such as the App Store, Music, Photos, and TV, you can have these apps "Search The Way You Talk." For example, the Photos app has had this feature since the release of Apple Intelligence in iOS 18.
This is an AI-powered search. Instead of using keywords, simply use your conversational, natural language. In other words, when searching for a place on Apple Maps, describe it in the manner that you would use when speaking the request in a conversation. Apple never said that the feature would be coming to Apple Maps. Those running the iOS 26 beta might have received the update when Apple pressed the button on a server-side update through the recently released iOS 26 developer beta 5.
Here's how this feature works on Apple Maps. Type in (or use the microphone icon to say it) something the exact way it might come out of your mouth. Before the update, you'd probably ask Apple Maps to show you "Restaurants open late." Using filters, you could whittle down the results to find an Italian restaurant with outdoor seating that is open late.
With the "Search The Way You Talk" feature, instead of typing or speaking "Restaurants open late," you might search for "Show me some highly-rated Italian restaurants that have outdoor seating and are open after 10 PM." The bottom line is that the new feature allows you to give Apple Maps your query exactly as you might say it, without requiring you to take the additional step of using filters to get the answer that you want.
For some reason, Apple never promoted the new feature, although a notification pops up in the app that had the heading, "Search The Way You Talk." The rest of the notice explained that with this feature, you "Use natural language to find places like "Best coffee shops with free Wi-Fi."
It's probably not the feature that has you on the edge of your seat waiting for iOS 26 to be released, but if you use the search on Apple Maps to help you find places, you might find that this will come in handy.
FCC OKs Cingular\'s purchase of AT&T Wireless
Things that are NOT allowed:
To help keep our community safe and free from spam, we apply temporary limits to newly created accounts: