Nearby Pointers
You can load the new Nearby view from the For You screen (it’s now the default, but can be changed), Best Card Wizard, and Pointers screens. If you already use Location Reminders in the app, it will use the same location permission and load all nearby locations as soon as you launch the app. You can refresh the list of locations nearby by tapping on the location icon.
Not only is it incredibly quick and convenient to instantly load the list of stores closest to your current location, it’s implemented in a way to full protect your privacy. Most location services use a third party data broker to whom they send your location with various identifiers, and that info is often resold to many other companies.
Instead of using a third party service, your current location stays on device, and Apple Maps handles the searches for stores around you, so that you get all of the benefits of this technology with none of the downsides.
I’m working on implementing a similar strategy with Google Maps on Android, and will launch that version as soon as it’s ready.
I hope you’ll love this feature as much as I have while testing it these last few weeks! Here’s a short video of how it works: