Users can now simply save the service as a web app on their Home screens

Oct 4, 2012 13:04 GMT  ·  By

Google has officially released Street View for iOS devices running its Maps web app as a replacement to the sometimes erroneous Apple Maps. iOS 6 customers can simply use Google Maps as a web app now.

By upgrading to iOS 6, Apple customers not only lost the dedicated YouTube application, but also the native Google Maps app that provided a reliable set of mapping services, admittedly lacking some features that Apple wanted to offer to its customer base.

Disgruntled iPhone and iPad owners looking to put Google Maps back on their devices can now do so with ease by simply visiting Google Maps in their Safari web browser and saving the service as a web app on their Home screen.

From there on, all they need to do every time they want to use Google’s mapping service is to tap the resulted icon, just like they’d do with any native app.

As for the newly-added Street View, the service is easily accessible by tapping the human icon at the bottom-right corner with a location selected on the map.

As Google continues to strive for the iOS install base, despite getting kicked out of Apple’s operating system, the fruity company at 1 Infinite Loop itself is struggling to appease the public.

In a Jobsian letter published late last month on Apple.com, Tim Cook, the chief executive officer of the company, admitted publicly that Apple’s Maps application needed more work.

Analysts believe that Apple could have avoided this PR nightmare had they placed a beta sign on the service until all the bugs got ironed out.

“While we’re improving Maps, you can try alternatives by downloading map apps from the App Store like Bing, MapQuest and Waze, or use Google or Nokia maps by going to their websites and creating an icon on your home screen to their web app,” said Tim Cook.

Well, you heard the man.