Apple Maps has gotten a lot better since its disastrous launch back in 2012, but it’s still not our first choice for finding directions on an iPhone. That may finally change, however, if Apple goes through with updates to its Maps app hinted at in a new job listing. Apple is looking for a Maps Community Client Software Engineer, who’s main job would be opening up the app to the community. Moving forward, that means anyone could potentially submit their own improvements to Apple Maps through a new user interface that goes beyond the current option to “Report a Problem.”
Apple is looking to expand its efforts in crowdsourcing data to improve its Maps app for iOS and OS X, according to hints in a new job listing on the company’s site. So far Apple’s efforts in crowdsourcing data to improve its Maps app has been limited to its own data collection projects and the “Report a problem” function in the Maps app. It also collects crowdsourced data from iOS’s Frequent Locations feature if users allow it. But the new job listings hint at Apple’s interest in expanding the user feedback feature, including through Maps integration in Siri and Passbook. The job posting is seeking a “Community Client Software Engineer” for the Maps team to work on “building and extending the Maps application to allow Apple to crowdsource improvements to the Maps experience.” More specifically, Apple wants someone to work on developing new data crowdsourcing features through “high-level UI development and architecture of the “Report a Problem” feature of the Maps application.”
