Your iPhone's Maps App Got This Helpful New Feature in the iOS 18 Betas

Apple released the third iOS 18 public beta on Aug. 6, almost two months after the company announced the iPhone software at its Worldwide Developers Conference in June. The beta brings a lot of new features to the iPhone’s of developers and beta testers, like RCS messaging, ways to customize your home screen and an upgraded Calculator app. Your Maps app also gets an upgrade, and one new function you’ll see in it is the ability to search within a specific area.

Before iOS 18, if you were looking for a restaurant that served pizza in Maps, the app would show you restaurants near you that served pizza. But if you live in a densely populated area, like New York City, or you want to see if there’s a pizza restaurant in one particular neighborhood, Maps might not be helpful. With the iOS 18 beta, an option now appears in Maps to search in a new area.

Because iOS 18 is still in beta, I recommend downloading a beta on something other than your primary device. Betas can be buggy and cause short battery life, and it’s best to keep those problems on a secondary device. I download and test betas on an old iPhone XR in order to keep those issues away from my primary phone, an iPhone 14 Pro.

Remember that the beta isn’t the final version of iOS 18. More features could be available on your iPhone when the software is released in the fall.

If you’re testing the iOS 18 betas, here’s how to search specific areas in Maps.

How to use Search Here in Maps

1. Open Maps.
2. Enter a term, like “pizza,” into the search box and tap Search.

The Search here function appearing at the bottom of Maps — Search Here appears across the bottom of your screen.

Apple/Screenshot by CNET

Maps will show you pizza restaurants near you. If you zoom into an area, or move the search area one way or another though, a Search here button will appear at the bottom of your screen. Tap this button and Maps will search the area on your screen without adjusting or reorienting the map.

If you’re looking for a new pizza place and zoom in on an area, Maps will now show you results for the new area and not zoom you back out or move your search area.

Don’t forget, iOS 18 is still in beta so this feature might be buggy or not work properly. There will likely be more betas before the OS is released to the public this fall, so there’s plenty of time for Apple to address any issues. As of now, there’s no word on when Apple will release iOS 18 to the general public.

For more on iOS 18, here’s my hands-on experience with the iOS 18 betas and our iOS 18 cheat sheet. You can also check out what to know about the first iOS 18.1 developer beta.