Apple Maps in Rwanda has wrong names

iBaptiste wrote:

Thanks for the suggestion. I have always tried to use that option of reporting, but it never works. I think my last report was 2 months ago for this specific location (Kigali). I wonder why Apple is not taking into consideration this fact. And you are right. Those changes happened 20 years ago, when Rwanda changed lots of things after the Genocide.

I've had feedback to corrections made in los Estados Unidos de América take anything from days to months to arrive, and for the associated changes to register, and with no clear pattern to the responses.

For the corrections, I'll try to include links to the business or organization itself, or to local government resources, or to local or regional government maps, depending on the issue or error or update. Wrong road names get links to local government maps, for instance.

The more direct and specific (and "official") you can make your feedback, the more likely it'll get accepted.

Had a go-round with another mapping service a while back, and was left to either send them photos of the unpaved road (they'd reported the road as paved), or to ignore them and their feedback and their mapping error.

Apple isn't alone in these issues. No map is ever right, either. Not for any appreciable length of time.

But we're other app developers and other users, and not folks that work for Apple, and nobody posting here works on Apple Maps, nor speaks for Apple.

iBaptiste wrote:

How can I correct this in one go?

Click on that text to display a pop-up information sheet. Then click on Report an Issue.

Google Maps has a partner program where the government can improve the map and correct these names immediately.

This is Apple Maps, not Google maps. Apple has its own system for updating the map and nobody knows what it is. It looks like Apple's data for Rwanda administrative divisions is 20 years out of date. But then, administrative divisions were never Apple's strong suit to begin with.

iBaptiste wrote:

Thanks for the suggestion. I have always tried to use that option of reporting, but it never works.

Unfortunately, that's all there is.

I think my last report was 2 months ago for this specific location (Kigali). I wonder why Apple is not taking into consideration this fact. And you are right. Those changes happened 20 years ago, when Rwanda changed lots of things after the Genocide.

Because Apple is not a monolith. When you click that button, it goes to some individual person. Chances are, it goes to someone very low in the organizational chart. They may not know much about the design of Apple maps and they may have little ability to effect change. Most likely, their only job is to either approve or reject a problem report. I'm almost certain that your problem report got filed under "other".

This is not a simple case of renaming. US-based mapping companies, Apple included, have long struggled with the concept that foreigners can organize their own countries using something other than US states, counties, zip code, and cities. Anyone can go to the Rwanda government web site where it is explained well enough:

But Apple Maps cannot even represent this data. The link you provided is a special link that somehow triggers a label to appear on the map. Normally, the only place you will ever see names at this administrative level is in the title bar of the map window. If you pan the map around, you can watch it change from "Prefecture de Kigali" to "Prefegitura ya Byumba", for example. Given that this data is practically invisible in the first place, Apple isn't going to prioritize updating it.

Google does much better. Go to Google Maps and type in a place name like "Gisagara" in the search field. (I'm not providing direct links on purpose). Google takes you right there and even draws an outline of the district. Maybe the district borders aren't quite right, but it's pretty close. There is some other strange behaviour in Google that I can't reproduce a second time. But overall, Google does these human-centric administrative levels much better. Type in any other district, region, or neighbourhood name in the world and Google will take you right there and draw a polygon, 9 times out of 10.

iBaptiste wrote:

True, Google Maps does a better job though it too has the words "collines" many times on the map. Those are like residues.

I didn't notice that, but I see it too. Being on the other side of the world, I don't know how these places are truly represented in the real world. But I see plenty of local issues that are not properly represented on online maps by Apple and other vendors too. They can't handle Toronto any better than they can Rwanda.

I am not worried about it much because for Google Maps, it's easy to report issues and get them resolved by humans who are product experts. I am quite new in the Apple forums, but it seems Apple is slow to resolve issues reported compared to Google Products. Maybe I am wrong.

They just have different priorities. It gets very subtle, very quickly. Google is quick to update its data, but you have to always remember - it's Google's data. Google legally owns it. When you submit these reports, you are working for Google, for free. You aren't contributing to any public knowledge. Google is all about free access and public knowledge when it comes to other people's data. But they are very strict about use of their own data, including the data that you give them.

By comparison, Apple actually doesn't own much of its own data. It leases most of its data from other companies. That is why it is out-of-date and hard to get updated. Apple has only recently started to try to collect its own data. And Apple sells hardware devices. Apple really isn't in the "data business" so they don't understand what they are supposed to do with it. What does Apple prioritize with respect to maps? Driving directions to the mall so you can buy more Apple devices. 😄