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Apple Maps now uses ‘Gulf of America’ name in US, will roll out globally soon

Yesterday, Google Maps updated the Gulf of Mexico’s name for US users to read ‘Gulf of America’ instead. Now, it seems that Apple Maps is quickly following suit.

Maps update follows executive order to change Gulf of Mexico’s name

One of the first executive orders signed by President Trump at the start of his second term involved renaming the Gulf of Mexico to ‘Gulf of America’ instead.

This week, that change has officially been implemented by government officials and filed in the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).

Apple Maps has now been updated for US users to reflect the change.

While currently, the actual map still reads Gulf of Mexico, if you tap to view location details, the app now shows ‘Gulf of America’ as the name instead.

It is expected that shortly, the name change will apply to the actual map itself too.

The revised name only applies within the US for now, but Apple told Mark Gurman at Bloomberg it “would soon roll out the shift for all users globally.”

Apple and Google follow local geographic naming standards, such as the GNIS, so it’s not particularly surprising that the change has been made. But rolling it out globally is an interesting move, considering Google intends to retain the Gulf of Mexico label in all non-US countries.

We’ll keep you posted on any new developments to this story.

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Avatar for Ryan Christoffel Ryan Christoffel

Ryan got his start in journalism as an Editor at MacStories, where he worked for four years covering Apple news, writing app reviews, and more. For two years he co-hosted the Adapt podcast on Relay FM, which focused entirely on the iPad. As a result, it should come as no surprise that his favorite Apple device is the iPad Pro.