Google Maps is down, but no one wants to use Apple Maps

UPDATE: Mar. 18, 2022, 3:08 p.m. EDT Google Maps is back up and running all over the world as of Friday afternoon. A spokesperson said in an email statement that the issue had been resolved, "We can confirm that the technical issue from earlier today is now fixed." The original story follows below.

Google Maps went down Friday, March 18, for some users, making it difficult to find directions for driving, walking, biking and modes of transportation.

A Google spokesperson confirmed the outage with an email statement that explained, "We're seeing reports of difficulties accessing some Google Maps and Google Maps Platform services. Our team is investigating and working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible."

According to Downdetector (note the site is owned by Mashable's parent company), the outage started late Friday morning and is widespread throughout the U.S. Users in Europe, India, Australia, and other countries also reported issues with the mapping service.

Definitely down. Credit: Downdetector

It's affecting both the desktop and app versions of the mapping platform. Other apps that use Google Maps are experiencing issues as well.

While Google figures out what's causing the problem, people are turning to Apple Maps as an alternative. Or not. Twitter is filling up with comments about avoiding using what's widely considered an inferior maps app.

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There's always paper maps!