When Apple updates its iPhone operating system, it also updates many of the Apple apps that run on top of it. iOS 26 update which was available on millions of mobile phones in September, includes a useful new feature for Apple Maps.
This feature is called Places Visited, and as the name suggests, it tracks the places you've visited. At first glance, this may seem like a privacy nightmare, but all this information is completely encrypted, so no one else can see it, not even Apple. (You can disable this feature if you wish.)
Places you've visited are useful if you want to return to somewhere you like, or if you want to remember a specific trip or vacation you took. You can also use it to recommend places to other people, from cafes to art galleries, as the app allows you to share places with a couple of taps.
If you have iOS 26 on your iPhone, then you have Apple Maps with places you've visited. Here's how it works and what you can do about it.
How to set up visited places
The first time you launch Apple Maps after installing iOS 26, you'll see a pop-up message explaining what Places Visited is and asking if you want to turn it on. If yes, click Continuethen Letwhich gives Apple Maps access to a list of places you've visited (with your permission, other apps can access it too).
You'll then see a dialog asking how long you want your iPhone to save places after you've visited them: 3 months, 1 yearor Forever. If you're a little more concerned about privacy, you can automatically delete places after three months or a year, but that also means you won't be able to bring back places created before that time period. Make your selection and click Continue again.
After this, you can continue to use Apple Maps as usual. The app will keep track of the places you've been in the background, quietly compiling a list that you can check at any time. You'll need to stop for a while at an identifiable location on the map for it to register—you won't get a long list of every street corner and park bench you stopped at.
Obviously, for this to work, your iPhone must have location services and GPS enabled. Otherwise, your phone won't know where you are. From the main iOS Settings screen, tap Privacy and Securitythen select Location services to check. Turn Location services Turning the switch on or off here affects all apps on your iPhone, including Apple Maps.
You'll also need to turn on the Important Locations & Routes feature (which is turned on by default). On the same location services page, click System Services And Important places and routes. This screen gives you a little more information about the places your iPhone saves while you travel. You can view your recently saved places and clear your location history if you want.
How to use visited places
To access places you've visited, go to Apple Maps and open the info card at the bottom, then tap Places And Places visited. You'll immediately see a selection of places on the screen: you can use the search box at the bottom to find something specific, or click “All Visits” to see everything.
Apple Maps will also start organizing your places by date, category, and city once you start creating a longer list of places, so you can tap those shortcuts to quickly jump to, say, a list of places from a recent trip or see all the restaurants you've been to. These shortcuts will be customized to suit your travel habits.
Each place on the list is marked with three dots to the right of it. Click on the dot to access more options. From the list that pops up, you can share the place with someone else, remove the place from the list, correct its location if Apple Maps put it in the wrong place, or add a note (perhaps something you're thinking about the food).
Scroll to the very end of the list of places and you have two options: Keep visitingto change the duration of saving visited places and Clear historyto erase your entire history with a couple of taps – in the next dialog box you have the option to turn off “Visited Places” and clear the list of locations at the same time, or just clear the list.
At the time of writing, the feature still has a beta tag attached, so you can expect it to be improved and tweaked over time—possibly at the same time that Apple releases new updates to iOS. For example, you currently cannot add a location to the list manually, which would be very convenient.
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