Apple is currently working on changes to its Apple Maps app, specifically renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. While a search for the “Gulf of Mexico” in the Maps app currently still shows the area between Florida and Mexico as “Gulf of Mexico” on the map itself, “Gulf of America” shows in the information section for the area of water.
Bloomberg reports that Apple is rolling out its changes to its Maps app in the United States today, so the U.S. users should soon all see the name change soon. Apple will eventually change the name for all users around the globe.
Google is also carrying through on its promise to adopt the new naming, and “Gulf of America” now appears in the Google Maps app, as well as the Google-owned Waze navigation app.
Google explained what its users would see:
The names you see in the Maps app are based on your country location, which is determined by information from your phone’s operating system (e.g., iOS and Android), including your SIM, network, and locale. If you’re using Google Maps on the web, the names are based on the region you select in your Search settings or your device’s location, if you haven’t selected one.
Both Apple and Google use U.S. Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) map data when naming locations in their app, and the GNIS this week updated its database to reflect the “Gulf of America” name change.
The image below shows what Google Map users in the United States, users in Mexico, and users in the rest of the world will see. Apple is likely to do the same thing for users in the rest of the world.
Changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico was one of U.S. President Donald Trump’s first executive orders after taking office on January 20. Currently, other countries are not required to accept the U.S. renaming, and still refer to the area as the Gulf of Mexico.
President Trump has also said the Alaskan mountain named “Denali” will be renamed to “Mt. McKinley,” although that change has yet to have been made in any of the maps apps.
