Apple links landmarks in its Maps app to Hidden Histories podcast episodes

Apple has started linking episodes of its Hidden Histories podcast to landmarks inside the Apple Maps app. The feature appears on select landmarks in five US cities: San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York City, Chicago and Washington, DC, where a place's information view now carries a panel pointing straight to a podcast about its history. The change was first spotted by Apple Insider.

A panel on the landmark's card

Tapping that panel opens an interface that gathers the rest of the landmarks in the same city which have linked podcast guides, so the episodes can be browsed as a set rather than one place at a time.

From Times Square to Alcatraz

The New York City selection includes episodes about Times Square, the Statue of Liberty, Central Park, the Museum of Broadway, Grand Central Terminal, the Charging Bull, Studio 54 and Tin Pan Alley. In Los Angeles, the linked podcasts cover the history of the Hollywood Sign and the Hollywood Walk of Fame, while San Francisco's landmarks include Alcatraz and the Farallon Islands. A full list of the covered locations in Chicago and Washington, DC has not been published.

Podcasts live under Guides

The Hidden Histories episodes sit in the Guides section of Maps, alongside the curated lists of places that publishers already contribute there. As with those lists, tapping the plus icon adds a podcast to a personal collection, and listeners can return to it later by opening the panel at the bottom of the Maps screen and checking the "Your Guides" area.

For Apple, the integration turns a mapping app into another surface for its audio content, and gives visitors and residents a way to hear a place's history while standing in it. It is not yet known whether the feature will extend to more cities or to markets outside the United States.