How to use the Flyover feature in Apple Maps for Mac

Apple Maps has a cool feature called Flyover that lets you get 3D views of a selected area. While it doesn't serve much purpose in a navigational sense, it's still a cool feature to play around with and has some practical use if you're trying to scope out certain areas before visiting them. Here's how to use it on your Mac:

  1. Launch the Maps app on your Mac running OS X Mavericks or higher.
  2. Type in the search bar either a general area or an exact address.
  3. Once Maps finds it, zoom in a reasonable amount.
  4. Now click on Satellite and Flyover.
  5. You are now free to pan around and zoom in and out.

It's worth noting that Flyover isn't available everywhere and mainly sticks to urban areas. So if the icon is greyed out, you aren't doing anything wrong. Flyover may just not be available in that specific area. For those familiar with Google Street View, how do you think Flyover compares? Better, worse, or two different things?

Allyson Kazmucha

iMore senior editor from 2011 to 2015.