showDirections() for Google Maps opens in browser on iOS

[tiyberius]

I'm experiencing behavior described in #131

A flutter doctor command yields:

flutter doctor

Doctor summary (to see all details, run flutter doctor -v):
[✓] Flutter (Channel stable, 3.38.1, on macOS 26.3 25D125 darwin-arm64, locale en-US)
[✓] Android toolchain - develop for Android devices (Android SDK version 34.0.0)
[✓] Xcode - develop for iOS and macOS (Xcode 26.3)
[✓] Chrome - develop for the web
[✓] Connected device (4 available)
[✓] Network resources

• No issues found!

I'm using

map_launcher ^4.4.3

and my code reads:

final availableMaps = await _getAvailableMaps();

if (availableMaps.isEmpty) {
  log.fine('No maps apps installed, launching Google Maps via web URL');
  await _openGoogleMaps(latitude, longitude);
  return;
}

final googleMaps = availableMaps
    .where((m) => m.mapType == MapType.google)
    .firstOrNull;

if (googleMaps != null) {
  log.fine('Using Google Maps, because it is installed');
  await googleMaps.showDirections(destination: Coords(latitude, longitude));
  return;
}

My logs contain:

flutter: FINE | Swellify | (2026-03-07 16:30:02.579572): Using Google Maps, because it is installed

So I'm confirming that the code is "using" Google Maps, however when the code executes, it takes me to Safari first, a Google Maps URL, then there's a modal dialog asking me if I'd like to open up in the Google Maps app. That works, but I would have thought that the phone would go straight to the Google Maps app?

I've got the following in my Info.plist file:

<key>LSApplicationQueriesSchemes</key>
<array>
  <string>comgooglemaps</string>
  <string>googlemaps</string>
  <string>baidumap</string>
  <string>iosamap</string>
  <string>waze</string>
  <string>yandexmaps</string>
  <string>yandexnavi</string>
  <string>citymapper</string>
  <string>mapswithme</string>
  <string>osmandmaps</string>
  <string>dgis</string>
  <string>qqmap</string>
  <string>here-location</string>
  <string>tomtomgo</string>
  <string>copilot</string>
  <string>com.sygic.aura</string>
  <string>nmap</string>
  <string>kakaomap</string>
  <string>tmap</string>
  <string>szn-mapy</string>
  <string>mappls</string>
  <string>moovit</string>
  <string>neshan</string>
</array>

So, I'm confused! I'm running the test on an iPhone 15, with iOS 26.3 installed.

Let me know if you need anything else. Thanks!

[mattermoran]

That's strange. Could you clone the repo and try running the example app? Could just be something up with your setup.
Let me know how it goes

[tiyberius]

Ah yeah, great idea! I just cloned the example app, and tested it. The results were really interesting:

1. Show marker opens up Google Maps directly, no intermediate hop to the browser.
2. Show directions opens up the browser first! And then you have to hit "Open" in the "Open this page in Google Maps?" modal dialog. I left the default settings for Origin, Waypoints and Destination.

See the attached screen recordings.

I'm on an iPhone 15 Pro, iOS 26.3 installed. Let me know if you need anything else to try to reproduce!

Show Marker ->
https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/37260f9d-eab0-440c-abbd-88732d575aef

Show Directions ->
https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/b690e133-652f-4cb1-a22a-b0b73ce39c65

[mattermoran]

Curious. Could be something about Google Maps changing how it works now. It used to work for years before.
I'll try it later and see what can be done

[tiyberius]

Thanks! I'm currently working around it by calling the native url scheme directly

  Future<void> _openMaps(
    BuildContext context,
    double latitude,
    double longitude,
  ) async {
    final availableMaps = await _getAvailableMaps();

    if (availableMaps.isEmpty) {
      log.fine(
        'No available maps found using map_launcher. Opening Google Maps via URL',
      );
      await _openGoogleMaps(latitude, longitude);
      return;
    }

    // Bypass map_launcher for Google Maps and use the native scheme directly
    // Open issue: https://github.com/mattermoran/map_launcher/issues/218
    final daddr = destinationName != null
        ? '$latitude,$longitude(${Uri.encodeComponent(destinationName!)})'
        : '$latitude,$longitude';
    final googleMapsUrl = Uri.parse(
      'comgooglemaps://?saddr=&daddr=$daddr&directionsmode=driving',
    );
    final hasGoogleMaps = availableMaps.any((m) => m.mapType == MapType.google);
    log.fine('Google maps available is : $hasGoogleMaps');

    if (hasGoogleMaps) {
      if (await canLaunchUrl(googleMapsUrl)) {
        log.fine('Launching Google Maps via native URL: $googleMapsUrl');
        await launchUrl(googleMapsUrl);
        return;
      }
      // Native scheme failed, fall back to map_launcher for Google Maps
      log.warning(
        'Google Maps native URL failed, falling back to map_launcher',
      );
      final googleMaps = availableMaps.firstWhere(
        (m) => m.mapType == MapType.google,
      );
      await googleMaps.showDirections(
        destination: Coords(latitude, longitude),
        destinationTitle: destinationName,
      );
      return;
    }

but would be nice to be able to call showDirections() directly. Thanks for looking into it! 🙏🏻

[mattermoran]

that's very strange indeed.
I tried with latest version of google maps and latest ios and universal link works completely fine for me.

is it the standard google maps version? Trying to figure out what could be causing it