Preparing your app to be the default navigation app

Configure your navigation app so people can set it as the default on their devices.

Overview

In iOS and iPadOS 18.4 and later in the European Union (EU), and in iOS 26.2 and later in Japan, a person may select an app other than the Maps app to provide navigation instructions. If your app provides navigation services and you want it to optionally become the default navigation app, there are several steps you need to take.

Add the Default Navigation App entitlement

In Xcode, add the com.apple.developer.navigation-app entitlement to the .entitlements file for your app’s project. For instructions on how to add this entitlement, see Default Navigation.

Adopt the geonavigation URL scheme

To provide navigation capabilities in your app, you need to adopt the geo-navigation:// URL scheme. This scheme accepts the following types of navigation queries:

Action

Parameters

Description

Values

/directions

source

Define the origination point of the navigation route

An address, coordinate, or place-name

/directions

destination

Define the final destination of the navigation route

An address, coordinate, or place-name

/directions

waypoint

Add places between the source and the destination to use for multistop routing

An address, coordinate, or place-name

/place

coordinate

Display a place for a given latitude and longitude at the provided location

A comma-separated pair of floating-point values that represent latitude and longitude

/place

address

Display a place at a specified address

An address string, such as 1 Dr Carlton B Goodlett Pl San Francisco, CA 94102 (San Francisco City Hall)

You can use several of these parameters in combination to provide a number of action types, including:

  • Providing the source and destination for a route.

  • Providing the source, the destination, and one or more waypoints between the starting point and the final destination. You can provide these as strings that represent an address, a place-name, or a comma-separated pair of floating-point values for the latitude and longitude of the location as coordinates on the map.

Add the geonavigation URL type support and URL scheme

Use the following steps to add the geo-navigation support to your app’s Info.plist file:

  1. In your app’s Xcode project, select the Info.plist file in the Project navigator.

  2. Expand the information property list by clicking its disclosure triangle to display the resources that the Info.plist file contains.

  3. Open the URL Types array (or add a URL Types array, if necessary, by creating an entry and selecting URL Types from the pop-up menu).

  4. Add a URL Schemes array to the URL Types array.

  5. Add a string for the URL Schemes array and set its value to geo-navigation.

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Before your app can open incoming geo-navigation: URLs, it needs to support this scheme as a custom URL scheme. To add this support, see Defining a custom URL scheme for your app.

Prepare your app for submission to App Store Connect

To submit your app to App Store Connect, it needs to meet the following criteria:

  • The com.apple.developer.navigation-app entitlement is in your app’s .entitlements file, and has a value of true.

  • Your app is able to handle the geo-navigation:// URL schema.

  • The Info.plist file has the UIBackgroundModes property array and contains an entry with the string location.