IOS – How to open a Google Maps URL in Apple Maps

Without jailbreaking, the iPhone DOES cache the last few map tiles on the view, at all the view zoom levels. I'm not sure how extensive this is, and because it's only a temporary cache the data is always a second away from deletion.

Without jailbreaking, you can download an application, there are lots of them, but my favorite is called MotionX GPS, which is on the App Store. It allows you to cache and save certain types of map tiles from a variety of map modes, including Terrain, roads, and more. I'm not sure if they're specifically Google Maps, but you can get some types of maps for sure.

After jailbreaking, which is both legal and easy, you can find a couple of 3rd party utilities to help you download map tiles to the device, but most of them require you to view the tiles in the app itself, not in the Maps application.

There is no way to synchronize Maps with Maps (so to speak), but you can sync Earth with Maps, with Google Earth being on the iPhone. If you log in to Google Earth, it will synchronize your maps. Those can be added from Google Maps on the web. Unfortunately, there's still no way to add stuff from an iPhone, but there isn't no connectivity between them.

Because I think that was a really messy and hard-to-understand answer, here's a clearer synopsis:

• In the Maps app on the iPhone, there's no way to see things you've added on a computer.
• In the Google Earth app on the iPhone, you can see "maps" (collections of pins) that you've created in Google Maps on a computer.
• There's no way to add pins on an iPhone in either of these apps to later see on a computer.

I'm sorry there's no way to do what you want in a native Google app!