iPhone friends send maps.apple.com links, and on Android they open Apple Maps in the browser instead of Google Maps. Here's how to open them in the map app you actually use.
Full maps.apple.com links and short maps.apple links both work
A maps.apple.com link is meant for Apple's Maps app, and there is no Apple Maps app for Android. So when you tap one on an Android phone, the browser opens Apple Maps on the web. You can see the place there, but it does not hand the location to Google Maps or Waze, so you cannot start navigating in the app you actually use.
The usual workaround is to copy the address from the web page, open Google Maps and search for it again - which breaks as soon as the place has no clear address, like a trailhead or a car park entrance.
mapfwd.com/a/ and paste the link right after it, for example:mapfwd.com/a/https://maps.apple.com/place?coordinate=48.8584,2.2945&name=Eiffel%20TowerPrefer to choose the app yourself? Use mapfwd.com/ without the a/ and you get a list with Google Maps, Waze and 20+ other apps for the same location. Or paste the Apple Maps link into the box at the top of this page.
Newer iPhones often share short links on the maps.apple domain instead of the full maps.apple.com address. mapfwd follows those to the full link first, then reads the coordinates out of it, so the same mapfwd.com/a/ trick works for both. The one exception is a link that names a place without any coordinates (only an address or an Apple place ID): copy the address from the page and paste that into mapfwd.com instead.
If you are the iPhone user in the group, send a mapfwd link instead of the Apple Maps one. Paste the place into mapfwd.com and share the auto-open link, such as mapfwd.com/a/u09tunquc9: it opens Apple Maps on your iPhone and Google Maps on their Android phones, from the same link. The Apple Maps link generator explains the options.
No. Apple does not make an Apple Maps app for Android. Apple Maps links open Apple Maps on the web in your browser instead.
Put mapfwd.com/a/ in front of the Apple Maps link and open it. On an Android phone it opens your default map app, which is Google Maps on most phones, at the same coordinates.
Yes. Use mapfwd.com/ in front of the link (without the a/) and tap Waze on the page that opens.
No. It works in the browser on any Android phone. There is nothing to download and no account to create.
No. It reads the coordinates from the link to send you on, and the location is not saved to a database.
Free, no sign-up. The location lives in the link itself, so it never expires.