Apple Business Connect: How to Manage Your Apple Maps Listing

Apple Business Connect is Apple’s free tool for claiming and managing how your business appears on Apple Maps and across Apple devices. You claim your location, verify that you represent the business, then control your place card: hours, photos, contact details, action links such as “Order” or “Reserve”, and short promotional showcases. Since April 2026, Business Connect has been part of a combined platform called Apple Business, and existing claimed locations were moved over automatically.

If your customers use iPhones, and in the US many of them do, your Apple Maps place card is one of the first things they see when they search for you in Maps, ask Siri, or tap an address. It’s worth making sure it’s right.

What changed in 2026: Business Connect is now Apple Business

In March 2026, Apple announced Apple Business, a single platform that combines Apple Business Connect with Apple Business Manager and Apple Business Essentials. It launched in April 2026 as a free service. According to Apple’s announcement, existing Business Connect data, including claimed locations, place card information and photos, migrated to Apple Business at launch.

For a business owner, the practical effect is simple: the place card tools you may know as “Apple Business Connect” are still there, inside Apple Business. Many guides and agencies still use the old name, so you’ll see both.

What Apple Business Connect controls

Feature	What it does
Place card	Your listing on Apple Maps, with name, address, hours, phone, website, photos and other details. Apple says place card information displays across Apple Maps, Safari, Spotlight and more.
Actions	Buttons on your place card, such as order, reserve or book, that link to your website or a preferred app or platform.
Showcases	Short promotions on your place card: a deal, a special offer, a new product or a seasonal item.
Branded Mail	Shows your business name and logo next to emails you send, in Apple’s Mail app and in iCloud Mail, where supported.
Wallet and Tap to Pay branding	Apple says your branding can appear with tracked orders in Wallet, and your logo and name can appear on the payment screen when you accept Tap to Pay on iPhone.

Availability of some features varies by country and by type of business, and Apple adds and changes features over time. Check what’s offered in your account rather than assuming every option applies to you.

How to claim your Apple Maps place card

1. Sign in to Apple Business with an Apple Account the business controls. Avoid using an employee’s personal Apple Account, because access leaves when they do.
2. Set up your organization and brand. Enter the legal business details Apple asks for. For brands with several locations, you can set a logo and cover photo once and apply them across locations.
3. Search for your location. Apple Maps may already show your business from existing data. Claim that location rather than adding a new one, to avoid duplicates.
4. Verify the location. See below.
5. Complete the place card. Check the category, hours, phone number and website, then add photos, actions and any other details Apple offers for your business type.

How verification works

Apple needs to confirm you’re authorized to manage the location. The usual routes are:

• A phone call to the number listed for the business, with a code to enter in your account. This is quickest when the listed number reaches you directly.
• Documents that tie the business name to the address, such as a utility bill, lease or business license, when phone verification isn’t available or the number doesn’t match.

Phone verification isn’t always offered, particularly for newly added locations. If your listed number is wrong, a phone system routes calls elsewhere, or the business has just opened, expect to use documents, which take longer to review than a phone call.

Where Apple Maps ratings and reviews come from

This is the part many businesses miss. Apple Maps doesn’t host written reviews in the same way Google Maps does. Instead, a place card can show:

• Apple’s own ratings. Apple Maps users can give a place a thumbs up or thumbs down, and sometimes rate specific aspects of the business. Apple has designed this to limit ratings to people it can reasonably tell have been there.
• Third-party reviews and ratings. For many places, Apple Maps shows ratings, review snippets and photos from partner providers, such as Yelp and Tripadvisor, with links through to the full reviews on those sites.

Which providers appear depends on the place, the category and the region. In practice, a restaurant’s Apple Maps card may show Yelp reviews prominently, while a hotel’s may show Tripadvisor.

What that means for your reputation:

• Your Yelp or Tripadvisor profile may be what iPhone users see first, even if you’ve never thought of Apple Maps. Our comparison of Google vs Yelp reviews explains how to manage Yelp within its rules.
• To improve what appears on Apple Maps, work on the source platforms: reply to reviews there, keep those profiles accurate, and fix what customers complain about.
• Apple’s own ratings come from customers’ real visits, so the lever is the experience itself.

Keeping your information consistent

Apple Maps draws on several data sources, and your place card is only as reliable as the details behind it. Customers often lose trust when the hours on Apple Maps don’t match the hours on Google or your website.

• Keep a master list of your business name, address, phone, website, hours and categories, and update Google, Apple, Bing and key directories from it whenever something changes.
• Update holiday hours in advance. The week before a holiday is when people check whether you are open.
• Use real photos. Apple publishes image guidelines for place cards. Clear photos of your actual business, without heavy text or promotional overlays, are the safest choice.
• Check the card on an iPhone. Search for your business in Maps as a customer would, and tap every action link to be sure it works.

Bing has its own equivalent tool; our guide to Bing Places for Business covers it. If you want one team to keep Google, Apple and Bing aligned, our Google Business Profile management service covers the other major listings alongside Google.

A worked example

This example is illustrative, not a real client. A Mexican restaurant with two locations has never touched Apple Maps. The owner’s sister mentions that her iPhone showed the restaurant as closed on Mondays, which hasn’t been true for a year.

1. Claim. The owner signs in to Apple Business, sets up the brand with the logo and a cover photo, and claims both existing locations.
2. Verify. The first location verifies by phone. The second location’s listed number is an old line that forwards elsewhere, so the owner uploads a utility bill showing the business name and address.
3. Fix the details. Hours, phone numbers and the menu link are corrected. An “Order” action points to the restaurant’s own ordering page.
4. Add a showcase. A short showcase announces a new weekend brunch.
5. Look at the ratings. The place cards show Yelp reviews, including several unanswered complaints about slow service at one location. The owner starts replying to those on Yelp and works on staffing at peak times.

The place card now matches reality, and the reviews iPhone users see come with calm, current replies. Apple Business Connect fixed the details; the reputation work happened on Yelp and in the dining room.

Common mistakes

• Assuming Google covers Apple. Updating your Google Business Profile doesn’t update Apple Maps.
• Creating a new location instead of claiming the existing one. Duplicates confuse customers and take time to fix.
• Ignoring third-party reviews. If Apple Maps shows Yelp or Tripadvisor ratings for you, those platforms are part of your Apple presence.
• Uploading promotional graphics instead of photos. Check Apple’s image guidelines first so your card isn’t left with fewer images.
• Letting a former employee own the account. Keep ownership with a business-controlled Apple Account and add others as users.

Frequently asked questions

Is Apple Business Connect free?

Yes. Apple Business Connect was free, and Apple Business, the platform it became part of in 2026, launched as a free service. Some optional add-ons across Apple Business are paid, but claiming and managing your place card doesn’t require them.

Is Apple Business Connect the same as Apple Business?

Apple Business Connect is now part of Apple Business, which combines it with Apple Business Manager and Apple Business Essentials. Existing claimed locations and place card information migrated over at launch.

Where do Apple Maps reviews come from?

Apple Maps shows its own ratings from Apple users along with ratings, reviews and photos from third-party providers such as Yelp and Tripadvisor, depending on the place and region. To influence those reviews, manage them on the source platform.

How do I verify my business on Apple Maps?

Apple typically verifies by a phone call to the listed business number or by reviewing documents, such as a utility bill or lease, that show the business name and address. Phone verification isn’t always available, especially for new locations.

Can I remove a bad rating from Apple Maps?

Not through Apple Business Connect. Apple’s own ratings come from users, and third-party reviews are controlled by the platforms that host them, such as Yelp. If a third-party review breaks that platform’s rules, report it there.