Welcome! This page covers common questions and troubleshooting steps for MapSwap.
If you don’t find your answer here, email rothsoftware@icloud.com and I’ll respond as soon as I can.
In the MapSwap app, tap Apple Maps, Google Maps, or Waze under Preferred Map App. The change takes effect immediately for new pages and address links.
The extension scans the text on each webpage you visit (in Safari, locally on your device) and looks for patterns that match street addresses. It supports addresses in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and many European countries.
When an address is found, it’s underlined and tinted blue. Tap it to open the address in your preferred map app.
A few common reasons:
If you find an address that should be detected but isn’t, please email me the page URL — I’d like to improve the detection.
If you copy an address from any app (Messages, Mail, Notes, Yelp, etc.) and tap the Share button:
You can also share a Google Maps, Apple Maps, or Waze link to MapSwap, and it will redirect you to your preferred app.
The floating “Open in Apple Maps / Waze” button appears on Google Maps only when there’s a specific place selected (a place pin, a search result, or a directions destination). If you’re just panning the map without selecting anything, the button stays hidden.
iOS always routes Google Maps links to the Google Maps app when it’s installed, regardless of what you set as default. To open a Google Maps link in Apple Maps or Waze, use the Share button to share the link to MapSwap instead.
If the Share Extension shows a brief black/blank screen, that’s the extension processing before it opens your map app. It should clear within 1–2 seconds. If it stays stuck:
Try refreshing the page. If the page was loaded from Safari’s back-forward cache, the tappable links may need to be re-attached.
MapSwap is free. If you’d like to support development, you can leave an optional tip from the MapSwap app under the Support MapSwap card:
Tips are non-refundable Consumable In-App Purchases. Thank you for the support!
MapSwap collects no personal data. See the Privacy Policy below for full details.
Email: rothsoftware@icloud.com
Please include:
I read every message and try to respond within a few days. Thanks for using MapSwap!
Last Updated: August 15, 2026
MapSwap (“the App”) is a Safari Web Extension and iOS app that detects street addresses on webpages and makes them tappable to open in your preferred map app. Your privacy is important to us. This policy explains what data the App does and does not access.
MapSwap does not collect any data. Specifically:
The extension runs entirely on your device. It:
All processing happens locally in Safari on your device. No webpage content, addresses, or browsing data is ever transmitted off your device by the App itself.
When you tap a highlighted address, the App opens it in the map app you selected:
The App never sends addresses anywhere on its own — only the single address you tap, only to the map provider you selected.
The MapSwap Share Extension lets you share an address or map link from any app to open it in your preferred map app. When you use it:
goo.gl/maps or maps.app.goo.gl), the App sends a network request to that link so it can be expanded to the full address. This request goes to the link’s host (Google). It is the only time the Share Extension uses the network, it happens only for shortened links you explicitly share, and only the shortened link itself is sent.The only data stored on your device is:
This data is stored using Safari extension storage and App Group shared storage, and never leaves your device.
Safari requires the “All Websites” permission for the extension to scan pages for addresses. This permission is used solely to read page text and identify addresses. The extension does not modify webpage content beyond visually highlighting detected addresses, and does not record or transmit any webpage data.
MapSwap is free. If you choose to leave an optional tip via the in-app tip jar, the transaction is handled entirely by Apple’s StoreKit framework. We never see your payment information. Apple processes the purchase and provides us with anonymous transaction information (no personally identifiable data) so we know the tip succeeded. No record of your purchase, or whether you tipped at all, is shared with any third party.
The App does not collect any data from any user, including children under 13.
If we update this privacy policy, we will post the changes here with an updated date.
If you have questions about this privacy policy, please contact:
rothsoftware@icloud.com