Apple Maps listings for medical practices

When someone on an iPhone asks for a dentist nearby, searches Maps for a chiropractor, or taps an address in a text message, the answer comes from Apple’s own map data, not from Google. The listing they see is called a place card. A practice can claim that place card and control what it shows, but Apple has changed the tool for doing so. Apple’s own guide now says Apple Business Connect is now Apple Business, a single service that also covers device management and email. The listing features moved with it.

This guide covers what a US practice needs to know to claim and manage its Apple Maps listing, what Apple’s photo and text rules mean for a healthcare office, how ratings work, and what Apple’s ad policy says about medical services now that ads can run in Maps. For the Google side, see our guide to Google Business Profile for doctors and dentists; for keeping your details the same across listing sites, see directory listings and local citations for practices; and for answering reviews, see how to reply to patient reviews. For a neighborhood platform with its own business pages, see our guide to Nextdoor for medical practices. For promoted pins on a driving app, see our guide to Waze ads for medical practices.

This is general information, not legal advice. Sources cited were checked on November 1, 2026: the Apple Business User Guide pages on signing up and verifying, adding a location, location attributes, maintaining location accuracy, Actions and Action URLs, insights (each published April 14, 2026), showcases (May 28, 2026), photo and text standards (August 14, 2026), the cover photo (September 22, 2026), promoting your business on Apple Maps and creating ads (August 14, 2026); the Apple Business Connect User Guide notice that Apple Business Connect is now Apple Business; the Apple Advertising Services News and Stocks, Maps, and Sports Programming Policies (effective July 14, 2026); Apple’s Ads on Apple Maps and privacy page (no date shown); the iPhone User Guide page on rating places in Maps (no date shown); 16 CFR 465.2, 465.4, 465.5 and 465.7; and 45 CFR 164.508 and 164.514. Apple updates these pages, so check the current versions before you act. We found no federal rule or agency guidance written for Apple Maps listings by healthcare practices as such. State rules on advertising by licensed professionals differ, so have a health care attorney review your listing text, photos and ads.

The short version

Apple’s guide says Apple Business Connect is now Apple Business. You claim and edit your Apple Maps place card there.
An organization has 60 days after sign-up to verify with Apple, using two verification methods. Apple says review can take up to five business days.
Your display name must match your signage or official website, with no descriptions or symbols such as the registered trademark sign. Your address, phone number and hours should match your website.
Apple reviews each photo before it appears. You need permission from each person in a photo, and Apple bars stock photos, added text and AI-generated images.
A photo of an identifiable patient used for marketing calls for a written HIPAA authorization under 45 CFR 164.508(a)(3). Apple’s permission rule does not replace it.
Ratings on Apple Maps come from Maps users. Federal law bars paying for reviews of a particular sentiment (16 CFR 465.4) and certain review suppression (16 CFR 465.7).
Ads on Maps launched in Apple’s guide on August 14, 2026. Apple’s ad policy says ads that promote or reference medical services are evaluated case by case.

Apple Business Connect is now Apple Business

The old Apple Business Connect User Guide now opens on a single notice: Apple Business combines what used to be Apple Business Manager, Apple Business Essentials and Apple Business Connect. The current Apple Business User Guide covers device management, work accounts, email and calendars alongside the brand and location tools. For a listing, the parts that matter are brands, locations, place cards, showcases, Actions and insights.

Apple’s sign-up page says a person who used a personal Apple Account for Apple Business Connect can sign in to Apple Business with it. If they keep the personal account rather than creating a managed work account, they can use only the brand and location management features. If your practice set up its Apple listing before the change, sign in and check that the right person still holds the administrator role.

Signing up and verifying the practice

Apple’s page on signing up says that after you create an organization you have 60 days to verify it, and that if it is not approved during that window, the organization and its data are deleted. Verification needs two methods and can take up to five business days, with more time during periods of high volume. The methods listed are a business ID (a D-U-N-S Number or Employer Identification Number), domain validation through a DNS TXT record, App Store Connect for organizations with an app, and an uploaded document. The accepted documents include a business license, a sales tax permit, a food, health or alcohol permit, a lease or property agreement, and a utility bill.

Apple also says the person who signs up must use a legal human name, not a role such as “IT Coordinator”. We recommend the practice owner or office manager hold the administrator role in their own name, with a second administrator added after approval, so the listing does not depend on a single staff member or an outside vendor’s login.

If your location already exists on Maps, Apple may offer phone verification. Apple calls the number it has on record for that location and asks for a four-digit code. If someone else already manages the location, Apple’s page says you can request a transfer and attach supporting documents such as a business license or utility bill, and that review can take up to five business days.

What goes on the place card

Apple’s page on location attributes sets out the rules for each field. These are the fields a practice should check first:

Display name. It must match the name on the storefront, signage or official website, cannot contain descriptions or other strings, and cannot include symbols such as the registered trademark, copyright or trademark signs. A city name is allowed only when it is part of the brand name, not to tell locations apart.
About. Apple’s examples of what the description may include are details about the owners, specialties and “medical degrees, certificates”. Any claim you make here is still advertising, so keep it to facts you can document.
Address. It must be the address officially listed on your website and the one patients use to find you. The map pin must sit centered on the building, not on the road or the parking lot.
Hours. Apple says hours on the place card need to match the hours on your official website wherever possible. If the office sees patients by appointment only, Apple says to list the hours during which appointments can be made.
Phone and website. The phone number should be the one published on your website. The website should be your own, with a location page where you have one, and Apple says it cannot be a third-party website.
Category. You choose one primary category and up to 19 optional ones. Apple notes it recently increased the number of categories, so check that yours still fits.
Good to Know. These attributes describe amenities such as accessible parking and contactless payment. List only what is true at that location.

Apple also says customers can report from the place card that a location is closed when it shows as open. Apple reviews these reports and can change the name, status or hours itself, and it emails your administrators when it does. You can accept or contest those changes. A name change you suggest goes back to Apple for review, which Apple says can take up to five business days.

Keeping your details consistent with Google and other listings

No federal rule we found requires a practice to list the same name, address and phone number on each platform. Apple’s own rules do push in that direction, because they tie the name, address, phone and hours to your official website. We recommend you treat your website’s contact page as the single source of truth, then match Apple, Google Business Profile and the directories to it. When something changes, such as new hours, a move or a new phone line, update the website first and each listing the same day. Our guide to announcing practice changes covers moves and provider departures. Apple says Apple Business also helps customers find a business through Siri; our guide to voice search for medical practices covers spoken searches.

Photos, the cover photo and patient privacy

Apple’s photo and text standards (published August 14, 2026) apply to place card photos, showcases and ads on Maps. Apple reviews each photo before you can use it, and says review can take up to three business days. There is a limit of 100 photos per location. Photos must be of your location, well lit and not obviously filtered. Apple does not accept stock photos, clip art, collages, added text, added graphics, watermarks, date stamps or AI-generated content. Photos cannot contain personally identifiable information or content that would be doxing.

Two permission rules stand out. Your organization must own the photos or have the rights to upload them and allow Apple to use and share them, and you must have permission from each person in the photo. For a practice, that second rule is where HIPAA comes in. Under 45 CFR 164.514(b)(2)(i)(Q), full-face photographs and comparable images are identifiers. Using an identifiable patient’s photo in your marketing, including on a listing, calls for a written authorization that meets 45 CFR 164.508(a)(3). A verbal yes at the front desk satisfies neither Apple’s rule nor HIPAA in a way you can prove later.

We recommend photos of the building entrance, the parking area, the waiting room and treatment rooms with no patients present, and staff who have signed a release. Check screens, whiteboards, schedules and charts in the frame before you upload. Apple’s cover photo page (September 22, 2026) adds its own specifications: HEIF, JPEG or PNG, at least 1600 by 1040 pixels, and a single photo with no edits, promotional text, watermarks or clip art.

Showcases and Actions

A showcase is a promotional module on the place card with a headline, a body, an image and a button. Apple’s page (May 28, 2026) limits the headline to 38 characters, the body to 100 characters and image alt text to 100 characters. A showcase can run for up to 365 days, with 90 days as the default. Apple reviews each one and says to plan at least three calendar days ahead. If content in one language is rejected, the whole showcase is rejected.

A showcase is advertising. An offer such as a new patient exam price needs the same care as any other ad: state the terms, do not imply a result, and check your state board’s rules on fee advertising and discounts. Our guide to advertising cash prices and offers covers those rules.

Actions are buttons on the place card that link to your website or booking page. Apple says Actions need its approval, which can take up to three business days. Apple’s Action URL standards allow UTM parameters and prohibit GCLID parameters, login trackers and single sign-on tokens. We recommend linking to a booking page that collects only what you need to schedule a visit, with no patient details in the URL itself. Our guide to tracking pixels on practice websites explains why tracking tags on booking pages need a careful look.

Ratings on Apple Maps and review requests

Apple Maps ratings come from Maps users. Apple’s iPhone User Guide says people can rate places and add photos, that the feature is not available in all countries or regions, and that Maps may suggest rating a place someone recently visited. Apple says those suggestions use on-device processing and cannot be read by Apple. We did not find a tool in the Apple Business User Guide for a business to reply to individual ratings.

You can still ask patients for feedback, within federal limits. The FTC’s rule on consumer reviews makes it unlawful for a business to give compensation or other incentives conditioned on reviews expressing a particular sentiment, positive or negative (16 CFR 465.4). It bars fake reviews and buying reviews the business knew or should have known were fake (16 CFR 465.2), requires disclosure when an officer or manager writes a review of their own business (16 CFR 465.5), and bars unfounded legal threats or intimidation to remove a review, as well as hiding negative reviews while implying you show all of them (16 CFR 465.7).

No federal rule we found requires a practice to ask each patient for a rating. We recommend a neutral request sent to all patients after a visit, with no reward and no screening step that sends only happy patients to the public site. Keep health details out of the request itself. Our guide to replying to negative reviews under HIPAA covers what you can say back on platforms that allow replies.

Insights: what Apple shows you

Apple Business includes insights on searches, place card views and taps on directions, calls, your website and Actions. Apple’s page says usage below a reporting threshold shows as zero to protect the identity of individual customers, and that a longer date range gives a more accurate picture for low volume. A small practice may see zeros for weeks at a time, so we recommend reading the monthly view rather than daily numbers.

Ads on Apple Maps

Apple added ads on Maps to its guide on August 14, 2026. Ads can appear at the top of Suggested Places or at the top of relevant search results in Maps. Apple’s page says ads on Maps are available in the United States (excluding American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands) and Canada, and only for advertisers with business locations and an organization address there. You choose locations and a monthly budget, and you cannot choose the placement.

Ads on Maps follow the Apple Advertising Services News and Stocks, Maps, and Sports Programming Policies (effective July 14, 2026) and the Apple Business photo rules. The policy’s additional rules for Maps prohibit home services, bail bonds and cryptocurrency ATMs, and say: “Ad content that promotes or references medical services will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.” Its section on prescription drugs, medical devices and medical services or treatments requires compliance with applicable law, bars promoting off-label use, bars targeting people where or at ages the service is not lawfully available, says ads should caution viewers to consult their physician where appropriate, and says a “clinically proven” claim should be supported by at least two competent and reliable clinical studies.

The general rules apply too. Claims must be substantiated before the ad runs, with competent and reliable scientific evidence for health claims. Endorsements must reflect the endorser’s real experience and disclose material connections. If an ad leads to a form that collects personal information, the policy requires consent and a public privacy policy where the law requires one. Apple’s Ads on Apple Maps privacy page says the Personalized Ads setting is not supported on Maps, that ads are based on contextual signals such as search terms and approximate location, and that age and gender are not used to target ads on Maps.

Questions to ask before you claim or change your Apple listing

Who at the practice will hold the administrator role in their own name, and who is the backup?
Is the location already managed by someone else, such as a former vendor or a prior owner?
Do the name, address, phone number and hours on the website match what we will enter in Apple Business?
Do we have signed releases for each person who appears in our photos, and a HIPAA authorization for any patient?
Does any showcase offer need a review against our state board’s advertising rules?
Where do our Action buttons lead, and what tags run on those pages?
If we plan ads on Maps, what claims will they make, and can we document each one?

Use and avoid

Use: the exact practice name from your signage and website as the display name.
Use: real photos of the building, entrance and empty treatment rooms, taken by your team.
Use: appointment hours for an appointment-only office, matched to your website.
Use: a neutral rating request sent to each patient, with no reward attached.
Avoid: keywords, specialties or city names added to the display name.
Avoid: stock photos, AI-generated images, added text and patient faces without a signed authorization.
Avoid: discounts or gifts tied to a positive rating.
Avoid: “clinically proven” or results claims in a showcase or ad you cannot document.

An illustration

This example is invented. [Practice name] is a two-provider dental office. The office manager searches Apple Maps and finds the practice listed under its old name, with hours from before the practice changed its schedule. They sign up for Apple Business in their own name, verify the organization with the practice’s EIN and a DNS record on the practice domain, and request a transfer of the existing location with a copy of the business license attached.

Once the transfer is approved, they change the display name to match the sign over the door, set the hours to the appointment hours on the website, and pick a dental category as the primary one. They upload [number] photos of the entrance, the waiting room and an empty operatory, and leave out a staff photo for which one team member has not signed a release. A showcase for a new patient exam goes to Apple for review with the fee, what it includes and the expiry date stated in the body. Before trying ads on Maps, they write down the evidence for each claim the ad would make, and send the ad text to the practice’s attorney.

Checklist

Sign in to Apple Business, or sign up and verify within 60 days.
Confirm who holds the administrator role, and add a second administrator.
Claim each location, or request a transfer with supporting documents.
Match the display name, address, phone and hours to your website.
Choose one primary category and check it against Apple’s updated list.
Upload your own photos with signed releases, and a HIPAA authorization for any patient.
Check each showcase offer against your state board’s rules.
Point Actions to pages without patient details in the URL.
Send neutral rating requests with no incentive tied to sentiment.
Accept or contest any change Apple makes to your name, status or hours.
Have a health care attorney review ads on Maps before they run.

How we help

We build websites, local and organic search, Google Ads and lead generation and an AI front desk for independent practices. For Apple Maps, that means a place card that matches your website and Google Business Profile, photos chosen with privacy in mind, and booking links that keep patient details out of tracking. Our tools are built with HIPAA in mind. We confirm in writing what a BAA covers before any patient information flows through a tool, and if it is not covered, we do not route patient information through it. We are not a healthcare provider and we do not give legal or medical advice. For the wider rules, see our healthcare marketing rules guide.

Is Apple Business Connect still available?

Apple’s Apple Business Connect User Guide now says Apple Business Connect is now Apple Business, which combines Apple Business Manager, Apple Business Essentials and Apple Business Connect. You manage your Apple Maps place card in Apple Business, and Apple says a personal Apple Account used for Apple Business Connect can still sign in.

How long does it take to verify a practice with Apple?

Apple’s sign-up page says you have 60 days after sign-up to verify your organization, that verification uses two methods, and that it can take up to five business days, with more time during periods of high volume. A transfer of a location someone else manages can also take up to five business days.

Can we post patient photos on our Apple Maps place card?

Apple requires permission from each person in a photo. HIPAA adds its own requirement: full-face photographs are identifiers under 45 CFR 164.514(b)(2)(i)(Q), and using an identifiable patient’s photo for marketing calls for a written authorization under 45 CFR 164.508(a)(3). Apple also bars photos containing personally identifiable information.

Can we offer patients a discount for rating us on Apple Maps?

Not for a positive rating. Under 16 CFR 465.4, a business may not provide compensation or other incentives conditioned on reviews expressing a particular sentiment, positive or negative. We recommend a neutral request to each patient with no reward attached, and a health care attorney’s review of any incentive.

Can a medical practice run ads on Apple Maps?

Apple’s ad policy for Maps (effective July 14, 2026) says ad content that promotes or references medical services is evaluated case by case. Ads on Maps are available in the United States, excluding American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands, and in Canada. Health claims must be substantiated, and a “clinically proven” claim should be supported by at least two competent and reliable clinical studies.

Sources

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Apple Maps listings for medical practices: Apple Business place cards, photos, ratings and ads