Google Maps Is Showing Some Users a Totally Black Icon Instead of Its Logo

For most of human history, if you wanted to know how to get from point A to point B, you could either look at a map or ask someone for directions. Thanks to the advent of GPS, you can now be as antisocial as you want and let Google Maps or your navigation app of choice tell you where to go.

Because GPS is one of the most useful things on your average phone, many Google Maps users were annoyed to discover that the app looks totally black now on the home screen. Here's what we know about why that's happening.

For some users, the Google Maps icon that used to exist on the app has been replaced by a totally black app icon. This seems to be mostly an issue on Apple devices, and fortunately, it doesn't impact the functionality of the app itself. The app is still labeled as well, which means that the only real issue comes from the fact that the app can be hard to spot without an icon, and it doesn't exactly look the best either.

Google has offered no official explanation for the issue, but it seems to be a problem that stems from a recent update to the app. It's possible that if you update the software on your Apple device, the issue will resolve itself, but there's no guarantee that that will be the case.

If that doesn't work, though, your only other option is to just wait for Google to resolve the issue on their end and push an update through to the app.

While there are plenty of people who seem to be bothered by this, at the moment, the issue seems confined to a cosmetic problem. The app still works well, and if you want to use Google Maps, all you have to do is search for it on your phone. The black box might be a little confusing or alarming, but it has no impact on the app's actual ability to get you where you want to go.

In a world where we rely on so much software, it's frankly kind of a miracle that we can complain about things as relatively minor as this. Google has built a number of apps that people all over the world use to communicate, learn, and get where they need to go. Do they take a lot of our personal information in exchange for providing these free services? Yes, but that's the bargain many of us have made for these conveniences.

While it's definitely unfortunate that the app isn't working exactly as it's supposed to, thankfully it's not currently stranding people on top of mountains or providing nonsensical directions. These would be serious problems that require immediate fixes. Instead, the app just looks funny. It's not great, but not the end of the world either.