You do not always add your business to Apple Maps from scratch. Apple’s own instructions split the job in two, and one of those two paths is for a place that is already on the map. The tool is free, it is now called Apple Business, and the hands on part is one sitting. The waiting is measured in business days.
Apple may already have a card for your business
Apple’s support page “Add a location in Apple Business”, published April 14, 2026, gives one path headed “Add a new location” and a separate path headed “Add an existing location”. That second path is the one a lot of trades need.
When you take the existing location path, Apple can verify you by phone. The page says the phone number being used is the one Apple already has on record for that location, and that after you receive the call you enter the four digit verification code. If you do not recognize that number, the page tells you to contact Apple Business support instead of pushing on.
Sometimes the place is not just listed, it is held. The same page says that if the location you entered is already claimed by another organization, you will see a note stating “This location is already managed.” You add the location anyway and request a transfer, and the page says that review can take up to five business days.
The name changed in 2026
Apple’s newsroom release introducing Apple Business, dated March 24, 2026, says Apple Business would start on Tuesday, April 14, as a free service in the U.S. and 200 or more countries and regions. The same release says Apple Business Essentials, Apple Business Manager, and Apple Business Connect would no longer be available once Apple Business launched.
That release also says existing Business Connect data would migrate to Apple Business automatically at launch, and it names claimed locations, place card information, photos, organization information, and account details. Apple’s support note “Apple Business Connect is now Apple Business” repeats the merge in a single line. That page carries no update date.
So if you claimed a listing a couple of years ago and have not looked since, the work is not gone. Sign in at business.apple.com and check the phone number and the hours first. Those are the two that go stale without anybody telling you.
The original announcement, “Introducing Apple Business Connect” of January 11, 2023, called it a free tool that let businesses of all sizes claim their location place cards and customize the way key information appears, to more than a billion Apple users across Apple Maps, Messages, Wallet, Siri, and other apps. Read that number for what it is. It counts Apple users. It is not a count of people who will ever look at your listing.
Signing up trips people up more than claiming does
Two Apple support pages, both published April 14, 2026, cover the account itself.
“Requirements for Apple Business” says the email you sign up with has to be a clean address. You cannot have used it as an Apple Account for any other Apple service or website. It cannot be associated with an App Store or iCloud account. It cannot be from a domain that another Apple School Manager or Apple Business organization has already verified. If the address on your business cards is also your Apple ID, pick a different address on the same domain before you start.
“Sign up for Apple Business” says you enter your organization name and its location, plus a website address if you have one, and then verify the organization using two methods. The listed options include a business ID such as a D-U-N-S Number or an Employer Identification Number, domain validation with a TXT record, App Store Connect, and official documents such as a business license, a lease or property agreement, or a utility bill. The page says the review can take up to five business days, and that periods of high volume may need more time than that.
Handing over a license number or an EIN here is a paperwork step, not a legal one, and it is a different question from whether that number has to sit on your website. Nothing here is legal or tax advice. If you are not sure which license covers the work you sell, or which number is the right one to hand over, ask your own state licensing board, your attorney, or your accountant before you upload anything.
Filling the card in without overstating what you do
“Configure location attributes in Apple Business”, published April 14, 2026, lists what you can set on a place card: the header, display name, an about section, photos, address and coordinates, hours including temporary hours, phone, website, actions, a showcase, an app link, category, good to know attributes, and status.
One of those fields comes with a hard limit, and it is the category. The page says you select one and only one primary category, and that you can add up to 19 optional ones on top of it.
Nineteen is a lot of rope. Tick only the work you actually sell. A roofer who claims every trade on the list is telling Apple something untrue, and telling the customer the same thing. Picking that one primary category is its own decision over on Google, with its own rules, and that job is covered in choosing your primary category.
Having no shop is not a blocker. Apple’s announcement of October 16, 2024, “Apple expands tools to help businesses connect with customers”, says every business, including those that provide a service or operate fully online or without a physical location, can register for Business Connect, the tool that is now folded into Apple Business. Proving the same thing to Google is a different exercise, and that one is in what to film when Google asks for a verification video.
One more page is worth knowing about. “Maintain location information accuracy with Apple Business”, published April 14, 2026, says that if your place card states a location is open and your customer finds it closed, they can report the problem to Apple straight from your place card. Wrong hours do not sit there politely forever.
What claiming this will not do for you
It will not bring you calls on its own, and nothing here is a promise that it will. Claiming the card makes the listing correct. What anybody does with a correct listing is not in your hands or ours.
It is also not worth paying somebody a monthly fee for. The card is free and the hands on work is one sitting. If a vendor bills you every month to hold your Apple listing, ask what they are doing in months two through twelve.
And it will not make Siri start naming you. Claiming the card fixes what Apple shows about your business. It does not decide who gets picked, and what the assistants already say about you is worth checking first. If you want to see who the assistants actually name today when somebody asks for your trade in your town, the free scan asks them and writes down the answer. The wider job of staying findable in search and in AI answers is set out on the search checks page.
What to do next
- Open Maps on an iPhone and search your business name and your town. Write down what is there and what is wrong.
- Go to business.apple.com and sign up with a work email that is not already an Apple Account.
- Verify the organization with two of Apple’s methods. Allow five business days.
- Add your location. If it is already on Maps, take the existing location path and answer the verification call for the four digit code.
- If you see the “already managed” note, add the location anyway and request the transfer.
- Fill in hours, phone, website, and one honest primary category. Add optional categories only for work you really sell.
- Set a reminder before the holidays to put temporary hours on the card.
That is the whole job. It is small, it is free, and it stays done for a while, which is more than most marketing tasks can say.