January 2026 Platform Release Notes

HERE Map Content v2

New layers

Two new experimental layers were added to the catalog. The new layers are:

• Named Areas, with the layer ID named-areas

• Cartography Tile Intersections, with the layer ID cartography-tile-intersections

Both layers support easier browsing and processing of Cartography layer partitions and Administrative Places/Locations layer partitions respectively

Named Areas layer

The new Named Areas layer publishes HERE tiled references (see Reference) to the Administrative Places layer at the following levels:

• Built-up Areas and Zones at tile level 12

• Cities at level 10

• Counties at level 8

• States at level 6

• Countries at level 4

When selecting one or multiple partitions with Data Inspector, the payload published references are resolved to GeoJSON by the inspection plugin which is bundled with the layer schema.

US States, Level 6

Data | Here Platform

Western Europe countries, Level 4

Data | Here Platform

Cartography Tile Intersections

The new Cartography Tile Intersections layer publishes HERE tiled references to the Cartography layer at level 12. It comes with an inspection script that resolves the references to GeoJSON and creates a data filter for the feature type attribute.

This layer allows selecting and rendering cartographic features in a selected area.

As an example, the following map displays all Golf Course feature types in the area of Melbourne, Australia.

Golf Course feature types in the area of Melbourne, Australia.

Data | Here Platform

Note that the new layers are experimental and should not be considered ready for production use.

HERE will continue to monitor usage and feedback for these layers.

HERE Raster Tile API and Map Image API

• Added support for the truck_preferred_roads feature.

• Added the following new vehicle_restrictions modes:
  - active_and_inactive_differentiated
  - active_only
  
  These modes require the new startTime and endTime request parameters, which accept RFC 3339 timestamps (i.e. date and time without seconds or timezone).

HERE Vector Tile API

• Added a new border_style property to the boundaries layer.

HERE SDK 4.25.1.0

This release contains bug fixes and UX improvements. Updates include:

• Map view:

  • Added MapFeatures.trafficLights and MapFeatureModes.trafficLightsAll to show traffic lights.

  • Added MapContentSettings.configureVehicleRestrictionFilter(transportSpecs:) method to filter restrictions shown on the map and to easily match the filtering to routing parameters.

• Routing

  • Added serialize() and deserialize() in Route to allow storing and restoring of Route objects.

  • Added ParameterConfiguration.transportSpecification, which contains the default attribute values for attributes for vehicle, pedestrian, scooter, and taxi specification.

• Added ParameterConfiguration.transportSpecification, which contains the default attribute values for attributes for vehicle, pedestrian, scooter and taxi specification.

• Added SDKOptions.customOptions property to set the maximum thread count for selected HERE SDK components. Note: This is a beta release of this feature. 

• Added PedestrianSpecification, ScooterSpecification, and TaxiSpecification classes, containing attributes for pedestrian, scooter and taxi profiles.

• Added TransportSpecification class which contains all attributes for a transport mode (vehicle, pedestrian, scooter and taxi).

• Search: Added support for SearchOptions.distributedResults in SearchEngine , that indicates if search along the route should produce well-distributed results.

• Map view: Added the following new classes and methods: 

  • MapSceneLoadOptions: Represents the complete configuration for loading a map scene, combining the scene source ( MapScheme or configurationFile ) and optional settings like enabledFeatures, disabledFeatures, watermarkStyle, and overridingMapStyle.

  • MapSceneLoadOptionsBuilder : Builder class for creating MapSceneLoadOptions instances. The builder enforces that exactly one mapScheme or configurationFile is set.

  • MapScene.loadScene(_:completion:) : Asynchronously loads a map scene using MapSceneLoadOptions. This unified API supports loading from either a map scheme or configuration file, with optional feature and watermark configuration. This update introduces a new unified API to load scenes with a builder pattern that provides a cleaner way to load map scenes, and offers increased type safety. The builder enforces mutual exclusivity between mapScheme and configurationFile at build time. Note that this is a beta release of this feature.

• Navigation

  • Added FunctionalRoadClassZoomPolicyOptions, a configuration used to instantiate a zoom policy based on functional road classes.

  • Added SpeedBasedZoomPolicyOptions, a configuration used to instantiate a zoom policy driven by speed thresholds.

  • Added makeSpeedBasedZoomPolicy to ZoomPolicy, enabling creation and use of the newly introduced speed-based zoom policy using SpeedBasedZoomPolicyOptions.

  • Added makeFunctionalRoadClassZoomPolicy to ZoomPolicy, enabling creation and use of the newly introduced functional-road-class zoom policy using FunctionalRoadClassZoomPolicyOptions.

  • Added RoadClassification, defining the driving environment as one of: urban, rural, or highway .

  • Added isBuiltUpArea flag in RoadAttributes, indicating if the navigable segment is inside a builtup area.

• Routing: Added RoutingOptions.transportSpecification which will include the transport mode and the vehicle, pedestrian, scooter and taxi specification.

• Map view: Added MapView.setFixedSize(int width, int height, double factor) method for reducing render target size by a factor. Note: This feature is in beta state.

• Added diagnosticsOutputPath field in NetworkSettings class to allow setting a file path that will be used to add verbose information in case network related issues occurred during use of the HERE SDK. Note: This is a beta release of this feature.

What’s In The Works

HERE Map Content v2

Delay for Name Model changes

The previously announced removal of NameType attribute values is delayed. The new removal date will be communicated later in 2026.

Delay for deprecated layer removal

The removal of some deprecated layers is now delayed. The affected layers are:

• Road Attributes

• Navigation Attributes

• Advanced Navigation Attributes

• Recreational Vehicle Attributes

The removal of these layers is now planned for the end of Q1 2026. Consumers of these layers should migrate their applications to the new Topology Attributes layer.

Deprecated attributes

The CurvatureHeadingAttribute is now deprecated and will no longer be populated as of Q1 2026. It will be removed from the schema by the end of Q3 2026.

The attribute is replaced by the following two new attributes:

• CurvatureAttribute

• HeadingAttribute

Removal of catalog history

Beginning Q3 2026, HERE will remove catalog versions older than 18 months.

For questions, reach out to your HERE Account Executive or Technical Services point-of-contact.

Restricted Driving Maneuver changes

In Q4 2026, a redesign of the Restricted Driving Maneuvers schema and implementation (Restricted Driving Manoeuvre) will be introduced.

This will impact the following layers:

• Topology Attributes (layer ID topology-attributes)

• Truck Attributes (layer ID truck-attributes)

Additional details will be announced later in Q1 2026.

HERE Real Time Traffic

• Improved coverage for Netherlands region.

• Improved handling of RCO cancellations.

• Optimized End Time Logic for European Providers and Specific Incident Types.

• Improved offset handling for Jartic Feed.

• Improved Road Alert coverage for Cyprus.