I am just tired waiting, I have created tool https://www.gotoapplemaps.com tool that helps users migrate Google Maps saved places into Apple Maps Guides. Would love to connect and share what I’ve built, in case it’s relevant to your work
Input:
https://maps.apple.com/guides?user=CgZOb3J3YXkSDQiuTRC%2Ftp738KjgnkgSDQiuTRDTvNu52eDB8yASDQiuTRCsttyBoo2Y9ksSDQiuTRDs8sbj4ti70DcSDgiuTRDK3uiNlO2%2F8aYBEg0Irk0Q1ZXczsXCt4cV
Step-by-step:
Extract query param user=.
Percent-decode %2F -> /.
Base64-decode into 99 bytes.
Protobuf parse yields:
Field 1 (string): "Norway"
Field 2 (repeated submessage): 6 entries
For this sample, each Field 2 entry is a tiny submessage containing exactly two varints:
Entry message Field 1 (varint): constant 9902 across all entries
Entry message Field 2 (varint): a 64-bit identifier-like value (varies per entry)
Example Field 2 entries decoded from this sample (showing entry submessage fields):
entry 1: {1: 9902, 2: 5205458886502882111}
entry 2: {1: 9902, 2: 2370871449427041875}
entry 3: {1: 9902, 2: 5470853656271592236}
entry 4: {1: 9902, 2: 4008466203276327276}
entry 5: {1: 9902, 2: 12025454782572015434}
entry 6: {1: 9902, 2: 1517394303458413269}
Interpretation (best-fit): this particular user= payload variant encodes a guide title plus a repeated list of place references, where each reference is (a) a constant type/provider discriminator (9902) and (b) a large numeric place ID.
