Yandex.Maps stopped showing state borders in order to “focus on natural objects”

Yandex.Maps has removed borders between countries. Twitter users drew attention to this on June 4, but today the service’s press service told the Durov Code publication about the innovation.

State borders are not displayed in both the mobile and desktop versions of maps, while Yandex continues to show the names of countries and distinctions between regions.

“In the near future, on survey scales at which the service is not used in its main scenarios, the map will become physiographic,” the press service said. The emphasis, according to the service representative, will be “on natural objects.”

“Our task is to display the world around us. Therefore, mountains, rivers, arctic circle lines and other data characteristic of this type of map will appear on the map,” explained Yandex.maps. Changes will appear gradually, the press service added.