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Ever since I got my iPhone, I’ve been searching high and low for a good way to bring my custom Google Maps over to the device. Up until now, I’ve been using a nifty service that brings over your custom map markers to the Google Maps app, but the service had stability issues and didn’t transfer the description field at all. Today Google announced the release of Google Earth 2.0 for the iPhone, and with it we finally get a proper way to access your saved Google Maps.

I’ve been playing around with the new app for a bit, and I can already tell I’m going to be using this feature a lot down the line. You can now sign into the Google Earth app with your Google account and view both your private and public maps. When viewing a map entry you get full access to all of the fields (including description), as well as a street view photo (if available), and quick access to Google reviews for that location. In short, it’s exactly what I’ve been looking for, and will make Google Earth my preferred app for navigation when walking around New York, instead of the Google Maps app. Of course, you’ll still need the Maps app to get directions, so I’m hoping Apple still finds some time to add custom maps to that.

This update also adds the ability for Google Earth to show you a list of entries if your finger ends up pressing multiple icons, and upgrades the amount of languages supported to 31.