Welcome to another installment of AnonyMouse's App Pick of the Month. This month’s pick is WikiTrip – Travel Audio Guide, a location-based audio stories app powered by Wikipedia. I picked WikiTrip because it turns a road trip, commute, or even a simple walk into something more interesting in the moment, without needing you to sit there reading on your phone.
WikiTrip is built around movement. You start the app, then walk, drive, or ride, and it reads aloud the stories behind the places you pass. It finds nearby Wikipedia articles and reads them to you in a natural AI voice, and it uses an algorithm that chooses articles based on editorial quality, content length, and proximity.
If you’re curious about a specific spot, you can tap anywhere on the map to hear about that place instantly. You can also set your pace by adjusting the minimum distance and time between articles to match your journey. And if you like customizing how it sounds, WikiTrip includes 13 AI voices powered by OpenAI, along with support for 19 languages.
What really makes WikiTrip click for me is how easy it is to drop into. It’s a fun little entertainment source that gives me something interesting or fascinating right when I want it—on a road trip, on a walk, or whenever I’m just trying to make time pass a little better.
I also really like the “learning where I am” feeling about WikiTrip. I’ll be moving through an area and suddenly I’m hearing context I wouldn’t have looked up on my own. Road trips can be boring, and this gives me something to think about while I’m on the road, while still feeling relaxed and simple.
Another thing I appreciate about WikiTrip is being able to go back and review what I’ve heard later, because the app saves every article you listen to with a link to the full Wikipedia page. That makes it feel less like random trivia and more like a trail of little discoveries I can revisit later.
Why I’m Picking WikiTrip This Month
I’m picking WikiTrip this month because it makes travel time feel more engaging and turns “dead time” into something I actually enjoy. If you like learning bite-sized stories about the places around you while you’re moving, this is worth a download. If you prefer silence on the road or you don’t want location-based audio, it may not be for you.
Download the App
WikiTrip – Travel Audio Guide is available now on the App Store.
- Platform: iOS (iPhone)
- Price: Free
- App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/wikitrip-travel-audio-guide/id1438931523
- AppleVis App Directory: https://applevis.com/apps/ios/travel/wikitrip-travel-audio-guide
- Podcast: https://www.applevis.com/podcasts/wikitrip-travel-audio-guide-voiceover-accessible-wikipedia-powered-audio-guide-road-trips
Now It’s Your Turn
Have you tried WikiTrip, or do you have another app that makes road trips and walks more fun? Tell me where you used it, what kind of stories you ended up hearing, and whether it made your time on the move more interesting.
Comments
Nice app
I've only used this app a couple of times but it is really nice - easy to use and just gives some interesting facts. I enjoyed your podcast and this write-up. It's added some new features I didn't know about which are pretty neat.
When I last used it, it used the spoken content voice on the phone. I presume now these ChatGPT voices are going to the cloud. I hope this doesn't mean the dev is going to suddenly find himself with a nasty AI bill. Much as I like these voices, I would prefer to use a local voice so the dev isn't getting charged for the free app as I suspect that might mean it doesn't stay free forever.
Anyway, thanks again for another interesting selection this month.
Like it but hate the voices
I really like the idea of this especially for long walks, but the AI voices are miserable. I hope the creator can find a way for users to choose whether they want to use an AI voice or not. I really hated how much that dragged the whole experience to a stop and then a slogging crawl when I can read so much faster with my own VO preferences.
Agreed
This application is quite educational. It was fun to learn the history of some of the locations in my city. I live in a city with roughly about a quarter of a million people, obviously not the largest city in the world, but it's a good sized metropolis all the same. However, this app would be so much better if we could, at the very least, speed up the speech rate of the provided voices. They seemingly take, for ever, to read an excerpt of a historical site, which can be frustrating at times.
Update and Thoughts
Today there was an update to WikiTrip that fixed a few accessibility issues, which is great to see. But what really caught my attention was something the developer shared. I know some people have wondered how the developer has been handling the cost of the AI voices, and it turns out he has been personally covering those expenses himself. Because of that, he mentioned that the AI voice feature will now need to become part of a subscription. Without a subscription, the app will go back to using your preferred VoiceOver voice when reading points of interest.
I have to admit, this is really interesting to me because I personally love the AI voices, especially in WikiTrip. To me, they sound much more natural than the current VoiceOver voices. Also, since WikiTrip is something you use while traveling, walking, or on a road trip, I’ve always felt like it’s part of the experience. It’s a way to relax and enjoy the journey, so speeding through it doesn’t really make sense to me.
That makes me curious about others’ perspectives. If you don’t like the AI voices, what is it about them that doesn’t work for you? Do they not sound natural enough? And for those who prefer speeding up the speech, is that to get through more content quickly, or is it simply what you’re used to?
For me, it’s similar to listening to a book. I would much rather have something like ElevenLabs read to me than have VoiceOver read the same book. It just feels more natural and enjoyable, and it makes the experience more immersive.
Curious minds want to know.
Voice
I like the OpenAI voices but not enough to pay for a subscription. Is it going back to the Spoken Content voices rather than using VoiceOver as the fallback? I have Spoken Content set at a slower rate than VoiceOver. I don't think the voices are as good as the AI ones but they are perfectly fine for my needs.
I also want this to be slower than VoiceOver. There's often a lot of information and it's nice to have more time to process. Plus on occasion I've routed my phone through the car audio so the wife can listen too.
Re: Update and Thoughts
Hi,
So to answer your questions. I like the Open AI voices. You're correct, they sound natural, and for the most part they read very well. I, have, noticed a few of them mispronounce the city I live in. However, that is small potatoes in the grand scheme of things. Personally, I would simply like the option to increase, or decrease, the voice speed as needed. Call it personal preference, or simply what I am used to. I am used to running VoiceOver somewhere around 70% speech rate, so going back and listening to the speed of these voices is tough for me. The voice quality is great, amazing even, I just simply would like the option to adjust the speech rate.
I hope that answers your questions. Thanks for the awesome recommendation, it really is a great application overall. 🙂
Latest update is wonderful
The latest update now allows us to preview the open AI voices, even if you are on the "free" plan. You can also of course preview the vocalizer voices, before you select one to be the default voice for the application. Being able to preview all of the voices makes this so much better in my personal opinion. 😀
This is an interesting idea.
I'll have to try this out sometime.
This app sounds kind of interesting
This app sounds interesting, but I would rather have regular voice voices. Read things to me. I don’t like any of the more natural sounding voices. They’re actually like two human sounding for me. I’d rather just stick with the vocalizer voices. I hope those will always be available on the phones. My favorites are Samantha and Karen. I’d want one of them to be reading me information. I think this would be super distracting though for me like walking around and having something reading to me, but I think it’s cool for people that we get it. I still think it’s interesting information to read about it.
Singer Girl
You will be happy to know, with the latest update to this app, you can have both Karen, Samantha, and just about any other voice you have downloaded through settings, accessibility, spoken content (or whatever it's called in iOS 26). For example, I use Karen high quality. 🙂