I got tired of how getting around works for us, so I built callmaps (looking for beta testers)

Hi everyone,

I'm a blind developer, and I've been frustrated for years with how I get around. Normally I end up juggling three apps for a single trip, one that walks me there more or less, one with the good places and reviews, and one for transit, and even then, standing on a corner, I often don't know which way I should start walking, which side of the street I'm on, or what the intersections ahead of me and behind me are actually like. What makes it worse is that the information to do this well already exists, we just don't have it in a usable form.

The clearest example is intersections. Most apps just tell us there's an intersection coming and that's about it, but they don't tell us where each crossing actually is, whether it's a traffic light or just a marked crossing, whether the signal is audible, whether there's a button you have to find and press, how far from the corner it is, whether there's an island you can stop on halfway across, and all of that is what decides whether we cross confidently or stand there working it out. There are good apps out there, Soundscape Community, VoiceVista, Lazarillo and others, and I use them, but none of them really gets that detail right, and none of them puts the surroundings, walking directions and transit together in one place.

So a few months ago I started building the app I always wanted, and honestly I'm really happy with how it's coming together. The whole point of callmaps is getting those descriptions right and as detailed as possible, the intersections, the shape of the streets, roundabouts, park entrances, where each crossing is and what kind it is, which side of the street a place is on, and so on. There's also a street preview, so you can explore an area and get a feel for how the city is laid out before you ever set foot there. That same detail carries into the routes, so when you start one it tells you which way to begin walking and lets you know you're heading in the right direction, the distance to each turn counts down in real time as you go, and it uses the compass so you're never guessing about direction. And it puts everything in one app, walking and surroundings and transit together, with the right exit out of a station and bus and train arrivals updating in real time, so there's no jumping between apps for a single trip. The idea behind all of it is that you can head somewhere completely new and actually feel confident doing it.

The thing is, so far I've only been able to test it on my own, in my own city, and that's really why I'm posting. I'd love people to try it somewhere that isn't mine and tell me where the descriptions are wrong or thin, because it's built on open map data and that feedback is exactly what makes it better for everyone. It's on iPhone first, since that's what I use every day, and Android is coming too.

I'm getting the beta ready on TestFlight now. It's free while I build it out, and I haven't settled on final pricing yet. For now there's a short waitlist:

https://callmaps.app

If you put your country and city on the form, that really helps, because I enable regions ahead of time and can switch on the detail near you before you join. I'll start sending invites very soon.

Thanks,

Bruno