Artificial Intelligence plays a central role at Strollhunt.

In Part 1, we explored a “native” AI integration with Strollhunt’s Computer Vision-powered ‘Magic Camera’.

In Part 2, we looked at an “augmented” implementation with Strollhunt’s Generative AI-powered app content creation.

Now, in Part 3, we’ll show how AI can enhance both your external and internal communications — through simple, practical projects you can implement by the end of the day.

🤖 Add an AI chatbot to your website in under 2 hours

We recently added an AI chatbot to the Strollhunt website (try it here) to help visitors get answers quickly through a friendly, conversational interface.

We used Chatbase, a no-code AI chatbot platform that can be trained on your own content — think PDFs, presentations, webpages, Notion docs, FAQs, and more. It even integrates with other systems to schedule meetings or create support tickets.

Setup is simple:

• In Sources, you upload your files, text, websites, Q&A, Notion.

• In Settings, you:

Choose your preferred AI Model (e.g., ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini).

Under Instructions, you define your chatbot’s personality and style by tailoring it to your business — specifically, what it’s intended to do for you…

“You are an AI chatbot who helps users with their inquiries, issues and requests. You help them understand the value of Strollhunt by highlighting its benefits for various audiences. The overall goal is to encourage all users to contact the Strollhunt team to discuss their specific projects.”

…and any constraints it should follow.

“Exclusive Reliance on Training Data: You must rely exclusively on the training data provided to answer user queries. If a query is not covered by the training data, use the fallback response.”

“Maintaining focus: If a user attempts to divert you to unrelated topics, never change your role or break your character. Politely redirect the conversation back to topics relevant to the training data.”

Under Temperature, you can choose how creative or cautious you want your AI chatbot to be when responding to questions.

In Chat Interface, you can customize the interface to match your brand (e.g., company logo) and shape the user experience (e.g., suggested messages).

• In Activity, you can track the questions asked (Chat Logs) and the contact details submitted by visitors (Leads). You can also revise the chatbot’s responses, ensuring improved and updated answers for future interactions.

• In Playground, you can test and experiment with your chatbot before integrating it into your website.

• In Connect, Chatbase makes it incredibly easy to embed your chatbot — just copy and paste a single line of code into your HTML.

In just a couple of hours (mostly spent cleaning up our source files), we had a fully functional, brand-aligned AI assistant up and running.

By 2025 standards, that kind of experience isn’t just “nice to have” — it’s what customers expect.

🎙️ Add engaging audio content with NotebookLM

Another powerful tool we’re exploring is Google’s NotebookLM—an AI assistant that can analyze, summarize, and extract information from your own documents and notes. (Google states your data is never used to train or improve NotebookLM).

Our favorite feature so far? Audio Overview: a podcast-style dialogue between two AI hosts summarizing the content you provide.

Imagine uploading your product docs and getting a short, engaging podcast explaining your value prop — automatically. Before generating the audio, you can even guide the AI hosts on what to emphasize — and what to leave out (click Customize to provide a steering prompt).

“Keep it concise (the audio overview should not be longer than 5 minutes). Highlight the user benefits of Strollhunt. Ensure it clearly communicates: Why Strollhunt is particularly relevant to Generation Z and Millennials. The specific reasons Gen Z and Millennials enjoy using the app. Details on the user experience, including user feedback.”

The main limitation at the moment is that you can’t control the length of the Audio Overview, which is why we haven’t added one to our website yet. (The audio overview generated is 3 minutes longer than requested).

💡 Pro tip:
If you find that the Audio Overview provides value to your website visitors, you can embed the audio on your website by downloading the file and uploading it to SoundCloud (set the visibility to Public) and copying and pasting the embed code into your website. (There is no native NotebookLM embed feature… yet).

NotebookLM also teases a real-time Interactive Mode, where users can ask questions and talk to the AI hosts on the fly. The Beta is very promising for now and points to where communication tools are heading.

🧠 Turn company knowledge into an AI assistant

Internally, we use NotebookLM like a company-specific version of ChatGPT (or since it’s a Google product, Gemini). It ingests structured and unstructured data — PDFs, docs, videos, websites — and turns it into a searchable, cited knowledge base.

You can create notebooks by department (Sales, Customer Support, Marketing), or build a central source of truth across your company. Your team can:

• Ask natural-language questions
• Generate FAQs, briefing documents, audio overviews
• Get cited, verified answers without digging through folders

The result? A low-hallucination, high-utility assistant that’s always up to speed with your most important materials.

AI support across the board

Here’s how we use it across teams:

• Marketing: Create a notebook with your blog posts, testimonials, white papers, and presentation decks to generate new, engaging content.

“How are users talking about Strollhunt?”

“Describe to me Strollhunt’s Ideal Customer Profile”

• Sales: Create a notebook with your pitch decks, product walkthroughs, case studies, competitor analyses, FAQs, and market research to support converting prospects into customers.

“What are the key selling points for universities?”

• Customer support: Create a notebook with your help center articles, FAQs, and product documentation to easily search for answers to customer questions.

“Is Strollhunt compatible with iPhones running iOS 14?”

“Do you need to have the geolocation turned on to use Strollhunt?”

• Onboarding: Create a notebook with your training manuals, presentations, and videos to help new hires ramp up quickly and efficiently.

It’s a force multiplier for startups where speed and clarity matter — and where teams wear many hats.

You’ll likely find many other reasons to use NotebookLM for your specific business or personal research needs. And this is just the beginning — the product is still in its early stages, with plenty of room to grow in the near future.

This article wraps up our 3-part series on practical AI applications at a startup. At Strollhunt, we use AI not just to build our product, but to run our business smarter — and we hope these examples inspire your own experiments.

AI doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive. With the right tools, any startup can start small, iterate quickly, and unlock huge value — today.

Given the rapid pace of innovation in this space — and the frequent launch of new, complementary tools — we’ll continue to review, update, and expand these articles regularly.

👉 Want to talk more about how we’re using AI at Strollhunt?
📩 Reach out through our website.

(And yes, we still can neither confirm nor deny if a human wrote this article.)

Artificial intelligence plays a central role at Strollhunt.
In Part 1, we explored a “native” AI integration with our Computer Vision-powered ‘Magic Camera’.
In this second part, we dive into an “augmented” AI implementation — how we use generative AI to create content.

Augmented AI: Strollhunt’s generative AI-powered app content creation

For our destination partners, it’s important that a portion of the project budget is allocated locally. To this end, in our collaborations, we typically earmark funds for local partner guides to create content. Their expert knowledge and practical, real-world testing are invaluable prior to deployment.

Moving beyond this specific use case, the arrival of ChatGPT and later Gemini (we use the paid version of both in parallel) — in late 2022 represented a significant shift: we moved from manual to AI-augmented content creation.

But first, what do we mean by “content” within the Strollhunt: Walk, Play, Learn app.

“Content” encompasses all text and images in our “hunts” — Strollhunt’s immersive city exploration games.

This notably includes clues, hints, game mechanics and rewards that users interact with.

Manual content creation: The pre-AI era

Before generative AI chatbots, creating content for a hunt was a time-intensive process. Researching and selecting unique points of interest (POIs), gamifying them into clues, hints, and rewards, and making them interactive with Strollhunt’s ‘Magic Camera’, ‘Magic Radar’, and ‘Q&A’ challenge took:

• ~120 minutes per POI
• ~20 hours for a full hunt

This didn’t include the time needed for testing and refinement.

How generative AI transformed content creation

The introduction of AI chatbots cut our production time dramatically:

• Gamifying a single POI now takes ~40 minutes (3x faster than manual human creation)
• A full hunt now requires ~7 hours (3x faster than manual human creation)

The focus shifted:
Instead of mastering only gamification, we also mastered prompt engineering — crafting the right queries to guide the AI effectively.

Example: Creating content for Oslo

Before AI, uncovering POIs in unfamiliar cities like Oslo meant hours of online research across travel blogs, guides (we love Atlas Obscura), and resources.
Now, we can ask AI directly.

Simple prompt:

“Suggest me 10 unique and original points of interest in the city centre of Oslo.”

Even better, we can ask the chatbot to rephrase our query to deliver the optimal output.

Better prompt:

“Imagine you are a seasoned local storyteller guiding a treasure hunt designer through Oslo. Suggest 10 unique and original POIs that hold intriguing historical, cultural, or quirky potential for engaging narratives, provide vivid descriptions, a story seed for each, and a clue that hints at it without revealing too much.”

This method produces rich, story-driven locations perfect for hunts.

Image content creation

Chatbots also assist with images.

For example, when gamifying the Oslo rådhus (the City Hall), we generated a postcard reward illustration:

Image prompt:

“Create an illustration of the attached reference image in the style of the most famous Norwegian artist.”

A reference image is not required; the chatbot can find one.

Watch the short video clip below to witness a hunt with content entirely produced by ChatGPT.

Generative AI chatbots came to our rescue, saving content creators significant time while producing high-quality content. It’s important to remember, however, that the output’s usefulness hinges on the prompt’s quality. Yet, the process felt repetitive, a step-by-step grind stuck inside the chatbot’s user interface — enter AI agents.

The next evolution: Autonomous content creation with AI agents

2025 marks a turning point with the rise of AI agents — systems that work autonomously beyond single prompts. Currently, our AI agent of choice is Manus AI (Manus leverages multiple external Large Language Models, predominantly Claude 3.7 Sonnet).

What AI agents do (beyond chatbots)

• Automate repetitive tasks
• Proactively manage and execute multi-step processes without constant manual input
• Integrate with external tools and services to get things done
• Analyse and act — not just generate text

How to get the best results with AI agents

• Craft clear, detailed task briefs (objective, task, instructions, constraints, guidance, the format for the desired output, etc.)
• Provide all necessary files, documentation, and access
• Use a chatbot to refine your task instructions for optimal AI agent understanding

Example:

“Rewrite the following task to be the most effective set of instructions for an AI agent. Clarify any ambiguities if needed.”

Once your instructions are ready:

1. Submit the task and any necessary files (local or online)
2. Allow the AI agent to execute the task
3. The AI agent will provide updates on its progress

Overall, we were very impressed with the quality of the content produced by the AI agent Manus. Claude, the LLM primarily powering Manus, is widely regarded as one of the best for creative writing. Wanting Manus to deliver the best possible results, we provided 100 examples of in-app content (after initially trying with 10, which had already produced strong results). The output offered a solid foundation for a content creator to refine and enhance with their own human touch.

Results: Speed and scalability

Using AI agents:

• A full hunt (10 POIs) was created in 20 minutes (down from 7 hours with a chatbot and 20 hours with a human content creator)
• 21x faster than with a chatbot
• 60x faster than manual human creation

Scalability skyrockets — creating 10 hunts now takes the same effort as creating one. So if the objective is to have hunts available in as many cities as possible, then this technology makes it possible.

A new role for content creators

Is the content creator role obsolete?

Not at all. It’s evolving.

Content creators now need to master fast-evolving AI tools, working collaboratively with AI to produce more quality content that reach more people.

👉 Coming up in Part 3: We will outline two straightforward AI projects that your company can implement in a matter of hours to enhance its communications. Stay tuned! 🚀

P.S.: I can neither confirm nor deny that a real human being was involved in the writing of this post.

It’s winter 2022, and the world is swept up in an Artificial Intelligence (AI) revolution. ChatGPT, powered by GPT-3.5, launches and reaches 100 million active users by the new year — becoming the fastest-growing consumer application in history, surpassing even TikTok and Instagram.

What makes this moment different? Users experience real, tangible value. The product delivers such high-quality results that it quickly becomes a daily necessity. Simply put: it’s useful.

But AI offers far more than just high-quality answers to our personal and professional questions. It empowers small, ambitious businesses to achieve what once required significant financial and technical resources. To illustrate this, I want to show how AI plays a key role in Strollhunt’s product, content and communications. For context, Strollhunt is a no-code platform for creating and publishing location-based Augmented Reality (AR) experiences. It also offers iPhone and Android apps that let users discover and play these experiences. Think of it as ‘Pokémon GO as a Service’ for destination marketing organizations, cultural institutions, and travel companies. Currently, Strollhunt is available in 80 cities worldwide and continues to expand.

This three-part article series explores how Strollhunt leverages AI. In Parts 1 and 2, we’ll examine two core applications: a “native AI” implementation (Part 1) and an “augmented AI” approach (Part 2). Finally, in Part 3, we’ll suggest two simple AI projects your company can build by the end of the day.

Native AI: Strollhunt’s Computer Vision-powered ‘Magic Camera’

Since our launch in 2021, AI has been central to Strollhunt, enabling us to craft the experience we envisioned for our users.

How Strollhunt works

Users embark on a stroll through the city, searching for a hidden gem or a remarkable point of interest (POI), which is revealed by solving a clue. Upon arriving at the mystery POI, they tap the ‘ANSWER’ button, triggering one of three game mechanics: the Magic Camera, Magic Radar, or a Q&A challenge. Successfully completing the challenge rewards users with points, a Story about the POI, a shareable Digital Postcard, and Nearby Recommendations (such as parks, museums, or shops).

Bringing the ‘Magic Camera’ to Life

Our goal was to develop a game mechanic that allowed users to photograph a POI to solve a challenge — effectively transforming their phone camera into a ‘Magic Camera.’ This idea stemmed from a simple observation: when people encounter something remarkable or quirky in the real world, they often take a picture to capture the moment. The next logical step was to share the story behind the POI they discovered.

We believed image recognition could make this possible — much like how Shazam identifies songs from audio samples or how plant identification apps recognize different species. The challenge was finding the right image recognition solution to power this feature/game mechanic.

Essentially, we needed a way to compare a user’s photo with the correct answer (i.e., images stored in our Content Management System) to determine if they matched. Computer Vision provided the solution.

The user flow diagram below represents the user experience we wanted to create.

What is Computer Vision?

Computer Vision enables computers to ‘see’ and interpret images (and videos) much like humans, allowing them to analyze visual data and make decisions. This is achieved by training AI models to recognize patterns, objects, and scenes within images.

Key criteria for our solution

We needed an image recognition system that was:

✅Fast — Blazing-fast image analysis
✅ User-friendly — Accessible for non-technical staff to interact with or train
✅ Cost-effective — Scalable, ideally free or with minimal cost per request
✅ Consistent — Reliable across devices, ensuring similar results on both iPhones and Android devices, not just the latest models

How we built it

1️⃣ Explored different image similarity comparison methods, including:

• Pixel-based
• Feature-based
• Descriptor-based
• Hashing-based
• Semantic-based

2️⃣ Developed Proofs of Concept (PoCs) to test these methods in real-world scenarios.

3️⃣ Benchmarked and compared methods by testing image similarity results across five cities, using 10 landmarks per city. Two tests were conducted on-site, while three were simulated using online images from Google Maps, Google Search, Flickr, and Instagram.

4️⃣ Chose the feature-based method because it:

• Performs well with clear objects and structures
• Is robust to changes in viewpoint
• Handles partial occlusions effectively

5️⃣ Designed the UI/UX for the ‘Magic Camera’ feature/game mechanic.

6️⃣ Integrated the selected solution into the app.

7️⃣ Fine-tuned the matching accuracy by A/B testing different distance thresholds to determine how closely a user’s photo must match the POI images.

8️⃣ Launched the app! 🎉

And here’s how it looks in the app.

Challenges and continuous improvement

While we’re happy with the results of the ‘Magic Camera,’ it’s not infallible. Occasionally, it produces false negatives (incorrect rejections) and false positives (incorrect acceptances), which can disrupt the user experience.

Since Computer Vision-powered image similarity comparison is not Strollhunt’s core product, we allocate only a limited amount of resources to refining this feature/game mechanic. However, our experience highlights the current state of image similarity comparison and its inherent challenges.

To minimize false positives and false negatives, we implemented two key improvements:

1️⃣ Introducing a Buffer Zone for image matching

Initially, the system operated in a binary way:
✅ If the image similarity was within the threshold, it was considered correct.
❌ If it was outside the threshold, it was considered incorrect.

Since finding a universal threshold is impossible — it varies slightly from landmark to landmark — we introduced a buffer zone. If a photo is very close but not quite right, users are prompted to retake the picture with guidance rather than losing points immediately.

2️⃣ Geofencing to improve accuracy

We discovered that multiple POIs could depict the same subject. For example, in London alone, there are at least three outdoor full-size statues of Winston Churchill — along with many commemorative sculptures and busts.

To solve this, we added a location check before performing the image similarity test. This ensures users are physically near the correct POI before their photo is analyzed, significantly reducing both false positives and false negatives.

I’ll leave you with a video of users engaging with the Magic Camera to identify landmarks around the world.

Final thoughts and looking ahead

Our users love this game mechanic not only for its wow factor but also because it mimics a natural, everyday behavior — taking photos of interesting discoveries — while enriching the experience with useful and insightful information.

Transforming the “Magic Camera” from an idea into an integral part of the Strollhunt experience was a thrilling technical challenge. We continue to explore new algorithmic and non-algorithmic methods to further improve its accuracy.

👉 Next in Part 2: We’ll explore how Strollhunt uses Generative AI to create some of the app’s text and image content. Stay tuned! 🚀

P.S.: I can neither confirm nor deny that a real human being was involved in the writing of this post.

This is the Strollhunt Founder’s initial impressions after experimenting with the Apple Vision Pro, Apple’s upcoming VR/AR/MR/spatial computing headset. Before establishing the augmented reality company Strollhunt, Lucas Braunschvig spent over four years on Samsung’s Product Innovation Team, where he led the development of Samsung’s future products and services (2–5 years into the future).

The release of the Apple Vision Pro fills me with enthusiasm for the future of multimedia consumption and interaction.

But what is different about this headset?

It’s how natural it feels to interact with content by selecting with your eyes and confirming with a pinch (within 15 minutes, it’s become muscle memory). For the first time, it’s very possible to believe this could be your next personal computer. I’m not an Apple fanboy, but using the Apple Vision Pro, it’s striking how Apple knows how to create delightful user experiences for most people (the experience of calibrating eye tracking is really nicely done, and typing on an augmented reality keypad is trippy).

With my hands being busy, I have found myself using Siri more than usual and believe that a voice assistant that works will be a much-needed companion. And seeing the prowess of ChatGPT or Gemini, it’s clear that voice assistants are finally close to delivering what we’ve always wanted them to be (and Gemini is at the core of Google’s upcoming XR platform).

Yes, it’s too heavy on the nose (you can reduce the strain by opting for the Dual Loop headband), but I didn’t experience any motion sickness, nor did I feel like my face was being compressed, as is often the case with a diving mask or another VR headset.

Yes, the first-generation Apple Vision Pro costs 7 times the price of its only real competitor at the moment, the Meta Quest 3 (and nearly 12 times the price of the newer Meta Quest 3S), and therefore it shouldn’t come as a surprise that you’re getting a more advanced headset (e.g., display resolution, eye and hand tracking, Digital Crown to chose your level of immersion), but it’s also the first headset where you start telling yourself: this is how I can see myself interacting with multimedia from now on. No, the first-generation Apple Vision Pro is not Apple’s first headset for the general public; it’s for professionals, developers, and enthusiasts.

I am longing to put my hands on the headset that Google and Samsung (with Qualcomm) are developing together. (January 2025 Update: Google’s announcement of Android XR; Samsung’s press release about “Project Moohan”; The Verge’s up close with “Project Moohan”; Google’s first live demo of Android XR; A tech reviewers hands-on review of Android XR). Google is the only company outside of Apple that has proven to create a very large-scale ecosystem of apps, and Google has been experimenting with VR and AR for many years now (R.I.P. Google Glass, Google Daydream, Project Tango, etc.). Samsung is the only company outside of Apple that has proven to create mobile devices that billions of people enjoy using (Samsung has also been experimenting with VR and AR with Gear VR in collaboration with Oculus/Meta and HMD Odyssey for Windows Mixed Reality). More importantly, what my experience working in Product Innovation at Samsung has taught me, is that Samsung is laser-focused on bringing to market products that enable real consumer benefits. I believe, maybe even more than for any other technology product to date, that a deep understanding of user behaviours, motivations, needs, desires, and aspirations is crucial for the widespread adoption of VR/AR/MR/spatial computing.

In the meantime, I want to commend Meta for being the most ardent supporter of the category. It has now been 10 years and 8 headsets that Meta pushes the boundaries of the category, and for its price tag, the Meta Quest 3 (or even the Meta Quest 3S) is the headset for most people for now. The Meta Quest 3/3S is the headset that non-professional users curious about exploring VR, AR, MR, and spatial computing should buy.

And yet, for me, the billion-dollar question is: what will make you want to use a headset every day? For a headset to be an everyday necessity, the same apps that you use every day will have to provide a superior benefit than their non-headset counterparts.

I firmly believe that we are much farther from widespread adoption of headsets than what many tech enthusiasts and commentators suggest. When I joined Samsung in 2015, notably to work on VR and AR, it was touted as the year VR would take off, with mobile and tethered devices finally hitting store shelves. Fast forward nine years and over 50 million VR headsets later, and one might ask, ‘How many minutes have you actually spent in VR this year?’ The same question applies to AR. At Samsung, I had the opportunity to interact directly with hundreds of consumers and quickly realized that there exists a significant gap between what technology enthusiasts desire and what regular consumers actually want.

Still, wearing the Apple Vision Pro, for the first time with a VR/AR/MR/spatial computing headset, the future didn’t feel that far away.

If you’re interested in a more detailed analysis of the impact the Apple Vision Pro will have on the VR/AR/MR/spatial computing category, you can find my in-depth perspective in the article titled ‘Apple bets your future computer will be a headset’.

At Strollhunt, we create immersive technologies that make exploring cities more fun and exciting. We’ve spent the past year interviewing the leaders at over 100 Destination Marketing Organizations (‘DMOs’) from around the world (e.g. Europe, the U.S., APAC) to understand their priorities and tailor our visitor engagement platform to their needs and objectives.

This post shares key insights from our research.

DMOs must re-engage with Gen Z and Millennials

From our interviews, the conclusion is clear: DMOs know they are disconnected from Gen Z and Millennials (‘digital natives’ aged 18–40 years old) and want to reconnect with them but don’t know how to.

DMOs must focus their attention on digital natives: they represent the largest age group in international travel (ITB World Travel Trends), they travel the most days per year (Expedia), and city trips are their preferred holiday type (IPK International).

In the travel inspiration phase, it’s beneficial to have a young social media manager produce daily entertaining videos for Instagram Reels and TikTok that evoke dreams and escapism. This involves meticulously choosing trending hashtags, songs, and memes, as well as collaborating with travel content creators (the TikTok Creative Center is a valuable resource).

DMOs need to put ‘fun’ and ‘social’ at the heart of the visitor experience

During the in-destination phase, it’s crucial to cater to the preferences of digital natives. Insights from interviews with 1,000 digital natives, aged 18–40, from around the world reveal that their priorities when visiting a destination differ significantly from older generations. Their primary motivation is to ‘have fun’, followed by ‘sharing a moment with friends and family’, and only then ‘learning about the destination’.

Digital natives, more than any previous generation, seek fun experiences that create lasting memories, connect them with locals, and provide stories they can share with friends. DMOs can appeal to this desire by highlighting the fun and exciting activities that their destination has to offer, and by creating shareable real-world content (e.g. Instagrammable murals, playful street art) and experiences (e.g. light shows, outdoor escape games).

This is why Strollhunt leverages ‘gameplay’ to empower visitors and locals to discover and learn about cities, while also providing features to connect with friends and family.

Strollhunt transforms the experience of visiting cities and discovering points of interest into a fun game. You have clues hiding in plain sight landmarks and hidden gems to find around you. Hints helping you locate the hidden gems. There are three entertaining ways to solve the clues: the ‘Magic Camera’, the ‘Magic Radar’ and the ‘Question & Answer’. Users are rewarded with unique stories to unlock, postcards and local recommendations to collect, and points and medals to win.

Strollhunt allows both visitors and locals to explore the city independently, though it’s even more fun in a group. You can play together using a single phone or split into teams to see who knows the city best. For friends who are afar, you can share memories of the places you’ve discovered or challenge them to beat your score on their next visit.

DMOs look for ways to direct visitors away from popular landmarks

In tourist-centric cities, every DMO we’ve spoken to has emphasized as a key strategic goal diverting visitors from overcrowded landmarks (e.g. the Eiffel Tower) and guiding them towards lesser-known attractions (e.g. Palais de Tokyo, Flamme de la Liberté). Their motivations include reducing congestion, providing a more authentic experience by highlighting a destination’s hidden gems, and ensuring a more equitable distribution of the economic benefits from tourism.

With Strollhunt, DMOs have the flexibility to choose which points of interest to showcase in the app and to rotate them seasonally, allowing them to promote different points of interest year-round based on their goals.

DMOs put the spotlight on ‘neighbourhoods’

In major cities, where tourists often flock to a handful of popular spots, DMOs are keen on narrating the destination’s story through the lens of ‘neighbourhoods’. Their aim is for visitors to gain a richer, more diverse, and authentic image of the destination, compelling them to return and recommend it to their friends. By highlighting different neighbourhoods, DMOs can offer a wider range of experiences, appealing to the varied interests and tastes of both tourists and locals.

With Strollhunt, DMOs can offer city-scale (e.g. Madrid) but also neighbourhood-scale story-driven immersive experiences (e.g. Greenwich Village, Lower East Side), giving visitors located in the city extra reasons to come explore a specific neighbourhood (and to return to explore different neighbourhoods they missed during their last trip).

In line with their strategy to promote ‘neighbourhoods’, DMOs aim for local organizations and businesses to benefit from tourism. One approach is to provide discounts and promotions to visitors exploring specific neighbourhoods.

With Strollhunt, DMOs can feature local organizations or businesses of their choice as in-experience ‘Sponsored points of interest’ to discover through gameplay and offer ‘Rewards’ for visiting the organization or business. DMOs can also feature local partner organizations and businesses as in-experience ‘Nearby Recommendations’.

DMOs want to drive foot traffic to specific areas of the city

Many of the DMOs we’ve engaged with are eager to promote specific areas to visitors. These include newly rejuvenated former industrial zones, business districts bustling during weekdays but empty on weekends, and cities looking to attract students from nearby towns more often.

With Strollhunt, DMOs can offer limited-time experiences, challenges, and rewards as incentives to draw people into specific areas.

DMOs are on the lookout for ways to market the city to visitors year-round

To draw visitors year-round and maintain a consistent influx of tourists across all seasons, DMOs curate a comprehensive calendar of events, festivals, and conventions. And they naturally want to drive foot traffic to these events, boosting attendance, and highlighting the destination’s vibrant cultural scene.

With Strollhunt, they can provide special, limited-time immersive experiences that complement these events.

DMOs want to tell their destination’s story in new ways to more people

DMOs are tasked with sharing their destination’s story with both visitors and locals. And to reach a wider audience, they are actively seeking new ways and platforms to convey this narrative. This is especially crucial in the current competitive tourism environment. Every DMO is competing for potential tourists’ attention, and immersive storytelling can set a destination apart from its rivals, making it stand out as both memorable and enticing. Immersive storytelling tools like Virtual Reality can introduce the destination’s story to potential visitors before they arrive, while Augmented Reality can enhance the on-site experience by making visits more interactive.

Strollhunt’s location-based Augmented Reality experience is crafted to be user-friendly for people of all ages, irrespective of their tech-savviness. All one needs to know is how to read a map and take a photo on a mobile phone. Also, with Strollhunt, DMOs can fully control which points of interest are highlighted and the narratives shared. They can either use Strollhunt’s editor to create and modify content directly or collaborate with the Strollhunt team, which will partner with local guides and illustrators to tell the destination’s story in a uniquely playful way. Regardless of the approach, content is always crafted by local experts.

DMOs want to offer interactive walking trails

Many DMOs already provide traditional walking trails (i.e., static) to direct visitors and locals towards attractions. Yet, they believe interactive walking trails are the future, as these can elevate the visitor experience with multimedia features, quizzes, and challenges, ensuring active engagement and immersion in the environment. Interactive walking trails can also adjust in real time based on the visitors’ selected routes and preferences.

Strollhunt automatically generates an interactive walking trail based on a user’s real-time location, prioritizing the nearest points of interest and enabling the user to skip between points of interest and tailor their exploration to fit their day.

DMOs are increasingly offering immersive and gamified apps

In our discussions with DMOs, we observed a growing interest in ‘immersive experiences’ and ‘gamification’. As one DMO succinctly described it: ‘offering some kind of game through the phone to get locals and visitors to explore’.

And several DMOs have already taken the step to offer immersive and gamified apps to visitors and locals. Without being exhaustive, here are a couple of examples from around the world. The City of Paris developed an app for visitors and locals to learn about the French Revolution by hunting the vestiges still visible in the city. The City of London Corporation organized a festival during which they offered their 30,000 visitors smartphone-guided adventures across 17 locations, from local landmarks to hidden corners of the City. To promote local tourism, the Singapore Tourism Board turned 300 local businesses into sponsored stops in the mobile game Pokémon Go to encourage players to visit them and redeem promotions. More recently in 2023, they launched an Augmented Reality tour of Singapore. Dublin City Council released GPS-enabled walking trails that users can undertake at their own pace to learn about the city’s past.

What Strollhunt can do for DMOs

To realize these branded apps and immersive experiences, DMOs typically engage digital agencies that specialize in custom development. However, opting for custom development carries significant risks. It is not only expensive, often starting in the six-figure range, but also time-consuming, typically taking 6–12 months to deliver. This leaves little to no time for customer validation, which is crucial to avoid investing time and money in a product that fails to resonate with the target audience.

Strollhunt’s Software as a Service (SaaS) model is strategically designed to significantly mitigate these risks for DMOs. It is over five times less costly and more rapidly deployable compared to custom development, enabling the delivery of an immersive experience in your destination in just days, not months. Moreover, the user experience Strollhunt offers has received endorsements from thousands of users globally.

Contact us if you’re interested in providing an immersive experience in your destination or wish to enhance engagement with Gen Z and Millennials. We’ll discuss your project and demonstrate how Strollhunt operates in destinations globally. We can even develop a fully functional Strollhunt demo tailored to your destination for you to try, entirely free of charge.

We firmly believe that immersive experiences and gamification will play a crucial role in the future of digital placemaking, particularly for re-engaging Gen Z and Millennials. Strollhunt has the potential to transform your destination into an expansive playground brimming with hidden gems, ready to be uncovered through playful exploration. Together, let’s make discovering your destination even more fun and educational than playing Pokémon GO!

Apple’s recently announced Vision Pro promises a similar future, with a headset and without predicting imminent crimes.

Apple’s next platform, a computer you wear on your face, “seamlessly blends digital content with your physical space” (Apple’s wording). They don’t call it “Mixed Reality” (a device capable of doing both Augmented and Virtual Reality) or “Metaverse”; they call it “Spatial Computing” — a term familiar to the AR/VR industry, and used by Microsoft and Magic Leap.

This isn’t a review of Apple’s Vision Pro. Instead, as someone who worked in a “Product Innovation” role at Samsung Electronics (Apple’s main competitor), and currently developing Strollhunt (a location-based Augmented Reality platform making it easy to turn into a game the discovery of any real-world location), our Founder and CEO offers a perspective on selected topics around this upcoming launch.

Apple gives Augmented and Virtual Reality its biggest boost yet

Despite decades of AR and VR developments (my first experience with a headset was Nintendo’s Virtual Boy in 1995, and my first experience of AR was in 2008 with the app AroundMe on a second-generation iPhone), we don’t yet have tens of millions of daily headset users. However, Apple’s knack for mainstreaming proven technologies through its sleek design, “it just works” ecosystem, and benefit-driven marketing may propel the AR/VR industry to the next phase of consumer adoption.

Vision Pro: Apple’s next platform for work and play

With Vision Pro, Apple is realising Google Glass’s aspiration of a “Ubiquitous Computer” — a computing product always here for you and that makes your life easier.

Vision Pro is a platform, not just a product, spanning entertainment (capturing and reliving photos and videos, watching a movie or a live event, etc.) and work (multi-tasking, producing, communicating, etc.), essentially everything you do on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac in 2D, but through a new interface (one that you can scale up for a big screen experience or down to work on several screens in parallel) and interaction (eyes — incredibly accurate as reported by testers, hands, and voice). Apple calls it “familiar yet groundbreaking”, one thing is for sure, Apple is giving this new platform its best chance by leaning into the things that people already do and love (you will notice that Apple only presented the Apple apps users already use daily).

Apple is more bullish on Augmented than Virtual Reality

For a Mixed Reality device (sorry, a Spatial Computing device), Apple tilts more towards AR than VR. The only two use cases showing the headset being used in VR mode (although it didn’t clearly show full 360° immersion) were a mindfulness app and watching a movie on a plane (one of our team members and early tech adopter has been doing this since the 2015 GearVR, so yes, maybe it will become “a thing”).

CEO Tim Cook has always believed AR to have a larger potential, as stated since 2016 (“There’s Virtual Reality and there’s Augmented Reality — both of these are incredibly interesting […] But my view is that Augmented Reality is the larger of the two, probably by far”). A neat feature introduced by Apple to switch from AR to VR is the Digital Crown (a spin-off of the Apple Watch) which enables you to control “how present or immersed you are in an environment”. But Apple’s preference for AR may not deter third-party VR developers from creating VR experiences for the visionOS platform. Apple seems to be targeting existing iOS and iPad app developers familiar with SwiftUI and UIKit, rather than native AR and VR developers who use Unity, for the creation of experiences for their platform (though Unity can still be used to create visionOS experiences).

Apple’s Augmented Reality is limited to indoors…for now

What Apple hasn’t shown in the footage is the headset being worn in an outdoor environment.

As developers of a location-based AR platform, this is of course something we would have loved to see (after all, the device is powered by a battery and not tethered) and we believe that outdoor environments offer more to augment than indoors (and I assume that the very vast majority of the images you’ve seen of AR over the years were in outdoor and not indoor environments).

The absence of outdoor use cases can’t be an omission by Apple but rather due to the fact the technology and consumers, and maybe even the regulatory environment, aren’t ready just yet. It’s version 1.0 of a new product category that will require users to get comfortable with a new interface and way of interacting with digital content, so Apple is likely treading one step at a time. It’s easier to control a closed environment (like the home or the office) than an open one (the busy city streets), and Apple knows that your first AR or VR experience needs to be great for you to not put down the headset for a long long time. I believe it will take at least 3 to 5 years before Apple introduces outdoor use cases, although third-party developers may be eager to bring them sooner if the App Store review team allows them to publish such experiences on the platform.

Will a headset replace your laptop? Your TV? Your monitor?

In the long run, it seems to be Apple’s vision, but in the short to medium term, they may coexist. In my team at Samsung, we employed a framework that involved considering moments of engagement, differentiating between ‘lean in’ and ‘lay back’ scenarios. I believe we can apply this framework to distinguish between situations where using a headset would be preferred over a laptop, TV, or monitor. When it comes to moments requiring active involvement, such as leaning in, a headset would be the ideal choice. Conversely, for more relaxed moments when you prefer to lay back, a laptop, TV, or monitor might be more suitable.

What will make you want to use a headset every day?

The billion-dollar question. For a headset to be an everyday necessity, the same apps that you use every day will have to provide a superior benefit than their non-headset counterparts. The transition might be easier for people accustomed to wearing glasses (wearing glasses/a headset that can do more is a no-brainer — after having tried the Snapchat Spectacles for the first time, I don’t see why I would wear again sunglasses that can’t capture the moment, the same is true for the Ray-Ban Stories). But for those who aren’t, the consumer benefit provided by the headset will have to be significant enough to create a tangible disadvantage for those who choose not to wear one compared to those who do.

When will it be as seamless to dive into an AR/VR experience as it is with non-immersive devices?

The question of when it will be as quick to dive into an AR/VR experience as it is with non-immersive devices is a critical one. In my experience, consuming content in VR invariably offers a richer, more compelling experience compared to consuming 2D content, such as a YouTube video on a phone or laptop. Yet, I find myself infrequently using my Meta Quest 2 due to what I refer to as the “time to entertainment” or “time to work”.

If it takes minutes rather than seconds to plunge into AR or VR, we risk losing those users who crave immediate entertainment or need to commence work instantly. In this regard, most users today lean towards non-immersive devices where the “time to entertainment” is virtually instantaneous. As an example, VR finds itself in competition with the immediate gratification provided by platforms like YouTube, with its continually relevant recommendations, and TikTok, with its autoplay feature. In order to not just encourage wider adoption of headsets, but also their frequent use (a requirement for headsets to transition from being “nice to have” to a “must-have”), it’s imperative that AR and VR developers significantly trim the “time to entertainment” or “time to work”. We must strive to reach a point where the time it takes to immerse oneself in an AR/VR experience is comparable to the speed of engagement with non-immersive devices.

Is a price tag of $3,500 USD (+ sales taxes) too steep for a Mixed Reality headset?

Well, for most headset makers, it certainly seems that way. However, we’re talking about Apple here. Apple is known for being the aspirational technology brand that can command a premium price point. Enter the Apple Vision Pro, priced at seven times the cost of its closest competitor, the Meta Quest 3 (priced at $500 USD, plus sales taxes). Both headsets will offer comparable functionalities, just as an Android phone does compared to an iPhone (in case you weren’t aware, the Meta Quest series runs on Android).

But here’s the thing: you can already purchase a perfectly functioning entry-level Android phone for a fraction of the price of a top-of-the-range iPhone (Pro). Yet, top-of-the-range iPhones continue to fly off the shelves. Why? Because the aspiration of owning an Apple device can have a profound influence on consumer behavior.

Furthermore, it’s important to note that, for the time being, the Vision Pro targets the professional world as a ‘Pro’ device. This means that the hefty price tag is covered by companies seeking to maximize its value and enhance productivity. In fact, if the headset truly enables you to be more productive, it will pay for itself in no time.

Last but not least, in the U.S., Apple offers the option to finance the Vision Pro over 12 months at a 0% interest rate with the Apple Card. This brings the monthly cost to under $300 USD, making it a slightly more manageable investment. Many Apple users are already familiar with this payment approach, as they’ve likely used it to purchase their iPhones.

I firmly believe that we are much farther from widespread adoption of VR and AR than what many tech enthusiasts and commentators suggest. When I joined Samsung in 2015, notably to work on VR, it was touted as the year VR would take off, with mobile and tethered devices finally hitting store shelves. Fast forward eight years and approximately 30 million VR headsets later, and one might ask, ‘How many minutes have you actually spent in VR this year?’ The same question applies to AR.

During my time working in Product Innovation at Samsung Electronics, where I had the opportunity to interact directly with hundreds of consumers, I quickly realized that there exists a significant gap between what technology enthusiasts desire and what regular consumers actually want. For instance, the level of importance consumers place on having a home appliance connected to the internet pales in comparison to their desire for consistent and reliable performance.

Considering this discrepancy, it becomes clear that widespread consumer adoption of headsets will take considerably more time than expected. However, Apple’s entry into the market will undoubtedly make this future happen slightly sooner.

This is solely my opinion, and I eagerly look forward to hearing your thoughts, engaging in discussions, and potentially even having my perspective challenged.

Lucas Braunschvig is the Founder and CEO of Strollhunt, a location-based Augmented Reality platform making it easy to turn into a game the discovery of any real-world location.

The Strollhunt: Walk, Play, Learn mobile app is the most fun way to explore cities, whether it’s your hometown, or if you’re simply visiting. Strollhunt turns your stroll into an exciting adventure; the city is your playground, go find all the hidden gems!

Here are a couple of demo videos for you to learn more about Strollhunt:

You can download Strollhunt: Walk, Play, Learn on your Apple iPhone today.

‎Strollhunt: Walk, Play, Learn

Strollhunt: Walk, Play, Learn is coming to Android (here’s a demo) in late June/early July 2023 and we’re looking for Beta testers, so if you’re based in a city where Strollhunt is available to play, just fill out the form at the end of this page and we’ll happily give you early access.

Connect with Lucas on LinkedIn if you would like to discuss your project to gamify the real world. We commonly work with destination marketing organizations, cultural organizations and travel companies, but Strollhunt is a platform and we’re always on the lookout for novel use cases.

Here’s a growing list of cities where Strollhunt: Walk, Play, Learn is available to play:

• Australia: Adelaide, Wollongong
• Belgium: Brussels
• Canada: Vancouver
• Denmark: Copenhagen
• Finland: Helsinki
• France: Arles, Château du Clos Lucé, Fort-de-France, Nancy, Paris, Montpellier, Perpignan, Poitiers, Versailles
• Germany: Berlin, Dortmund, Düsseldorf
• Greece: Athens
• India: Delhi
• Italy: Milan, Rome, Verona
• Japan: Tokyo
• Netherlands: Amsterdam, Rotterdam
• Portugal: Lisbon
• Singapore
• Spain: Barcelona, Bilbao, Madrid, San Sebastian, Sevilla
• Sweden: Stockholm
• Switzerland: Basel
• United Kingdom: Bradford, London, Maidenhead, Scarborough, Stafford, Wakefield, Windsor
• United States: Anaheim, Cambridge, Durham, Houston, Mesquite, New York, San Francisco, San Diego, Seattle, Washington D.C.

If you’ve been paying attention to the media, you will have noticed that “the metaverse” is one of the most discussed topics in 2022. It allows us to explore the infinite possibilities of the virtual world, transitioning from platforms to space. A space where we can enjoy the conveniences of the Internet without the limitations of physical interactions. This might sound like a big step forward into achieving technological utopia, but are such advances really what we want?

While “the metaverse” sounds attractive, it can also be a risk.

Do we really want a future where we spend more time indoors in Virtual Reality headsets, or even worse, glued to our screens while we are outdoors? Even Neal Stephenson, who first used the word “Metaverse” was clear in his 1992 science fiction novel Snow Crash: “the metaverse” has made life in the real world, worse.

And what does “the metaverse” mean for us, Strollhunt, a company that gamifies city exploration?

For the past year, we have been learning through talking to young people in cities around the world that nothing beats spending time outdoors in the real world with friends and family. And despite the trend of the virtual world, based on our interactions with users, we believe that experiences of the real world are irreplaceable — strolling through your favorite neighbourhood, breathing in the fresh air, and sharing moments with the people you love.

Technology should not become an organism that overtakes the real world, instead, it should be a tool that combines with what we know and enhances our experiences. Which is why we are less excited about the coming of “the metaverse” and more excited about the emergence of a multitude of “real world metaverses”, digital experiences that make the real world even more interesting and enjoyable (John Hanke, CEO of Niantic, the company behind Pokémon Go, wrote a good piece on how the “real world metaverse” is preferable over “the metaverse”).

Strollhunt’s “real world metaverse” transforms cities into playgrounds and exists for visitors and locals to have fun, with friends and family, all the while learning about the city they’re in.

Strollhunt doesn’t overlay a fictional universe on top of the real world as we find the real world to be vastly interesting enough, for those who have their eyes open. And to help you be more present in the real world, the app is designed to require little of your attention and is only here to send you off on an adventure, and there again for you to interact with your physical discovery (because for us it’s about the real world and not the digital world). Our game mechanics are designed for you to explore the real world freely (we purposefully don’t put points of interest on a map to avoid you exploring the city by going from point of interest to point of interest), providing you helpful hints to help you find the hidden gems the experience creators want you to discover, making you take photos of your answer to the clues using our Magic Camera, checking in at points of interest with our Magic Radar, or answering questions based on your observation of the real world around you.

And for what reward, you might ask?

The pleasure of having spent time outdoors, (optionally) with people you love, and satisfaction of having unearthed some of a city’s secret, enabling you to now see the city in a slightly different light (plus the fascinating stories you earn about the historical and cultural significance of the points of interest you discover, the points you win and can trade for hints, and the medals you collect).

Here’s a video of what it’s like to explore a city with Strollhunt.

And here’s a demo of users playing Strollhunt in cities around the world.

If you’re an iPhone user, Strollhunt is now live in over 50 cities (and growing) around the globe.

‎Strollhunt: Walk, Play, Learn

And for Android users, I’m delighted to announce to you today that Strollhunt will finally be making its way to your phone in early 2023!

So let’s hear the prophetic warning signs of the father of “the metaverse” against a “metaverse” that makes life in the real world worse and build metaverses that make the real world better!

Strollhunt is our contribution to building a metaverse that makes the real world better, and we would love it if you would give Strollhunt a spin and tell us what you think of our “real world metaverse”.

And remember to Walk, Play, Learn…

It’s been a productive first year. At launch, the app was available in 6 cities (San Francisco, New York City, London, Paris, Barcelona, and Berlin). Today, users can play Strollhunt in over 40 cities worldwide — from the Bay Area to Adelaide, via Madrid (full list at the end of this post).

But our biggest reward isn’t the growth in cities — it’s what we’ve learned from speaking with over a thousand users and digging into usage data. Some of these insights point to a generational shift in how Gen Z and millennials explore cities, so we thought we’d share them with you.

Disclaimer: These insights are based on qualitative feedback and not statistically representative. Consider them directional trends.

Fun Comes First When Exploring a City

When we spoke to Gen Z and millennial users throughout Strollhunt’s development, one thing became clear: their motivations for exploring cities differ significantly from those of older generations.

For older travelers, the primary goal has long been to learn about the city — hence the focus in many travel apps on top 10 landmarks and sightseeing checklists. In contrast, younger users told us their top reasons for exploring a city are:

1. To have fun
2. To do something social with friends or family
3. To learn about the city

This realization led us to make “play” the core of our user experience — designed to be fun, social, and educational.

When we ask users how they’d describe Strollhunt to a friend, “fun” is the word we hear most. That fun comes from three game mechanics we created to help users be more present in the real world while exploring:

• Magic Camera: Find and take a photo of a specific point of interest
• Magic Radar: Find and check in at a specific point of interest
• Question & Answer: Observe your surroundings to answer a question

Locals Want to Know Their Own City Better

We originally designed Strollhunt as a travel product — to help visitors explore cities they didn’t know. But to our surprise, locals quickly became nearly half of our user base.

Many locals told us they only knew their city moderately well, the same answer given by repeat visitors. Almost all expressed a desire to better know the place they live. Strollhunt helped them break out of their routines and discover wonders hiding in plain sight.

For example, one user from Barcelona told us he had never noticed the massive, colorful 8-meter-wide mosaic on La Rambla — created in 1976 by famed Catalan surrealist Joan Miró — even though he walked past it regularly. That’s exactly the kind of “eye-opening” moment we want to create.

Here’s how the experience worked:

• The user receives a cryptic clue about a nearby hidden gem within a “playground” (a neighborhood-sized area).
• If stuck, they can trade points for hints.
• Once they believe they’ve found the location, they hit “Answer” to trigger one of our surprise game mechanics.
• If correct, they earn points (which help determine their final medal), unlock a Story, a Postcard, and some Nearby Recommendations.
• If incorrect, they lose points and can try again.

Here’s a demo of a user discovering the Miró Mosaic while playing Strollhunt.

This is what the user had to say about his experience playing Strollhunt.

“Strollhunt is a very original and fun way to rediscover a city you think you know. I discovered places I walked past every single day and didn’t even know existed” — This user, a local from Barcelona, was playing with 3 friends aged 20–22

Visitors Want to Enjoy, Not Plan

Many users told us they feel overwhelmed by the sheer amount of travel content online. They end up spending more time planning than actually enjoying their trip.

Most just want to wander the streets and soak in the vibe — not stress over “must-see” landmarks or rigid itineraries.

That’s where Strollhunt shines. At the push of a button, users can dive into an outdoor adventure, with the app automatically generating an experience based on their location. Points of interest are revealed one by one through playful clues, and users can:

• Swipe freely between challenges
• Skip ahead or go back
• Start in one neighborhood and end in another

In short, Strollhunt adapts to you.

“We loved not having to plan our visit as it was done for us, and we got to see and learn a lot.” — Four university students from Madrid visiting Barcelona on a last-minute friend’s trip

Play Can Bridge the Gap Between Visitors and Locals

One of our favorite surprises has been hearing how the game sparked real-world interactions between visitors and locals. Users often ask passersby for help with clues, and more than a few locals have ended up joining in and playing along.

Sometimes, these spontaneous encounters have led to unexpected friendships.

“We were visiting Barcelona for a couple of days and we stopped a local for help with a clue. He spent the next hour with us playing the game, and the next day, he invited us to go bowling with his group of friends.” — A group of friends in their late twenties spending the winter break in Barcelona

We believe play has the potential to build bridges — especially in destinations where locals are becoming weary of mass tourism. That’s why we’re actively working on features that encourage more interaction between users and locals.

What Do You Think?

If you’re Gen Z or millennial, do these trends reflect how you explore cities? Which insights do you agree or disagree with? Share your thoughts and let us know if you’ve spotted other trends we should be paying attention to.

Thank you💛

To all our users: thank you for your time, your trust, and your feedback — it means the world to us.

If you haven’t tried Strollhunt yet and are feeling curious, search Strollhunt: Walk, Play, Learn on the App Store or Play Store and give us a go.

‎Strollhunt: Walk, Play, Learn

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.strollhuntltd.strollhunt&pcampaignid=web_share

Until then… Walk, Play, Learn.

Here’s a growing list of cities where Strollhunt is available to play:

Australia: Adelaide, Wollongong

Belgium: Brussels

Canada: Vancouver

Denmark: Copenhagen

Finland: Helsinki

France: Arles, Château du Clos Lucé, Fort-de-France, Nancy, Paris, Montpellier, Perpignan, Poitiers, Versailles

Germany: Berlin, Dortmund, Düsseldorf

Greece: Athens

Italy: Milan, Rome, Verona

India: Delhi

Japan: Tokyo, Kyoto

Netherlands: Amsterdam, Rotterdam

Portugal: Lisbon

Spain: Barcelona, Bilbao, Madrid, San Sebastian, Sevilla

Sweden: Stockholm

Switzerland: Basel

United Kingdom: Bradford, London, Maidenhead, Scarborough, Stafford, Wakefield, Windsor

United States: Anaheim, Cambridge, Durham, Houston, Mesquite, New York, San Francisco, Seattle

With the pandemic causing the entire world to go into lockdown, we realised more than ever our human need to get outside. And with lockdowns easing in countries around the world, many of us were eager to rediscover our own city, in a safe way.

With my team, we’ve spent the past year developing a free mobile app (iOS and Android) to help with that. Strollhunt is a real world game designed for you to discover beautiful and interesting places in the city through play. Strollhunt turns your leisurely stroll into an exciting adventure; you can think about it as Pokémon GO for people who want to learn about their city.

We’ve purposefully designed Strollhunt to make you more present in the real world. In practice, this means that the screen is not constantly screaming for your attention and is only here to send you off on an adventure, and there again for you to interact with your physical discovery. That’s because we want you to be immersed in the real world and believe that the real world shouldn’t be used as an excuse to lock you in a digital world. What’s the point of being outside if it is to be constantly looking at your phone?

We’ve also designed Strollhunt to not show Points of Interest (POIs) on a map because we feel that doing so leads the user to explore the city by mindlessly going from POI to POI. We believe exploring cities is not about the destination, the POI itself, but that it’s about the journey, everything you experience in between as you’re strolling the city on the hunt for the POI. In practice this means that Strollhunt makes it the whole point of the game for the player to discover wherever and whatever it is that the creator wants the player to discover through a combination of game mechanics. Instead of telling the user where to go in the city, showing her a photo of the POI and telling her facts about the POI, we want the user to see the POI with her eyes for (maybe) the first time, to have the delight of having uncovered the POI, and only then, tell her a story about why the creator brought her here, what’s culturally, historically or artistically significant about this POI.

But show don’t tell so watch here our trailer.

Here’s how Strollhunt works.

Strollhunt is free and available to play in San Francisco, New York City, London, Paris, Berlin and Barcelona, with more cities coming soon as our users start creating real world games in the cities they know and love (update: Strollhunt is now available to play in 80+ cities around the world and growing).

Strollhunt is not just an app to find real world games to play in your city, it’s a platform enabling anyone to share their love for their city by creating games for everyone to play. Create your own game by applying Strollhunt’s game mechanics (the Magic Camera, Magic Radar and Q&A) to the places or things you want the world to discover. A cool piece of street art at the corner of your street? A confidential speciality that can only be found in one bar restaurant in the city? Strollhunt is an open canvas for you to express your creativity. We can only show you the minimum version of our Creator tools for now, but we’re hard at work developing the no code tools to make it extremely easy for everyone to create their own real world game right from within the app.

Strollhunt’s ambition is to be for the real world what Roblox is for the digital world.

For now, if you live in a city where no game is available on Strollhunt to play, you can tap the ‘CREATE’ button to add new places and things to discover and we will publish them in the app within 24 hours. So don’t wait, add your city to Strollhunt today.

I hope you will give Strollhunt a spin. Here is the link to download the app on the App Store and the Play Store, in case you’re seduced by the concept.

‎Strollhunt: Walk, Play, Learn

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.strollhuntltd.strollhunt

Do let me know in the comments in case you have any questions or want to discuss what we do.

And remember to Walk, Play, Learn.