What's new
Updates and improvements to TravelType.
October 8, 2026
LatestNew
- Shared links now show a large photo: places, cities, countries, topics and lists appear in WhatsApp, Facebook, X and LinkedIn with a fitting preview image.
Improvements
- Photos now also load faster on high-resolution screens and many phones.
- More photos per place: the photo gallery now fills up on its own with additional shots — real photos only, no duplicates.
- Images load faster: tiles, search results and map markers now load suitably sized photos instead of the full-size originals.
October 7, 2026
Various bugfixes and stability improvements
August 13, 2026
New
- Tap-to-pick interests: "Discover" now has a row of all topics – each with four example photos. Tap what interests you and the list follows. You can pick several at once.
- Spiritual places are now included everywhere: monasteries, churches, temples and quiet retreats now appear on topic pages, in nearby search and on the map – around 2,500 places that were hidden before.
Improvements
- When your interest selection leaves nothing, the page now says so clearly – with a button to reset it. And the page is now called "Discover", matching the menu.
- In "Near you" mode each card now shows how far away the place is – and the city moves to the top so you see it first when scanning.
- "Discover" is tidier: instead of four dropdowns you now simply choose between "Fits your type" and "Near you" at the top – in nearby mode you pick the radius, now up to 150 km.
Important fixes
- The example photos for each interest now show four different places – previously the same photo often appeared several times.
- Dialogs can be read in full again: long content now scrolls instead of being cut off at the bottom. On phones they no longer fill the whole screen but read as a window.
Various bugfixes and stability improvements
July 31, 2026
Improvements
- Topic pages now only show places that have a photo and a description – fewer entries, but every one is complete.
- Places with a photo now reliably come first: city and topic pages show places with images before those without, instead of mixing them.
July 30, 2026
Improvements
- You now stay signed in much longer – your session lasts 6 months and renews automatically as you use the app. No more frequent re-logins.
July 21, 2026
New
- Share a place from Google Maps or Google Search that already exists on TravelType and we now top it up automatically with fresh info and a photo from Google – instantly for confirmed places, otherwise after a quick review.
Improvements
- When adding a place, the photo and description now appear one by one as soon as each is ready (with a loading spinner on the photo) instead of all at once at the end – it feels much smoother.
- While a place is being updated, the hint now shows the current step (fetching data, fetching image, generating description) – so you can see it's making progress.
- When you add a place you now see “This place is being updated”, and once the photo, description and topics are fully loaded the place refreshes on its own – no button, no waiting.
- Adding a new place via share is now instant – you go straight to the edit step and the info + photo from Google load in the background instead of making you wait.
- Your uploaded photos now show as a place's main image everywhere – in listings, on the map and in previews, not just on the place page itself.
Various bugfixes and stability improvements
July 15, 2026
New
- You can now share places from Google Search to TravelType, too – not just from Google Maps. We recognise the place automatically and offer to open or add it.
July 11, 2026
New
- In the installed app you can now share a photo from your gallery straight to TravelType (it becomes a place suggestion) – and a long-press on the app icon jumps straight to Rate, Map or Feed.
Improvements
- Share a Google Maps link to TravelType and we now suggest the matching place near you and remember your choice for next time – so you reach the right place faster.
- And if the shared place isn't in TravelType yet, you can add it with one tap – name and location come straight from the shared link.
- Newly added places come nicely filled in from the start: we pull the address, a photo and key details automatically – you barely have to type anything.
July 10, 2026
New
- Your home page is now your personal starting point: first what's around you, then places for your taste and matching cities and countries for your next trip — the more you rate, the better the matches.
Improvements
- New in the footer: a Themes menu item – browse places by theme (rooftop bars, viewpoints, street art …) across every city.
- Copy across the whole site now reads warmer and more personal — less form-speak, more you.
- Your matching cities and countries have moved from your profile to the home page — right where you actually need them.
- Update prompts now appear only for new features — smaller improvements stay quiet in your notifications. And the rating page now uses the full screen height.
- Rating is fun again: every card now shows its city, the deck is more varied and more recognizable, rating flows at your pace without forced pauses, a progress bar shows what you will unlock next, and undo now truly undoes a rating.
Important fixes
- Rating could wrongly claim there were no places left while millions remained — fixed.
Various bugfixes and stability improvements
July 9, 2026
Improvements
- On desktop computers TravelType no longer asks for your location — location features kindly point you to your phone, where positioning actually works well.
- Features like the distance filter, nearby places, live location on the map and push notifications now live in the installed app — using them in the browser invites you to install it.
- Notifications now also appear as a brief in-app message when you already have the app open — one tap takes you right to the relevant place.
- If you've been away for a while, TravelType shows you the latest changes at a glance the next time you open it.
- After an update you now get a quick 'What's new' — the key changes at a glance, with a link to all the news.
- TravelType now also recognizes places shared from Google Maps (its short links) and opens the matching place directly.
- Shared places now land on the correct place more reliably: TravelType combines the coordinates with the shared name instead of just taking the nearest point.
July 7, 2026
New
- You can now share links (e.g. from Wikipedia, Google Maps or OpenStreetMap) straight to TravelType — the installed app opens the matching place if we know it, otherwise it helps you find it.
Improvements
- You can now add TravelType to your home screen anytime from the menu — not only via the prompt that appears at the bottom.
- On iPhone, the push setting now explains that notifications only work in the installed app — instead of a toggle that does nothing in a browser tab.
July 6, 2026
New
- On a place's map you can now show your live location: see yourself and the place at once along with the distance, and the map keeps both in view as you get closer. Signed-in only, when you share your location.
Improvements
- On mobile, TravelType now offers to add itself to your home screen — for quick access, full-screen and offline use. Dismiss it once and it won't come back.
- The app loads already-visited parts faster and shows its own tidy offline page when there's no connection instead of the browser's error — and picks back up automatically once you're online again.
- Push notifications can now be muted at night: set quiet hours in your notification settings (default 10 pm–7 am). The alerts still appear inside the app.
- Actions like saving, adding to a list, reporting or deleting now show an instant little loading spinner — on a slow connection you immediately see something is happening instead of wondering whether your tap registered.
- As an installed app on your home screen: content, banners and menus no longer hide behind your phone's camera cutout or home bar, and scrolling feels more native.
- Long place names on detail pages now wrap cleanly and adjust their size instead of running off the right edge.
Various bugfixes and stability improvements
July 2, 2026
Improvements
- Dropdown menus and place pickers now open and close with a gentle animation.
- Loading placeholders now gently shimmer (a light sweep moves across) instead of just pulsing.
- Saving a place to a list now feels more alive: the bookmark pops with a little spark, and the lists in the picker appear one after another.
- Opening a place now smoothly morphs its image from the card into the detail view — like a native app.
- Opening a place now keeps its image in place instead of briefly flashing gray.
- Rating feels more alive: the chosen icon gives a little pop, and Like/Love shows a subtle spark effect.
- Detail pages (cities, countries, places, lists, topics) now also have the slim top bar with title and a back arrow.
- The Home button in the bottom navigation now clearly shows whether you're on the start page, and the top-right icons have a bit more breathing room.
- Polished mobile navigation: the top-right icons are now the same size, the active tab at the bottom has a nicer highlight, and the Home button looks cleaner.
- The mobile top bar now glides away as you scroll down (more room to read) and returns when you scroll up; it also shows the TravelType logo on the top-left.
- Fresh mobile top bar: every page now has a slim bar with the page title, search and notifications — it feels more like an app, and nothing covers the content anymore (e.g. the map legend).
- On the map, the menu now sits top-right next to search and notifications.
- Less clutter on mobile: on the Discover page and the cities overview the filters now tuck behind a single Filter button instead of stacked dropdowns.
- As you scroll, the top and bottom bars now glide away smoothly to free up space instead of snapping out of view.
- Cleaner mobile navigation: Home is now the central button at the bottom, search sits top-right, and profile + settings live in your avatar menu at the bottom-right.
- Maps everywhere now load only after your consent — your IP address is no longer sent to the map service without asking.
Important fixes
- Fixed: on narrow phones or with Display Zoom enabled an unwanted horizontal scroll could appear (country tiles and profile tabs among others).
July 1, 2026
New
- City pages now show an avatar row of the people who like places in that city.
Improvements
- Improved accessibility — better screen-reader labelling and keyboard support.
June 30, 2026
New
- Lists can now be made public and shared via link — anyone with the link can view your list, even without an account.
Improvements
- Public lists now get a clean, readable link — and you can optionally set your own custom link name.
- Maps now use the calm TravelType design throughout instead of the default map look.
June 29, 2026
New
- New map toggles: a density heatmap (where places cluster) and a heatmap of your own rated places.
Improvements
- The country picker is now consistent everywhere and grouped by continent — in the cities overview, the feed, and search.
- The country filter in the cities overview is now grouped by continent — much easier to scan with many countries.
- On city pages you can now rate the most-popular places and add them to lists directly (same tiles as the list below).
- The bottom navigation bar is now reliably visible on mobile (pinned to the bottom edge).
- City pages no longer show the same place twice (most-popular rail and the list below).
- Push notifications: a confirmation when you enable them, a button to send a test notification, and help hints if nothing arrives.
- City maps now auto-zoom to fit the city's places instead of starting at a fixed zoom.
- The privacy settings are now tidily grouped (Visibility · Location & maps · Data & account); map preview is a regular on/off switch.
- On place pages your personal taste match is now always shown as a percentage — even when it's very low.
June 27, 2026
Improvements
- You can now reset your map-preview consent in the privacy settings.
June 26, 2026
Improvements
- Sharing a map view now opens your phone's native share sheet (WhatsApp, mail …) — on desktop the link is still copied to the clipboard.
June 25, 2026
Improvements
- Menus, dialogs and collapsible sections (e.g. FAQ) now open and close with smooth transitions instead of snapping.
- Countries without any places are no longer listed in the countries overview, and a few places are now assigned to the correct city.
- Population figures on city cards are now abbreviated consistently (e.g. 635K, 8.8M) instead of mixing in fully written-out numbers.
- More polish: correct page titles, clearer labels (e.g. on the profile stats and privacy options), only one language switcher per page, and unnamed drafts no longer show their internal id.
- Algerian cities (e.g. Constantine, Annaba, Tlemcen, Timgad) that were wrongly attributed to France now correctly appear under Algeria.
- Polish: page titles are fixed (the brand name showed up twice in the browser tab), and the homepage activity feed shows a real mix again instead of many identical automatic image entries.
- Places in overseas territories (e.g. Guadeloupe, Martinique, Réunion, Curaçao, French Polynesia) are now correctly attributed to their country — and several missing island capitals were added.
- When suggesting a place you can now type an address to drop the map pin there.
- New developers page documenting our open API (endpoints, limits, examples).
Important fixes
- Fixed: pages could briefly show an error message instead of the content right after loading.
June 24, 2026
Improvements
- Places nearby now also update while the page stays open — periodically in the background and instantly when you return to the app.
- Places nearby now follow your current location and refresh as you move.
Various bugfixes and stability improvements