What's new
Updates and improvements to TravelType.
July 31, 2026
LatestImprovements
- 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
June 23, 2026
New
- After signing in you now land on a personal home page: places near you, a live feed of the latest activity, and a photo button to quickly add a place.
Improvements
- On mobile, the camera button now takes a photo right away and saves the place as a draft with your location, ready to edit.
- The home feed now also shows places that just got a new public photo.
- Home page polish: your own activity is now addressed as You, new photos appear larger, and the nearby places show more side by side on large screens.
Various bugfixes and stability improvements
June 22, 2026
Improvements
- Recommendations on your profile no longer show places you've already saved to a list — so you only get fresh suggestions.
- In the discover feed you can now see at a glance which places you've already saved to a list (filled bookmark).
- Tapping the bookmark of a place you've already saved now opens list management (to move or remove it) — instead of just telling you it's already saved.
- Your city and country matches now consider every place at a destination instead of just a selection — so the match reflects your taste more accurately.
- Cleaner map controls: zoom on the left, share button and match indicator stacked on the right.
- The cities and countries overviews now show the real worldwide totals.
- After signing in you return to the page you came from, instead of always landing on your profile.
- Your chosen distance radius is now remembered instead of resetting on every visit.
- The map now shows place and city names in your language (English as a fallback).
- City pages now show frequently asked questions plus more related and nearby cities.
- Your own uploaded photos are now stored more efficiently and load faster too.
- Place photos load faster — they're now stored more efficiently (WebP) with no visible quality loss.
Important fixes
- Sorting by match now shows your best-fitting cities and countries first (in the overview and your profile) — and the match value shown is the same everywhere.
Various bugfixes and stability improvements
June 21, 2026
New
- Place suggestions are now saved as drafts: your progress isn't lost, you can keep editing it later from your profile, and you publish it whenever you like.
- When suggesting a place you can now choose: propose it publicly, or save it privately just for yourself.
Improvements
- Privacy Policy updated, with links to the Terms and Privacy Policy on the sign-in screen.
- You can now delete your own places — drafts, in-review and private ones — straight from “My places” (or while editing).
- “My places” now shows your places as cards — in the same style as everywhere else — each with a small status chip (draft, in review, private …).
- When suggesting a place you can now finish it right away (submit it or save it privately) — or still keep it as a draft for later.
- Public places are recommended to like-minded travellers once approved; private places stay entirely yours — with no recommendations.
- In the suggest-a-place wizard you can now jump freely between steps via the icons at the top — e.g. to swap the photo.
- Portrait photos can now be cropped when suggesting a place — including straight from the camera, so the framing fits.
- When suggesting a place you can now optionally add an address — it's auto-filled from the chosen location.
- “Suggest a place” now goes step by step: the photo comes first (optional, skippable) and you can crop it to fit right away — zoom and rotate, on phone and desktop. Your photo then appears cleanly in the right format.
- When suggesting a place you can now set your current location with one tap — handy on mobile, where photos often arrive without location data.
- When suggesting a place, your photo's location is now reliably detected on mobile too and the map pin is dropped automatically — even for phone photos whose location would otherwise be lost on upload.
- “Suggest a place” now opens with a beautiful photo-first step: pick from your gallery, drag an image in — or, on your phone, tap once to open the camera. After the photo it moves straight to the location, which you can share with a single tap.
Various bugfixes and stability improvements