In a world drowning in distraction, we're building AI that brings you closer to reality — not further from it.
We know that technology can detach people from experience. Every app carries this danger:
If citypal replaces curiosity with convenience — narrating everything without inviting discovery — users stop looking around.
If the AI becomes the experience instead of a guide to experience, people might tune out their senses.
Even if audio-first, users might still treat it like another app to "use," rather than an experience to feel.
The more perfectly it adapts to preferences, the more it shields people from friction — and friction is what makes travel transformative.
We're not building AI to replace human experience. We're building it to amplify awareness. citypal is a gentle guide that helps you notice what you would have missed — then gets out of the way.
citypal whispers a story only when you pause at a corner, drawing your gaze up to a forgotten mural. It responds to your rhythm, not a schedule.
It suggests, "There's a café owner here who's been roasting beans for 30 years — go say hi." Technology becomes a doorway to real human connection.
The voice fades when you start walking faster, encouraging you to listen to the city itself. Movement changes the interface.
Locals record stories. Oral histories. Ambient sounds. Real human voices embedded in place, not synthetic narration.
Rather than optimizing for efficiency, it helps you get lost on purpose. The detour is the destination.
Not to the algorithm, but to the world.
It uses AI to increase awareness, not abstraction.
citypal is building a living archive of place history, maintained by the people who know it best — locals, historians, storytellers, and communities.
We work with local historians, cultural organizations, and community members to document and maintain place history before it's lost.
Bridge travelers with locals. Stories with storytellers. Past with present. citypal creates meaningful connections between people and places.
Every neighborhood has a story. Every corner has a keeper. We help communities share their narratives with the world on their own terms.
Local voices own their stories — we're the amplifier, not the author.
Communities control how their history is shared and who profits from it.
Revenue sharing with local contributors and cultural organizations.
Open archival tools for communities to document their own histories.
Multilingual, accessible, and respectful of diverse perspectives.
No place-washing: authentic stories, not sanitized marketing.
These aren't just ideas. They're features we're actively building.
Sometimes we just… stop
citypal knows when to be quiet. Wind. Traffic. Laughter. Birds. The city has its own soundtrack.
Look, don't listen
A mode that encourages you to put your phone down and just see. Notifications off. Attention on.
Connect with locals
Directs you to local guides, businesses, storytellers. Real humans, not just algorithms.
The world is the interface
The app fades visually when you're moving. Your surroundings come into focus. Screen time decreases.
Real voices, real stories
Locals record. Musicians compose. Artists layer. AI curates. But humans create.
Get lost on purpose
Routes that meander. Dead ends that reveal. Discomfort that transforms. Not all who wander are optimized.
We promise to measure success not by engagement, but by presence. Not by screen time, but by the moments you looked up from your phone.
We commit to prioritizing human connection over algorithmic perfection. To building features that fade into the background of your experience, not the foreground.
We will work with communities, not extract from them. Every place has stewards. Every story has a keeper. We honor that.
We believe that the best technology is invisible — felt, not seen. Helpful, not demanding. A whisper, not a shout.
We're building citypal to help you fall in love with the world again.
"In a world that pulls us into screens, we're building a guide that pushes us back into reality."