Audio guide apps help your visitors make the most of their experience by providing them with an audio tour of your museum, historic site, or landmark.
With a guide app, you can provide your visitors with a self-guided tour that is packed with information and interesting facts about your destination. You can include videos, images, and text in your app.
However, audio content reigns supreme because visitors can listen to your content while walking or driving. Audio also offers the opportunity to create an immersive experience with voice actors, rich details, and audio effects.
From audio tours of world-famous museums to self-guided walking tours of historic landmarks, these audio guide app examples are sure to give you some great ideas for your next project.
Audio Guide App Examples for Museums & Galleries
Audio guide apps are great for museums and art galleries, because they can provide multi-language context into the pieces on display.
Walt Disney Family Museum
The Walt Disney Family Museum contains objects from Walt Disney’s life. The audio guide walks visitors through the story of how he came up with the Mickey Mouse character and built one of the most recognizable brands in the world.
The goal of the project was to create an app to improve the accessibility of our galleries, particularly for non-English speakers and guests with disabilities.
—Tracie Timmer, Senior Public Programs Coordinator of The Walt Disney Family Museum
The team focused on making the app more engaging and inclusive for all visitors. This goal shows in features like the Audio Described Tour, created for guests with low vision or blindness. It helps ensure Disney’s story is accessible to everyone who visits.
The Walt Disney Family Museum app is available on iOS, Android, and as a web app.
Tacoma Art Museum
The Tacoma Art Museum offers multiple guided audio tours, including one on Dale Chihuly’s blow glass artwork. The audio content focuses on what inspires him and his artistic process.
This audio tour app helps visitors look more closely at works of art both in and out of the museum, and see things they may not have otherwise noticed.
The Tacoma Art Museum is available as a web app.
Audio Guide App Examples for Tourism & City Experiences
Mobile tour guide apps can improve the customer experience for in-person tours or serve as stand-alone revenue streams for tourists who want a self-guided experience.
Ruka Africa’s Mt. Kilimanjaro scenic flight
Ruka Africa offers a scenic flight around Mt. Kilimanjaro. Their mobile audio guide app is a free add-on and offers insights into how the volcanic peaks formed nearly 200,000 years ago. This allows the company to provide a multimedia experience to its customers.
With this immersive audio companion, passengers can learn about the sights below in real time, making the journey both thrilling and educational.
Ruka Africa’s Mt. Kilimanjaro scenic flight app is available on iOS and Android.
Bloody Mary - Haunted New Orleans
Audio guide apps don’t have to be free. Tour guide companies can also charge for them. Depending on the length and location of the tour, companies typically charge between $5 and $15.
This Haunted New Orleans tour takes visitors through the Haunted Museum and nearby sites. The creator of the app is Bloody Mary, a professional psychic medium, ghost hunter, author, and occult historian.
After offering in-person tours for 25 years, she decided to go digital and offer a self-guided tour app as well.
Now, visitors can choose between the more affordable digital version and live, guided tours.
People love it once they try it! On the app, they can hear my stories, take a trip, or go on a ghost hunt without leaving their home.
— Bloody Mary, Founder at Bloody Mary Tours
The Bloody Mary's Tours and Haunted Museum is available on iOS and Android.
Audio Guide App Examples for Cultural Institutions & Public Organizations
An audio guide app is an excellent tool for both city governments and non-profit cultural organizations.
By providing visitors with a self-guided tour, they can explore the area at their own pace and learn more about the history and culture of the place they are visiting.
Particularly when covering large areas, you might want to include these in your app:
- A map of the area
- Points of interest marked on the map
- Detailed descriptions of each point of interest
- Audio recordings for each point of interest
By including these features in your audio guide app, you can ensure that visitors have a great experience and learn more about your city or organization.
St. Louis Public Library
The St. Louis Public Library is a great example of an audio guide app. It offers a self-guided tour that covers the architectural history of the library.
The app also allows users to explore the library at their own pace and learn more about its collections. With five buildings that comprise an entire city block, there’s plenty to explore.
The app includes audio content for the exterior of the library, the atrium, the first floor, the second floor, the third floor, the fine arts room, the great hall, and the rooms for social sciences, entertainment, literature, and biography.
I personally love the beacons...When a docent is going through and giving the tour, each docent has their own little nuances that they like to highlight. The beacons allow us to bring that little touch into the technical tour.
— Cathy Heimberger, Director of Marketing and Programming
The St. Louis Public Library app is available on iOS, and as a web app.
Cultural Tourism DC
Cultural Tourism DC is a non-profit organization that promotes the culture and history of Washington, DC. They offer a variety of programs and events that are designed to educate and entertain visitors.
One of their most popular offers is their audio guide app. The app offers a self-guided tour of some of the most interesting sites in Downtown DC.
They’ve separated the app into distinct tours: Downtown West, Downtown Center, Downtown East, U Street East Loop, and U Street West Loop.
If you’re creating a tour app for a city or an organization that spans a geographical area, this is a great app example to check out.
The Cultural Tourism DC tour is available as a web app.
Audio Guide App Examples for Trails & Outdoor Experiences
If your organization maintains hiking and walking trails, then you should definitely consider making audio guide apps.
Audio guide apps can be a great way to learn about the history of a particular hiking or walking trail.
You can add geo-location triggers so that audio content will auto-play as visitors walk along the trail.
Brattleboro Words Trail
The Brattleboro Words Trail is a hiking and walking trail located in Vermont. The downtown trail map includes 47 sites spanning a 30-mile bike ride or drive. Or, visitors can choose to walk a shorter distance.
Sites include the historic municipal center, fire department, post office, theater, and multiple printing presses.
The audio content includes the history of the various buildings as well as the stories of popular current businesses and locales.
The trail was recently honored by the American Association for State and Local History (AASLH), winning a Leadership in History Award. The recognition celebrates both the trail’s impact and the creative, dedicated team that brought it to life.
The Brattleboro Words Trail app is available on iOS, Android, and as a web app.
Snoopy’s Walk of Fame
Snoopy’s Walk of Fame is Charles Schulz’s own walk of fame which he created before earning his own star in Hollywood.
The Walk of Fame includes stops for celebrity signatures from Dorothy Hamill, Richard Dwyer, Tony Halk and more. The audio content tells the story of each celebrity behind the 59 signatures on the path.
The Snoopy’s Walk of Fame tour is available as a web app.
Create a Custom Audio Guide App for Your Experience
Building your own audio guide app has never been easier with STQRY. Our STQRY Builder requires no coding experience, allowing museums, galleries, cities and cultural organizations to create professional-grade mobile tours in minutes.
Simply upload your content, arrange your tour stops, and customize the experience to match your brand and visitor needs.
Whether you're showcasing historical artifacts, art collections, or outdoor attractions, STQRY adapts to any type of experience you want to create.
Ready to transform your visitor experience?