ROAM generates a fresh narration every time you dwell near a point of interest ROAM generates a fresh narration every time you dwell near a point of interest — in real time, in the tone you choose, under a cinematic ambient score. Below, you can hear exactly what that sounds like. Tap play on any narration card.mdash; or enter any geographic area. In real time, in the tone you choose, under a cinematic ambient score. Whether you're in Paris or Jasper, Alabama, there is always a story. Below, tap play on any narration card.
The full loop in five screens The full loop in five screens — satellite map, eight-second dwell, story begins. No setup. No route. No tapping. Just stop, and the city speaks.mdash; satellite map, eight-second dwell, story begins, tone picker. New Orleans is a Feature City: pre-curated, editorially dense. But the same five-screen flow works in any town with a GPS fix. No setup. No route. No tapping.
Narration Voice
Preview · Lafayette Cemetery
"The grave-robbing problem got so bad in the 1840s that the cemetery hired a night watchman. His name was also Lafayette."
Casual, Scholar, or Story. Each one hears the same city differently. Pick the one that sounds like you today.
No route. No map to follow. ROAM monitors your position while you explore. In Feature Cities, expect triggers every few blocks. Anywhere else, ROAM cascades outward until it finds a story No route. No map to follow. ROAM monitors your position while you explore however you like — the app is entirely passive.mdash; and it always does.
Eight seconds of genuine dwell near a POI triggers narration generation. For area-level stories (neighborhood, city, county, region), the trigger fires on entry Eight seconds of genuine dwell near a point of interest triggers narration generation. The now-playing card slides up as it loads.mdash; no standing required. The now-playing card slides up while it loads.
The narration plays. The music returns. A 20-minute POI cooldown prevents re-triggering the same spot. Walk to the next thing that catches your eye The narration plays. The music returns. A 20-minute cooldown prevents re-triggering. Walk to the next thing that catches your eye.mdash; or simply keep moving and let area-level stories find you.
The same street. The same building. The same afternoon. But in Casual, it's funny and surprising. In Scholar, it connects the dots. In Story, it puts you inside a specific moment. Choose one before you walk — or switch mid-stride. The city adjusts.
Excited, never showing off. Leads with the most surprising or counterintuitive fact. Ends with something to look for nearby. This is the voice that makes you stop mid-step and laugh.
"Parisians absolutely hated it when it went up. Open letters, furious petitions, outraged editorials. Maupassant ate lunch here every week — not because he loved it, but because it was the only place in Paris from which he couldn't see it. Now it's the most-visited paid monument on Earth."
◉ Uses your browser's built-in speech engine — best in Chrome or SafariNot a recitation of facts — a mind building toward an insight. Connects cause to effect from the first sentence. Closes with the “so what” — the bigger idea this place illustrates.
"The decision to build this structure here was not architectural — it was political. The city needed a statement that would outlast its commissioners, and in that it succeeded beyond anyone's intention. What you're looking at is the physical embodiment of a particular theory of urban power: that permanence confers legitimacy."
◉ Uses your browser's built-in speech engine — best in Chrome or SafariPresent tense throughout. Opens in a specific scene: a person, a moment, a sensory detail. Closes on an image or feeling — never a fact. This is the tone that makes a place feel like it has a pulse.
"A man is standing at this exact spot in 1931. He's holding a letter he hasn't opened yet. He knows what it says — the commission has been awarded to someone else. He looks up at the building across the street, the one that will one day bear his rival's name."
◉ Uses your browser's built-in speech engine — best in Chrome or SafariROAM's UI is built around one principle: get out of the way. The map is minimal — a dark canvas with amber pins marking points of interest. The now-playing card slides up from the bottom only when a narration begins, then retreats when it's done.
Three tone pills sit persistently at the top of the map, so you can shift the city's voice mid-walk. Everything else is automatic.
Switching tones mid-walk queues gracefully — the current narration completes before the new tone takes effect.
ROAM works in your own city just as powerfully as abroad ROAM works in your own city just as powerfully as abroad. The curious local is as much ROAM's user as the visiting tourist.mdash; and in every small town you pass through. The curious local, the visiting tourist, the road tripper driving through Walker County, Alabama. The story always finds you.
Who ROAM is really for Who ROAM is for →rarr;