A free app developed in Derry is allowing tourists to use their phones as their tour guides.
Derry Smart Tour provides a walking tour using the GPS on a user’s phone.
As the tourists walks around the city, the app will give information about local points of interest.
The primary function assigns a zone to each point of interest and when the user is within the zone it displays information about it, which can be text, images, videos and links.
When the user is not in a zone it displays a map or list of the 10 nearest places of interest or all the information can be displayed in a map or a list.
Developer Colm Canavan told MyDerry : "Since I started it I have worked on improving it regularly, there is now a range of information including history, famous people and local businesses.
"I have added new features such as a feature to let the user pick what points of interest they wish to see and the app will direct them to each one in turn and a feature that will let users point their phones camera at a place in the distance and identify it."
For tourists that may not have time for a full walking tour, Derry Smart Tours allows them to learn the history of Derry quickly and easily.
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Colm said: "A tour guide can’t accompany a tourist for their entire stay but an app can, when a user sees something of interest to them, they can pull out the app and easily learn all about it. It also doubles as a means for socially distance touring of the city, although that was not initially part of the plan as I started long before the Covid-19 pandemic."
Colm said that tour apps are not a new phenomenon and he wanted Derry to have a simple way for encouraging tourists to explore the city and learn its history.
He said: "I am currently a software development student at North West Regional College, I had already taught myself to program when I was young but never worked in software development or IT. When I came up with the idea I thought something like this must already exist but while there was similar apps for other cities I was unable to find one for Derry, so I set about making it myself."
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