Globetrotter: Travel Tracker is a new photo app that makes it easy to turn a simple photo library into a scrapbook filled with memories.
While there are plenty of photo and video organization apps out there, Globetrotter specifically focuses on categorizing images by their time and place of capture, making it especially useful for those who are constantly on the move (or who simply enjoy recollecting road trips, times abroad, and the like). Globetrotter also collects users’ “travel statistics,” including a percentage of the world (or just the U.S.) traveled and the number of countries and states photos were taken in.
Users can view their photos on a map, seeing how many appear in which locations. Scroll over to an area, and the photos or videos taken there will appear. It also tracks landmarks captured (or at least nearby a capture), for example Times Square or the Brooklyn Bridge. Even things like altitude are tracked for anyone who can’t resist taking a snapshot out the plane window. There’s even a 2023 wrapped feature because every app needs a wrapped feature now. There’s also a feature that allows users to follow an “Event Route,” for instance if someone went through a walking tour of a city or wanted to track their sightseeing.
However, users will need to allow their cameras to actually collect location information. On iPhone, this can be changed in the Location Services menu under Privacy & Security. For the camera app, this can be set to Never, Ask Next Time Or When I Share, or While Using the App. Choosing anything but Never will allow users to toggle Precise Location data on or off. Precise Location can pinpoint the exact spot, down to the building, but without it, the photo is dropped in the general vicinity, even if blocks away.
Regardless of how exact the location data is, many people choose not to have this setting on at all, especially for security and privacy reasons. In this case, the Globetrotter app is next to useless unless users’ manually tag their images. Any images without location (precise or otherwise) simply won’t appear in the app. That isn’t a fault of Globetrotter’s, but it does reduce the usability quite a bit for those who don’t want to give up their location data often.
Globetrotter costs $4 a month or $20 a year, and a yearly subscription also includes a seven-day free trial. Additionally, Globetrotter offers a one-time purchase option for $50. It’s available for iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch.
Image credits: Globetrotter: Travel Tracker