Show HN: Hewell, a travel app powered by WikiData

I think there's a typo in the submitted URL, should be https://hewellapp.com/

looks really promising. I usually hate apps and phones and and this is the first time in years I thought I have a reason to not "forget" my phone when I go out. can't wait until it hits android:

> The Hewell beta is for iOS users only.

> You must also have Testflight installed.

> This beta isn't accepting any new testers right now.

I think author(s) haven't updated that portion. It is available from the App Store for iPhone, no TestFlight required.

Hey all!

I'm an indie ios/web developer and I build Hewell (pronounced the same as Huell (and a reference maybe some of you old-school PBS viewers may get).

I've wanted an app like this for a long time, but most travel guide apps have really high production values and consequently low coverage. Lots of apps can give you a bespoke experience in San Francisco, but few work well everywhere (custom voice over is expensive). Hewell bypasses all of that by leveraging the power of WikiData and Siri.

Hewell was originally dreamt up by a myself and a few friends at a happy hour ~2016, but I'd never gotten around to actually building it until last year during lockdown--which honestly wasn't a great time to launch a travel app. Now that things are opening back up and people are traveling again, hopefully Hewell will be more useful.

I know I would have loved an app like this when I was in Japan a few years back. I knew there was so much history all around me, and I probably missed a lot of it. That said I've found Hewell useful even at home. There's a lot of hidden treasures in major cities.

In the future I'd like to add a "Tour Mode" that can guide you along a route or recommend places to go while you're driving or walking.

If you like the app, please consider donating. If the app makes enough money I'd like to donate a sizable chunk of the revenue to the Wikimedia Foundation since they make Hewell possible.

Links:

Announcement Blog Post: https://brianschrader.com/archive/announcing-hewell-public-b...

My Apps: https://skyrocket.software

Great stuff! I also wanted an app like this, so I built https://app.mirrorspace.net - which looks pretty similar to yours albeit less polished.