On two separate occasions in 2025, I wrote about app features from Google and Apple that feel like “Spotify Wrapped for travel” – those being the Google Maps Timeline and Apple’s Visited Places features. Now, though, I’ve discovered a mobile app that provides a more bespoke, fun, and fluid way to journal your journeys.
Polarsteps is an entirely free app for iOS and Android that acts as a log for your trips and travels, with a social media element allowing you to follow other travellers and share your stories with friends.
As you might expect from a purpose-built app, Polarsteps is much more polished and intentional than the travel summary features built into Google Maps and Apple Maps. I was able to log in via Google and start adding trips right away with the intuitive step-based log system. It makes money by selling custom-printed books based on your travels, so there’s no hidden charges for just using the app – a pretty rare sight in today’s mobile landscape.
Each step of each journey can be detailed with a cover image, notes, and start/end times, or you can keep it moving and just add in locations. Current trips can also be tracked automatically in real-time by the app running in the background. Each trip can be saved as a draft or published for either the world or your chosen followers to see.
There’s (ironically) no “explore” page to speak of, but you can build a feed of updates from people you choose to follow, but the app doesn’t hit you with a flood of information you’ve got no reason to care about. It feels like the basis for something genuinely social.
When it comes to tracker apps like this, I often feel like I can’t quite find the right moment to start logging things – but Polarsteps settles this by making it easy to add past trips. For example, it was super simple to add in my trip to Munich for the launch of the Xiaomi 15T and 15T Pro in September.
As for future trips, the globe on the home page is dotted with starred cities and regions that have specially curated guides written by the Polarsteps editorial team – these are stylish, personal, and concise articles that give you ideas for your next visit. Tapping on a guide also highlights selected restaurants, attractions, and even Airbnb rentals on the map.
And at the end of the year, Polarsteps releases its annual Unpacked report, which serves as a (say it with me) Spotify Wrapped-like recap of your yearly voyages. The report reveals how far you travelled, your furthest point from home, and the most unique place you visited, amidst other personalized info.
As a newcomer to Polarsteps, I haven’t got my own Unpacked to look through. But I’ll be making a new year’s resolution of using Polarsteps so that I can get my own report in 2026.
I’ve been curious about using my phone to track and relive my travels since I first used Hero’s Path mode in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. In the game, Hero’s Path lets you follow your own footsteps on the world map – which brings to mind the experiences you encountered along the way.
And while Google Maps and Apple Maps each have similar tools built-in, I think it’s nicer to have a dedicated app for tracking and remembering your journeys (not to mention one that records your progress across both Android and iOS). I’ll be installing Polarsteps on all the best phones I test in 2026 to keep tabs on the places I’ve been, and the stories I lived through while travelling through them.
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