Urban Archive Explore History

One of the best apps ever

This kind of app is exactly up my alley. In fact, I looked it up after having had a similar app idea. “I wonder if anyone else has made this,” I thought. Wonderfully for my curiosity (and disappointingly for my lost app opportunity), I found Urban Archive. It does exactly what I wanted from an app like this. The location-based history tidbits are awesome. There’s tons of interesting information here, not just stuff I don’t know, but stuff I wouldn’t have even thought to inquire about. But there are also big frustrations in terms of usability. My biggest one is that history notifications only take me to page maybe half the time. The other half, the app opens to only a map with lots of purple dots, but no information or overlay. Occasionally the information comes up after a short delay, which brings me to another issue: the app is sluggish and buggy at times. Many times I’ve tried to open the day’s history only to be greeted with an “oops” and no additional info. I simply dealt with these issues for a while because I love all the stuff I’m learning, but I’m so irritated at this point that I’m just deleting the app. I really hope the developers of this app can go on a proper bug hunt and make this app a pleasure to use because it has so much potential.

Makes walking down the street a completely new experience. Love history and this just makes you appreciate the past by seeing how things have changed (or haven’t). Love this app!

The app itself is amazing and I love to use it when I am strolling around Manhattan. I am a history buff and this app is almost always active on my phone. However! Lately I have seen super recent pictures that don’t deserve to be on the app, like random scaffolding instead of an actual building, a family portrait recently taken after a 2023 bike ride! Are we joking here? A bike ride ? I seriously hope that the developers start moderating the picture uploads because the app is losing value becoming a free for all.

There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t open this app to see the history of the buildings I’m walking by. Everyone I show it to instantly down loads it. 5 Stars.

This app is one of my all time favorites (and I have downloaded far too many). It really embodies the transformational promise of the smartphone — location aware access to an encyclopedic trove of images and information. Thank you to all who made it possible!!

Excellent

It is nothing short of incredible that an app that fits into my pocket can have both a library full of different collections of historical photographs of New York City and also have them plotted on an easy to navigate map!

Can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone down the rabbit hole of history as I’ve walked around Brooklyn and Manhattan. When I’m out with my teenaged son and he sees me take my phone out, he just rolls his eyes and accepts that I might be a while. So many great photos and captions. I love being able to take a current photo and combine them with the vintage shots in the app. And, I’ve sent in a few small historical corrections over the years, and the team is very responsive and has updated the info surprisingly quickly. Just a terrific resource about NYC’s past, to get your imagination spinning.

Best ever