A new app called Wrinkles wants to tell you the hidden stories of whatever you’re standing next to. According to TechCrunch AI, the app uses your location to automatically surface local history and lore as you move through the world, acting like an AI-powered audio tour guide. It’s available now on both iOS and Android.
The pitch is simple. Instead of staring at your screen and matching numbers on a wall to a list in an app, you walk around and the places speak to you. Wrinkles can explain the secrets behind a building, the history of a street, or the backstory of a fountain, all without asking you to keep your head down.
Where the idea came from
Wrinkles was founded by David Stemler, a longtime advertising executive, and Ryan Hansan, who previously started ScratchDC and TasteLab. The two have been friends since middle school and have traveled together for decades, first as teenagers and now with their families.
The spark came at the British Museum in London. Stemler used the museum’s official self-guided tour app and found it well designed but frustrating. “I spent the entire visit heads-down, matching numbers on the walls to lists on my phone instead of taking in my surroundings while learning about them,” he told TechCrunch. From the airport afterward, he called Hansan and asked the question that became the whole company: “If the phone in my pocket knows exactly where I am, shouldn’t the places in front of me be able speak?”
What it actually does
The startup has built a foundation of 1.3 million “Wrinkles,” or points of interest, across 177 countries. On top of that base, other people and organizations can add their own material. Here’s what the app offers:
- Location-triggered stories. As you walk, Wrinkles surfaces the history and lore of what’s around you.
- Ask questions. Learning about the Trevi Fountain? You can ask something like “Where does this water actually come from?” and keep the conversation going, the way you would with a real guide.
- A social layer. Follow friends, family, creators, and organizations. Save and share Wrinkles or bundle them into custom maps and guides.
- Personal memories. Attach family photos, videos, and recordings to specific places. Families can build shared histories around a childhood home, a first date spot, or a hometown.
- Remote browsing. You don’t have to be on-site. You can search and explore the map from your couch while planning a trip.
Contributors go beyond the founders too. Historians, museums, creators, and brands can add their own stories and experiences to the map.
Not just a travel app
Stemler and Hansan are careful to say this isn’t only for vacations. “The common thread isn’t travel, it’s curiosity,” Hansan said. “A travel app gets used on one trip a year. Wrinkles gets used on your commute, at the botanical garden, at the zoo with your kids, leaving a permanent legacy for a loved one, and on the trip to Spain.” The bet is that people want to understand the buildings they pass every day, not just the ones they fly to see.
Cost and how they plan to make money
This is the part that stands out to me. The founders experimented with a freemium model but say they’re committed to keeping the app free for users. The revenue comes from the supply side instead:
- Museums, tourism boards, universities, and hotels pay to build location-based experiences without coding their own apps.
- Creators and media partners can build sponsored, place-based guides.
- Businesses can promote Wrinkles tied to their locations.
- Partners can add links to book tours, reserve tables, buy tickets, or visit businesses, with Wrinkles taking a share of those transactions.
Keeping the consumer side free while charging the institutions that want to reach visitors is a smart structure. It sidesteps the usual friction of asking casual users to pay for something they’ll try once.
Why it matters
Wrinkles is a clean example of where location plus AI is heading: context delivered to you the moment you need it, in a format that lets you keep living your life. The long-term vision is for the app to become a normal part of how people navigate places, whether that’s a college campus, your own city, or a country you’re seeing for the first time. Whether it earns that habit depends on the content staying rich and the audio staying worth listening to.
For the full story, head to the original report at TechCrunch AI.