Herodot AI
App to unlock tales of any attraction around, from map&photo
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Oleg Bakatanov

Herodot AI - Travel at any place like with a personal local guide

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Herodot AI
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We work on Herodot AI for more than two years moving from just a nice concept to truly reliable, easy to use app. Our task is to give you a feeling that you walk and travel with a knowledgeable local friend, who can guide you pretty much like a human, telling exciting stories on what is around, whatever catches your eye. Due to Google Cloud AI startups support program, we could make many of app features free. We hope you try and enjoy it on your next trip!

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Oleg Bakatanov
Maker
📌

Hi Hunters and Makers! This is our launch number 4 at Product Hunt. Since our first launch, we steadily moved step by step, trying to make our product better, collecting user feedbacks, adding new features and upgrading with new models. Now Herodot AI is better than it has ever been - more engaging, accurate and faster stories, close to human level and faster audio quality.

And, real user feedback is still the most important for us. And I found it is so difficult to get. Please, try our app (we added promo code for free use) and share your thoughts on what we can add or improve to make it your favourite app!

Piroune Balachandran

Map pin plus photo lookup, then choosing a historian vs local guide persona, that's a neat loop. When the match is fuzzy, does Herodot AI show sources or a confidence hint? A simple cite-and-report flow would make the stories feel trustworthy.

Aileen Gallinero

Congrats on the launch!

While reading the description my initial thought is it's just Google Lens+Gemini but as someone who likes to travel but not very good in directions and almost always have limited time in planning and researching - what got me excited was the possible emotion behind using the app while on a holiday. You got me with this - feeling that you walk and travel with a knowledgeable local friend, who can guide you pretty much like a human, telling exciting stories on what is around, whatever catches your eye.

Oleg Bakatanov
Maker
@aileen_gallinero Thanks, Aileen, Google Lens and Gemini certainly can do similar job, but they are more generic, require a lot of customization and not quite convenient when you are on spot and just want to learn about it with minimal effort. This is what we try to do with Herodot
Zeiki Yu

Congrats on the launch — love how Herodot turns casual sightseeing into rich, story‑driven travel 👏

Oleg Bakatanov

@zeiki_yu many thanks! I hope you enjoy it at your next travel! Please, let us know, how we can improve, if you have any ideas

Nika

This is a nice idea. Last couple of years, I have been trying to travel a bit more and understand more about culture and the historical places. What major adjustments can we spot in this launch?

Oleg Bakatanov
Maker
@busmark_w_nika Hi, we improved a lot quality of stories, both factual and entertaining. We also worked hard to improve reliability of app in real word conditions, as well as speed of response, even with bad internet speed. I hope you try it in your next trip or even at your home city!
Nika

@oleg_bakatanov Cool. Does it also contain my small town? :D I swear we are barely in the map :D

Vedant Kadu

Hey Oleg — congrats on the launch 👏
I work closely with short-form creators who demo AI apps in real travel scenarios. If you’re open, I’d love to share a few creator profiles that could showcase Herodot in action.

Alek Gir
Congrats on the launch, team! As a fellow builder of AI tools (working on real-time translation apps), I love how Herodot turns sightseeing into storytelling adventures with photo recognition and multi-language support-perfect for overcoming travel language barriers. Excited to test it in Europe soon! 🚀
Oleg Bakatanov
Maker

@alegir Many thanks! Please, try, and share your feedback! Even at your home city you can be amazed how much you can learn!

Valeriia Kuna
Love the audio feature! I travel a lot and usually end up doom-scrolling Google for info whenever I see a monument, so having an AI guide instead sounds much better. Since this is your 4th launch, I’m curious—what’s the biggest update in this version compared to the previous ones?
Oleg Bakatanov
Maker
@valeriia_kuna Thanks! We constantly improve and grow together with overall quality of AI models. Everything, quality of content, voicing, reliability improve a lot from launch to launch
Cruise Chen

Trips are no more boring - really love what Herodot could furnish for travellers!

Oleg Bakatanov
Maker
@cruise_chen many thanks!
the remote nomad

The combination of photo recognition + local storytelling sounds perfect for those spontaneous travel moments when you spot something interesting but have no context. I'm particularly curious about the audio quality improvements you mentioned—does the new TTS sound natural enough to feel like a real guide, or does it still have that AI feel?

Oleg Bakatanov
Maker

@curious_builder Thanks! To me it's good enough. Current models sound pretty well. But we need to balance here - the best models (in my view) take too much time to respond in real time. So we use something which responds fast enough with decent quality. I think, the best - if you try it

Hritik Kumar Shriwastav

Actually used this during a weekend trip recently and the storytelling is spot on. It’s way better than standing around reading those tiny plaques at landmarks. Being able to just snap a photo and get the history immediately felt like having a personal guide in my pocket. Highly recommend!

Oleg Bakatanov
Maker

@hritik_kumar_shriwastav Thank you! That's very supportive! I hope you continue enjoying it!

Hritik Kumar Shriwastav

@oleg_bakatanov Happy to support! It’s a great example of solving a real pain point with AI. I’m currently exploring the startup space myself—would love to stay in the loop with your work. Is it cool if I connect with you on LinkedIn?

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