Walkies

I built this to make walking the dog a bit more interesting

Your suburb starts off under clouds on a satellite map and they clear off the tiles as you walk through them, so the idea is to try and get it all to 100%. There's secrets hidden under some of the tiles too, so I get to learn a little bit about my neighbourhood as I go (they're only around Busselton in WA for now). And I've gamified it a bit with shells and a shop and things like that. Hopefully you like it too!

Coming soon to theApp Store

It's free on iPhone, and there's no ads.

The map zoomed out over Fremantle in Perth, with the suburb under white clouds apart from the bits already walked, Fremantle at 46%, 874 shells, level 6 and the Start walk button
A walk round Fremantle playing back over Apple's satellite map: a teal line along the streets, the clouds cleared off the tiles beside it, and 12 new tiles in 33 minutes 25 at the top

What it does

Secrets hidden under the tiles

Around Busselton in WA there's 136 secrets hidden under the tiles, spread across about 30 suburbs. Most are little bits of local history, with some Wardandi Noongar heritage and nature mixed in, and some have photos too. You don't know where they are, so you've got to go out and explore, and when you walk over one it pops up (or you get a notification if your phone's in your pocket) and goes in your secrets book with its own sticker.

If you live somewhere else you still get the clouds and the tiles, just no secrets yet. Hopefully I can add some more places over time.

The secrets book: 9 of 136 secrets found, 9 of 24 around Busselton, and stickers like Butter by the River, Chasing Deep Water and A Piano on a Truck

Watch your walks back

When you finish a walk it plays back over the map, with your route drawing itself and the clouds popping off each new tile, then it has a guess at how many more walks like it you'll need to finish the suburb. Every walk is kept with its route, distance, time and steps, so you can go back through them and watch any of them again.

It's all saved on your phone first so it works without signal, then it backs up to your account (you sign in with Apple or Google) whenever it can. So if you get a new phone you just sign in and everything comes back.

Past walks: 13 walks, 48.53 km and 324 tiles uncovered so far, then each walk with its route, distance, time, new tiles and steps

Shells, levels and quests

You get a shell for every new tile you clear, and more for finding secrets, walking a few days in a row, getting a place to milestones like 50%, and doing the three quests you get each week. They add up to levels too, and every level lets you pick a reward.

In the Shop you can spend them on things like a different marker for you on the map (a sneaker, a paper boat, an explorer hat or a little lighthouse), cloud colours, a trail for your walks, a cover for your secrets book, or a spyglass, which puts a ring on the map for three hours somewhere around a secret you haven't found yet.

Level 6 with 874 XP, what earned it (tiles, secrets, place milestones, walking streaks and quests), and a reward to pick at each level, like footprints, a sneaker or a bag of 50 shells
This week's quests: walk 5 km (done), uncover 60 new tiles (33 so far) and find a secret (done), worth 40 shells each

Only the streets count

The tiles are about 87 metres across around Perth and Busselton, and only the ones with a street or path you can walk on count towards your 100%, so you're never stuck needing to swim across a lake. Patches with no path, like bush or wetland, clear all at once when you walk a tile next to them.

Walking only

Bikes and cars don't count, so no clearing your suburb from the car window. Walking and jogging do as long as you're under about 12 km/h, and if the phone's motion chip reckons you're cycling or driving it doesn't count however slow you're going.

Always on

If you give Walkies "Always" location access, it notices when you head out on foot and records the walk by itself, then ends it once you've stopped for ten minutes. You can switch it off in Settings and just press Start walk when you go.

Tiles go misty

If you haven't walked through a tile for two months it goes a bit misty, so you can see which bits you haven't been back to in a while. It doesn't take anything off your % or your shells, and walking through it again clears it.

The suburb next door

When you zoom out, the suburbs around yours have a little + button so you can add them too. Every place uses the same grid so the tiles line up across the border, and any walks you've already done there count straight away.

Teams

You can start a team with up to eight people and send them an invite link. Right now a team is just who's in it, with everyone's name and colour, and your clouds and secrets stay your own.

Where the idea came from

My mate James, who's the CTO at Convex, told me about a walking app he'd been working on where you try and walk every single street in your city. I never actually got to see it, and he said he was going to open source it, but I got too impatient and decided I could build my own.

Give it a go

Walkies is free on iPhone, for iOS 18 or later. If you find a bug or have an idea for it, drop me an email at [email protected] or tap "Suggest a feature" in Settings.

Coming soon to theApp Store