🎉 We’re celebrating the 10 year anniversary of Where To? on the App Store!

The App Store first opened its doors 10 years ago, on July 10, 2008. And Where To? was one of the first 500 apps. I remember the excitement when we were finally able to install apps on our iPhones and didn’t have to get away with Steve Jobs’ “sweet solution” relying on more-or-less crappy web apps.

Or does anyone remember how we had to install and license apps on Symbian or Palm-based phones and PDAs before? There was no central store so we had to download from vendor websites and then go through a painful licensing process, sometimes involving premium SMS for payment. The App Store really was a breakthrough for app distribution on mobile phones. It ignited an explosion of available apps covering almost all aspects of daily life.

The last 10 years have been an amazing journey, so I’d like to invite you to a time travel over the past decade visiting Where To?’s major milestones. By the way, there’s a little gift at the end!

Launch

July 10, 2008

Where To? 1.0 is launched as one of the first 500 apps on the App Store. The first three months of its existence, the app is sold under the tap tap tap brand.

Pulled from the App Store

October 13, 2008

TapTapTap, the former owner of the app, pulls Where To? from the App Store due to internal conflicts and puts the app on the market for a potential acquirer.

Acquisition

December 16, 2008

FutureTap acquires the Where To? app with all its assets for $70,000. The app is available again in the App Store including a German localization.

The App Store crosses the mark of 10,000 apps.

Going International

April 27, 2009

The app is now localized in 8 languages: 🇺🇸🇬🇧🇩🇪🇫🇷🇮🇹🇪🇸🇵🇹🇬🇷
Later, we’ll add: 🇧🇷🇯🇵🇳🇱🇹🇷

WWDC 2009

June 8, 2009

Where To? is featured in various sessions at WWDC 2009 & iPhone TechTalk World Tour for its nice, tactile user interface design.

Built-in map

August 8, 2009

In iPhone OS 3, Apple added MapKit allowing developers to add maps to their apps. Where To? 2.0 immediately jumped on board.

Supporting third party apps

December 4, 2009

As one of the first apps, Where To? collaborates with third party apps starting with Navigon for turn-by-turn directions. Over the course of the years, support for more than 60 different apps is added supporting car, pedestrian and public transport navigation. Today, Navigon is no longer available on the App Store.

At this time, the App Store counts more than 100k apps.

New Leather Theme

July 29, 2010

Where To? 3.0 is optimized for the iPhone 4 with Retina display and gets a new leather theme throughout the whole app.

“PatentGate”

August 6, 2010

We’re surprised to discover a replication of the Where To? home screen in an Apple patent application and are worried about the implications. The story created a huge media frenzy with dozens of publications reporting. Turns out Apple merely illustrated a potential use case of their invention.

Augmented Reality

January 26, 2011

Where To? 3D, a fun and pretty advanced augmented reality feature is introduced. The feature is made available as an in-app purchase with a phenomenal conversion rate.

App Store featuring

August 8, 2011

Apple features Where To? as “App Of The Week” and later that year in “iTunes Rewind”.

Ratings & Reviews

November 12, 2011

Ratings and reviews are added to place listings in Where To? 4.0.

Favorite Places & iCloud Sync

June 21, 2012

Favorite places, dinner menus, iCloud sync and more is added in Where To? 5.0. A black translucent share sheet is added just months before Apple adds a similarly styled system-wide share-sheet in iOS 6.

Directions

December 19, 2012

In addition to the ever-growing list of third party navigation apps, Where To? 6.0 comes with built-in directions for car, bike, and pedestrian navigation.

Where To? Gets a Little Sister

February 21, 2013

“Street View” (later renamed to “Streets“) for iPhone and iPad is launched on the App Store.

Send to Car

February 28, 2014

Where To? is the first app (and up til today the only app) to send destination information to car navigation systems. Starting with Audi in Where To? 6.0, Mercedes Benz is added in 6.7, BMW in 7.0 and Porsche just recently.

At the end of 2013, more than 1 million apps are available on the App Store.

Flat UI

September 4, 2014

Every brick in the app was turned in a radical UI redesign: The leather theme was replaced by a modern, flat, and fluid UI design, suitable for iOS 7 and beyond.

Pebble App

September 18, 2014

Where To? for Pebble is released. The companion app helps with last mile navigation leveraging the Pebble’s hardware compass. Meanwhile, Pebble was acquired by FitBit and the smart watches are no longer on the market.

Apple Watch App

April 2, 2015

Just in time for the launch of Apple Watch, Where To? is available in a miniaturized version for the new gadget.
Apple Watch takes the smart watch market by storm and independent players such as Pebble soon begin to struggle.

Spotlight, Siri, 3D Touch

October 27, 2015

iOS 9 is out and Where To? makes use of Siri reminders, Spotlight search, and 3D Touch shortcuts.

iMessage App

September 13, 2016

iOS 10 opens up the Messages app for third parties and launches the iMessage App Store. Where To? adds an iMessage app that reduces friction to insert location cards into conversations.

Location Alarms & Table Reservations

November 8, 2017

Table (and hotel) reservation and location alarms are added.

iPhone X

December 14, 2017

The iPhone X display size is supported natively.

The Future

July 7, 2018

Those first ten years were an amazing ride. And we’ve a ton of great stuff in the pipeline for you. Here’s to the next ten years!

What about the gift, you may ask? We’re celebrating Where To?’s 10 year anniversary with an extraordinary sale: Where To? is available for just 99 cents ($2.99, 3.49€). If you’re not on board yet, grab your copy now, gift it to a dear friend, or share it with the world!

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