Official Freedom Trail® App

Overall this app was very good. When you walk the red brick trail the app notifies you of the stop, and the narration tells you about it. It functions well offline. Some possible areas for improvement: (1) Choice of different languages. (2) Option to play narration at 0.75 speed (for those who need more time to understand) or 1.5 speed (for those who want to walk quickly through the stops). (3) Instead of “Remember to look at your app to find your next stop…,” each stop should conclude with “the next stop is X.” (4) Cutting back on some narration; for example, “King's Chapel Burying Ground” seemed lengthy. (5) There are nine stops in Granary Burying Ground (#8-#16) which may contribute to the thronging crowds there. Perhaps some of the material could be moved to stops that do not have crowds (like #35 Crossing the Bridge to Charlestown) to more evenly distribute tourists on the trail. (6) It uses a lot of battery (about 50% over only about 3 hours).

I'll start by saying this is absolutely worth the purchase to explore the Boston freedom trail solo or with a partner (using one headphone each was great for us). However, make sure you have plenty of battery or a backup option. My iPhone 15 Pro Max lost over 60% of its charge after completing the full trail. Also, the app will skip to the next stop recording if you wander too far in some places. Still a great resource and we enjoyed the stories and narration for the full trail instead of the condensed version offered in guided tours. Also, note that the app does NOT download the full guide with the app itself. Download the audio guide within the app before your start if you want to save 60MB of mobile data.

I sent a message to The Freedom Trail App support yesterday at 11:06a, because Stop 27 was not listed on the map. By 1:54p I received a response from Freedom Trail. The message said the technician was going to make an adjustment. Later in the afternoon, I noticed the glitch was fixed. The app will be great to have when I’m in Boston this summer!