New Welsh app turns ordinary walks into journeys through history

Nation.Cymru Staff

A new app developed by a Welsh entrepreneur promises to transform everyday walks into personalised audio journeys through hidden history.

Mosey, founded by Newport-based audio producer Sam Hamilton-Turner, tells people the hidden history of exactly where they’re walking, transforming ordinary walks into personalised audio experiences that work almost anywhere in the world.

As they move, the GPS-triggered app uses AI (Artificial Intelligence) to research, write and narrate stories about the places around them in real time through their headphones.

Behind the scenes, the app researches upcoming locations while the current story is still playing, creating a continuous listening experience without requiring users to stop and choose where to go next.

Rather than treating every walk as a fresh experience, Mosey remembers what users have already heard, avoids unnecessary repetition, and gradually builds connections between places explored weeks or even months apart.

Mosey works almost anywhere with a mobile data connection, but Wales has been its primary proving ground as Hamilton-Turner believes it has an extraordinary concentration of history that often goes unnoticed.

“I’m ashamed at how little I really know about the history of my own hometown,” Hamilton-Turner explained. “Since developing Mosey I’ve been amazed to discover the history that’s hidden all around me and it’s given me a much stronger sense of place.”

Before launch, Mosey completed a private beta across 18 countries, including Antarctica, in which participants completed more than 360 walks and generated approximately 1,160 unique pieces of historical narration to refine the app.

The app launches today on Apple’s App Store, with an Android version currently in development.

Connection

Hamilton-Turner, who co-founded south-Wales audio production company Soundquake, has produced more than 350 audio projects for over 200 organisations, including Sky History, the BBC and Amazon, specialising in documentary storytelling and immersive listening experiences.

He said: “I’ve spent my career creating audio experiences for global audiences. What’s exciting now is that we can create an experience that’s genuinely made for one person, in one place, at one moment in time. That’s a completely different kind of storytelling experience.”

The company also plans to make Welsh one of the first languages supported as multi-language narration rolls out, reflecting both the country’s bilingual identity and the importance of making local history accessible in its native language.

“We’re building a global product and If we’re encouraging people to connect more deeply with place, language is a huge part of that. Having experienced how deeply important the Welsh language is here and how frequently it’s left behind in the tech sphere, I don’t want to make that same mistake with Mosey,” Hamilton-Turner added.

Hamilton-Turner says Mosey was deliberately designed to encourage people to spend less time looking at screens and more time engaging with the places around them. As Hamilton-Turner puts it: “A little less scrolling and a little more strolling… The whole point is helping people experience the real world. We didn’t want a business model that rewarded doing the opposite.”

Instead of relying on advertising or attention-based business models, Mosey uses a simple usage-based subscription with unused monthly allowance rolling over into future months.

There are no adverts, sponsored content or engagement mechanics designed to maximise screen time.

Looking ahead

The company is now focused on growing internationally while continuing to build the business from its base in south Wales.

Among a broad development roadmap, Mosey is building a self-service platform that will allow museums, heritage organisations, visitor attractions and historic estates to create their own location-aware experiences using their existing historical material.

Future updates will also introduce topic preferences, allowing a users experience to prioritise chosen areas such as architecture, folklore, industrial heritage and natural history, alongside multi-language narration led by support for Welsh.

For more information, visit the Mosey site here.

---

Get more trusted Welsh news

Choose Nation.Cymru as a preferred source in Google News to see more of our journalism.