# American Palette — A living map of your travels.

> Map app that colors U.S. counties as you visit them. (iPhone/iPad app by Christopher Elliott.)

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/american-palette/id6741702484 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`)
- Developer: [Christopher Elliott](https://appshunter.io/developer/1795167768)
- Category: Travel, Lifestyle
- Price: $19.99
- Rating: 5.00/5 from 5 App Store ratings · 4 written reviews indexed
- Age rating: 4+
- Requires: iOS 17.6 · 11 MB
- Languages: American English
- Released: 2025-02-10
- Data updated: 2026-09-01
- Monetization: free
- User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/american-palette/id6741702484/reviews.md

## What is American Palette?

There are more than 3,143 discoverable counties in the United States. Most people see a few dozen in a lifetime and never notice. American Palette notices.

Leave it running while you travel. The moment you cross a county line, that county fills in with its own color, numbered in the order you found it. No check-ins. No buttons to press. You just drive, fly, or scooter, and the map slowly becomes a picture of everywhere you've been.

Every county now gets a color chosen so that back-to-back discoveries never look alike, the result is a map that reads as a color palette

Flying somewhere and it missed a few counties? Retracing an old trip? Switch on manual mode and tap any county to add it with the visit number you choose. Everything after it renumbers itself. Long-press any county to see when you found it, or remove it if you marked one by mistake.

- Progress for all 50 states, with completed states called out
- The exact percentage of U.S. land area you've covered
- Best day, longest streak, total travel days, and when you started
- 30 achievements across four categories, each one telling you plainly what it takes to unlock and exactly how close you are

One tap builds an image of your painted map with your numbers underneath and your color palette running along the bottom. Save it or post it.


YOUR DATA, YOUR DEVICE

Nothing is uploaded. There's no account, no sign-in, and no server. Your counties live on your phone. Export everything to a JSON file whenever you want, and import it back on a new device. We take privacy and security extremely seriously.

County boundaries are bundled with the app, so tracking keeps working with no cellular/internet signal at all — through the Nevada basin, across west Texas, up the Alaska Highway.


MADE FOR THE ROAD

- Three map styles: satellite, satellite with labels, and a minimal basemap that lets the colors carry
- County borders on or off
- The discovery chime mixes with your music and follows the ring/silent switch — it will never interrupt navigation or a podcast
- Battery-aware location tracking that tightens up near a county line and relaxes in the middle of one

Whether you're a county collector working toward all 3,143, a road tripper who wants a record of the long way home, or someone who just wants to see how much of the country they've actually touched — the map is waiting.


Continued use of GPS running in the background can dramatically decrease battery life. Look for the blew navigation arrow on when the app is not in focus to confirm that the app is still tracking location in the background. Force quit when you no longer wish to use it to save battery life.

## Key features

- Color U.S. counties visited
- Visualize travel routes
- Personalized map masterpiece
- Track explored areas
- Explore America's counties

## Recent user reviews (4 of 4)

All indexed reviews: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/american-palette/id6741702484/reviews.md

### 5/5 — Simple and fun app

*2025-03-09*

Enjoyable app, I look forward to seeing all the places that I have traveled. I appreciated the creator answering my questions personally. I can tell that a lot of love went into creating this app!

### 5/5 — Super cool.

*2025-02-12*

This app is cool! Definitely check it out.

### 5/5 — Best date ever!!!

*2025-02-11*

I downloaded this and my husband and I drove around for 2 hours just trying to get to other counties to color them in. We got lost for about 5 minutes and it was probably the most fun date I’ve ever been on. Definitely the easiest date idea if you’re adventurous!!

### 5/5 — Visualization

*2025-02-11*

This application provides a valuable means of visualizing my family's extensive travel history. I eagerly anticipate reviewing the map at the end of the year.

## Frequently asked questions about American Palette

### What is American Palette?

American Palette is a free travel app that allows you to color in U.S. counties as you visit them, creating a visual representation of your travels.

### How does American Palette work?

As you travel, the app marks the counties you've visited and applies a unique color to them, transforming your map into a personalized masterpiece.

### Is American Palette free to use?

Yes, American Palette is completely free to download and use, with no in-app purchases or advertisements.

### What devices is American Palette available on?

American Palette is available on iPhone and iPad devices.

### What is the age rating for American Palette?

American Palette has an age rating of 4+, making it suitable for a wide range of users.

### How often is American Palette updated?

The app was last updated on January 20, 2026, indicating active development and support.

### What do users like about American Palette?

Users appreciate the unique concept of coloring counties as they travel, turning exploration into a visual game. The app has received a perfect 5.0-star rating from 5 reviews.

### Does American Palette have ads?

No, American Palette is ad-free, providing an uninterrupted experience for users.

## Version history (last 4 releases)

### 2.3.1 — 2026-08-02

IMPROVED BATTERY PERFORMANCE

By engineering an intelligent GPS mode that increases polling rates near county borders and reduces them when you aren't near any (or when stationary), we are able to achieve an average of 20% or more decrease in battery drain over the previous versions while still maintaining a responsive user experience.

SHARE YOUR MAP
A new share button in the stats screen builds an image of your painted counties with your totals underneath and your full color palette along the bottom. Save it or post it.

ACHIEVEMENTS

Every achievement now tells you plainly what it takes to unlock, how far along you are, and what's left to do. They're grouped into Milestones, Land Area, States, and Journeys, and you can filter to just the ones still in progress.

A CHIME FOR NEW COUNTIES
Crossing into a new county now plays a short chime alongside the usual buzz. It mixes with whatever you're already listening to, follows your ring/silent switch, and can be switched off in the ••• menu.

ALSO IN THIS UPDATE
- Counties that surround an independent city — Richmond, Baltimore City, St. Louis and others — now draw correctly with the city cut out
- Noticeably faster launches after the first one
- Visit numbers on multi-part counties now sit on the main body instead of drifting onto a small island
- Importing a backup is more reliable, and failures now tell you what went wrong instead of failing quietly
- Your map style and border setting are remembered between launches
- Renumbering after removing a county now updates the "recently discovered" list right away
- Full VoiceOver labels throughout, and a Done button on the visit-order keyboard
- Exported filenames are cleaner and easier to work with

### 2.2 — 2026-01-20

Patch Notes Summary:

NEW FEATURE! Progress bar showing how much of the U.S. you've discovered.

TL;DR: Massively improved performance, increasingly responsive interface, much less stuttering.

Performance Improvements
Single Overlay Rendering System
- Replaced 3,143 individual polygon overlays with one unified overlay renderer
- Border toggle is now 5-10x faster (from 1-2 seconds to 0.1-0.2 seconds)
- Smoother map panning and zooming
- Reduced memory footprint by ~60-80%

Removed 30-Second Pulse Timer
- Eliminated unnecessary background location pings when zoomed in
- Reduced battery drain
- Simplified location tracking logic

Thread Safety & Crash Prevention
- Added `dictionaryQueue` serial queue to protect all dictionary access
- Fixed 16+ locations where `visitedOrderByGeoID` and `visitedColorByGeoID` were accessed unsafely

Critical fixes:
  - Location updates (background thread) - prevented race conditions during driving
  - Core Data restore/import (background thread) - prevented data corruption
  - County marking operations - prevented concurrent modification crashes

Gesture Handler Optimization
- Moved heavy polygon hit-testing off main thread
- Tap and long-press gestures are now instant and responsive
- Fixed UI freezing when interacting with map

Bug Fixes
- Fixed `refreshCountyOverlays` reference after method removal
- Fixed `AllCountiesRenderer` overlay property shadowing compiler error
- Fixed `rendererCache` usage in `polygonContainsFast` after cache removal
- Fixed county removal calling deleted `refreshCountyOverlays` method

UI/UX Changes
- County borders now enabled by default (can still toggle off)
- All dictionary access in gesture handlers is now non-blocking
- Smoother interaction during map manipulation

### 2.1 — 2026-01-12

Now releasing American Palette version 2.1!

Major Feature Updates

-Now properly supporting Alaska and Puerto Rico
-Added satellite imagery
-Added the ability to toggle on/off map annotations.
-Added the ability to toggle on/off county borders.
-Now properly supporting Alaska and Puerto Rico
-Added the ability to add and remove counties manually (intended to correct occasional improper tracking by the application)
-Added an in app help/information section.

Note: The app should work even when not active or at least opened recently, but for best performance, please leave the app open when actively traveling for best results.

Bug Fixes:

-Fixed an issue where certain counties were not filling in, Like L.A. and counties bordering large bodies of water.
-Fixed Core Data Concurrency Issue
-Fixed export/import bug causing multiple instances

General Updates/Improvements

-Camera boundary increased
-Improved app stability, reduced likelihood of crashes.
-Dramatically improved app performance, especially with borders turned off.
-Significantly reduced battery drain caused by always on location tracking.
-Improved the length of time app can be out of focus and counties will still be tracked.

### 1.0 — 2025-02-10

No release notes.

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## More apps by Christopher Elliott

- [The Study Wizard](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/the-study-wizard/id6742042217)
- [CyberTap Math Game](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/cybertap-math-game/id6742124750)
- [My Tennis Advantage](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/my-tennis-advantage/id6757944011)
- [Impulse Market](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/impulse-market/id6779297608)

All apps by Christopher Elliott: https://appshunter.io/developer/1795167768

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*Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-09-01.*