# Urban Archive Explore History — user reviews > 76 indexed App Store user reviews of Urban Archive Explore History by Urban Archive, Inc., rated 4.70/5 from 227 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/urban-archive-explore-history/id1154228951/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/urban-archive-explore-history/id1154228951.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 199 · 4★ 9 · 3★ 8 · 2★ 4 · 1★ 7 ## What do users think of Urban Archive Explore History? Overall sentiment: positive **Pros** - 📸 Exceptional historical photo collection and archival content - 🗺️ Innovative location-based history discovery - 👍 User-friendly and intuitive interface design - 📚 Educational value with rich historical context - 🎯 Engaging overlay feature comparing past and present photos - 🌟 Highly engaging and addictive user experience - 🔄 Regular updates and continuous improvements - 💬 Responsive developer team addressing user feedback - 🎨 Beautiful and elegant visual design - 🚶 Enhances walking experience through the city **Cons** - 🐛 Frequent crashes and app instability - ⏱️ Sluggish performance and loading delays - 🔗 Broken notification links not opening content - 📍 Limited geographic coverage (primarily NYC-focused) - ⚠️ Content moderation issues with irrelevant uploads - 🔍 Search timeout errors - 🗺️ Map display showing only purple dots without information - ❌ Error messages without helpful context - 🔄 Recent layout changes caused loss of visited location tracking **Commonly reported bugs** - History notifications fail to load content approximately 50% of the time - App opens to map with purple dots but no information overlay - Audio tour files crash at Museum of the City of New York - Clicking on map items yields 'search timed out' errors - New layout caused disappearance of previously visible locations - Clicking locations produces no response or action - Oops error messages when opening daily history - 'Content coming' placeholder text persists indefinitely **Most requested features** - Expand app to more cities worldwide - Time period filtering for historical photos - Improved error correction mechanism for user-submitted data - Walking path and navigation integration - Visited location tracking and management - Content availability outside NYC boroughs - More extensive NYPL and NYC Municipal Archives integration ## Newest reviews (14 of 76) ### 5/5 — Must have NYC App…if you’re a history buff *2022-09-08, version 2022.2* As a New Yorker this has enhanced my neighborhood and neighborhoods I visit. So much history that is overlooked and this brings it to life. Such a great resource and reference. ### 5/5 — Amazing History in photos!!! *2022-04-03, version 2022.2* I can walk around my neighborhood & visualize the elevated train on 9 th avenue, the Trolley on 8 th avenue. View the stores with prices 2 tomatoes for 25 cents, right on my block of 8 th avenue between 17 & 18 street. Truly enjoying this walk through History & seeing where we are now. It’s so cool, luv it. It’s my Ancestry of my city I came to live in, before my time and During the Resurrection (Jesus foretold in John 5:28,29) we will meet many who lived during this era. We will be able to show them this Urban Archive and JW.org info. Thank you, keep up this Amazing website. ### 5/5 — LoVE this app!! *2021-07-18, version 2021.3* So much fun AND educational : ) ### 5/5 — LOVE *2021-01-31, version 2021.1* Really great app! It’s a wonder more folks don’t know about it! No doubt the app will only get better and more interesting over time. ### 5/5 — Bringing Archives to the Forefront *2021-01-20, version 2021.1* Groundbreaking app which makes archival material accessible and relevant. ### 5/5 — Fantastic! *2020-11-14, version 2020.4* I spend hours on this app!!!!! ### 5/5 — GREAT App *2020-09-01, version 2020.3* I've been using this App for over a year and have been so impressed that I donated $ to help it continue to grow. Alway new data and innovations. Update: Still as good as ever. Better even. Still a donor too. Try it. You'll like it. No, love it. ### 5/5 — I love this app, it adds extra sparkle to my walks *2020-08-26, version 2020.3* I especially enjoy the collected stories ### 5/5 — FDR Drive *2020-06-29, version 2020.3* An email betraying look at the FDR over the course of many years. ### 5/5 — Memories *2020-06-08, version 2020.3* Having survived a heart attack, a stroke, and heart transplant, this app is restoring the wonderful memories that have been scattered in my brain. Thank you...: ### 5/5 — Works now *2020-04-16, version 2020.3* Excited to delve into the history ### 4/5 — This is amazing. We need this concept for more aspects of public space *2020-03-14, version 2020.3* I love this app. As someone studying policy and the built environment, this app really brings to life the past and present. I just wish it didn’t crash so much, and that it was easier to find walking paths and navigation on the ground. Overall amazing though, thank you urban archive for creating it. ### 5/5 — Fantastic app!!! *2020-03-14, version 2020.3* I love how interactive and thorough this app is! Such attention to detail and brilliant set up! If you like learning the history of NYC, try this app! ### 5/5 — It’s like someone made this app for me *2020-01-29, version 2020.1* I really love this app. It’s one of my favorite apps ever. I love New York and part of that is just knowing about all the history that surrounds me when I’m there. Once upon a time there was another app called History Here that would notify you of nearby historical sites, and I always lamented its loss. Urban Archive created this app and it is absolutely echelons above History Here, and that’s an incredible feat. I’m so thankful for it. ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — Nose *2025-06-06, version 2023.2* No está para el de Nuevo León (México) cienega de flores😩 ### 1/5 — The Audio Tour crashes. *2019-10-14, version 2019.17* I am at the Museum of the City of New York and every effort to play an audio tour file crashes. ### 1/5 — New layout = waaaay less content *2019-01-28, version 1.7.1* The newer layout of the map caused many of the locations to disappear. There are a few places where I hang out that are completely gone. Bring back the purple dots. I loved watching them turn green as I visited places. I have introduced so many people to your app but now it’s just not as informative as it once was. And I’m contemplating deleting the app all together. ### 2/5 — Very nice but… *2024-04-25, version 2023.2* The app itself is amazing and I love to use it when I am strolling around Manhattan. I am a history buff and this app is almost always active on my phone. However! Lately I have seen super recent pictures that don’t deserve to be on the app, like random scaffolding instead of an actual building, a family portrait recently taken after a 2023 bike ride! Are we joking here? A bike ride ? I seriously hope that the developers start moderating the picture uploads because the app is losing value becoming a free for all. ### 2/5 — Great—Until it’s not *2020-08-07, version 2020.3* When it’s working, this a great app ... great photos, etc. Nevertheless, more than half the time searches or clicking on a map item yields “your search as timed out.” Very frustrating. ### 3/5 — Amazing concept, but big frustrations *2024-08-28, version 2023.2* This kind of app is exactly up my alley. In fact, I looked it up after having had a similar app idea. “I wonder if anyone else has made this,” I thought. Wonderfully for my curiosity (and disappointingly for my lost app opportunity), I found Urban Archive. It does exactly what I wanted from an app like this. The location-based history tidbits are awesome. There’s tons of interesting information here, not just stuff I don’t know, but stuff I wouldn’t have even thought to inquire about. But there are also big frustrations in terms of usability. My biggest one is that history notifications only take me to page maybe half the time. The other half, the app opens to only a map with lots of purple dots, but no information or overlay. Occasionally the information comes up after a short delay, which brings me to another issue: the app is sluggish and buggy at times. Many times I’ve tried to open the day’s history only to be greeted with an “oops” and no additional info. I simply dealt with these issues for a while because I love all the stuff I’m learning, but I’m so irritated at this point that I’m just deleting the app. I really hope the developers of this app can go on a proper bug hunt and make this app a pleasure to use because it has so much potential. ### 3/5 — Expand locations *2021-01-30, version 2021.1* How is it that you only have four locations? And 3 are in NY alone. What about the people who live else where? ### 3/5 — Dope but could be better *2019-06-17, version 1.11.1* This app is so cool but I wish u could choose the time period of the pictures u want to see that would make it more better than it already is ### 3/5 — Love this app but... *2018-12-28, version 1.7* I’ve had this app for awhile and absolutely loved it but since the new layout came out all my visited locations disappeared as well as the fact that now when I click a location to view nothing happens, hopefully this is a simple fix that way I can change the rating back to 5 because it honestly is a great app ### 4/5 — Great—when it works *2021-01-06, version 2020.6* About three weeks after I got it, that annoying error message—SOMETHING WENT WRONG, TRY AGAIN—started coming up on many, many buildings I tapped. Now it reads “Content coming” and it’s been like that for a while. I love the app, when it works. Looking forward to having that new content. Thanks! PS. Just got a response from the developer... good stuff coming! Thanks! ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — Urban Archive is a wonderful resource for old photos *2024-10-30, version 2023.2* One of the best apps ever ### 5/5 — Great Stuff *2024-06-03, version 2023.2* Makes walking down the street a completely new experience. Love history and this just makes you appreciate the past by seeing how things have changed (or haven’t). Love this app! ### 5/5 — Coolest App on my phone *2024-03-19, version 2023.2* There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t open this app to see the history of the buildings I’m walking by. Everyone I show it to instantly down loads it. 5 Stars. ### 5/5 — A spectacular app for NYC that should be emulated worldwide *2023-09-17, version 2023.2* This app is one of my all time favorites (and I have downloaded far too many). It really embodies the transformational promise of the smartphone — location aware access to an encyclopedic trove of images and information. Thank you to all who made it possible!! ### 5/5 — Great resource of NYC architecture history *2023-09-11, version 2023.2* Excellent ### 5/5 — The greatest collection of historical New York City photographs ever collected *2023-09-02, version 2023.2* It is nothing short of incredible that an app that fits into my pocket can have both a library full of different collections of historical photographs of New York City and also have them plotted on an easy to navigate map! ### 5/5 — Fascinating and fun. *2023-07-24, version 2023.2* Can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone down the rabbit hole of history as I’ve walked around Brooklyn and Manhattan. When I’m out with my teenaged son and he sees me take my phone out, he just rolls his eyes and accepts that I might be a while. So many great photos and captions. I love being able to take a current photo and combine them with the vintage shots in the app. And, I’ve sent in a few small historical corrections over the years, and the team is very responsive and has updated the info surprisingly quickly. Just a terrific resource about NYC’s past, to get your imagination spinning. ### 5/5 — Urban archive *2023-07-13, version 2023.2* Best ever ### 5/5 — City nerd’s best friend *2023-05-25, version 2023.2* One of my favorite apps to understand the history of my neighborhood and the City at large. Absolutely love the archival photos and wish it was more extensive! Great for tourists too! ### 5/5 — Indispensable! *2023-04-24, version 2023.2* An awesome app for city tourists and history nerds. I use it daily while walking around NYC. --- *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 2026-08-24.*