The Secret app — the most meaningful and authentic travel guide created by doers and creators

I am pleased to become one of the doers/creators of The Secret App, which is composed of amazing people curating nice places in cities where they are based in.

The app does not only address the issues of AI, in which contents or recommendations are generated automatically combining various sources that may not make sense, but also the current social media ecosystem which is driven by attention seeking, sponsorship or any kinds of monetisation.

Authenticity is what The Secret App aims to become, by selecting amazing people from different sectors like art, design and translation, to curate their lovely spots in the cities they are based in. In their app or website, you can start from the city you would like to explore or the people involved. When you look at places, you will see the list of people who recommend. If you browse their profiles, you will understand their backgrounds and have some ideas of why they curated the places with a series of questions on the pages.

The Secret App is like a book that enhances your understanding of cities and places. Any answer can be much easier to be obtained through the Internet, but why, and how are these answers formed? Are they meaningful? The app is doing a great job by providing the context — the personality and background of the artists, illustrators, designers… who are living and experiencing in their cities — to show you these curations are real and worth visiting.

The content is slowly growing. At first I was frustrated how long they took to publish my profile, but I realised they do need time to check and build new databases of spots in which I am the first to recommend.

The app is free without ads, and you can download here.