Journey Shelf

For people who always mean to make the album, and never do

Every trip, a book on the shelf.

Journey Shelf turns every trip into a journal that feels like a real book. Before you go, pick a ready-made route on the map and the journal is laid out. On the way, add a photo at each stop: the page gets its postmark, and an enamel pin drops out. Back home, the book is already made, and it goes on your shelf.

  • iPhone
  • iPhone Duo ready
  • Free
  • Coming this winter

Get early access

A small beta opens before launch. People on this list get in first.

Three emails at most: beta, pre-order, launch. Never shared, and one reply takes you off the list.

You are on the list.

We will write when the beta opens. Know someone you travel with? Send them this page.

journeyshelf.com/

One more tap: which map pack should come next?

The sample journal the app opens on. Its photos are drawn. Captured in the simulator.

From the map to the shelf

Real screens from the app. The photos in the journals are drawn, and Mia and Leo are made up.

  1. Before you go

    Plan it on the map

    Pick a destination and its illustrated map unfolds, with a few ready-made routes: where each day goes, and how, already drawn. Follow one as it is, or make it yours.

    • Pick a destination

      The SoCal coast, Kyoto, New York City, Mount Rainier and Oahu each come with a ready-made map pack.

    • Pick a route

      Kyoto has the classic five days, a three-day weekend and more. See it day by day, tap a place on the map to add it, drag to change the order.

    • Name it, date it

      Rename it right on the cover, swipe for leather or cloth, and write the dates on the luggage tag.

  2. On the way

    A photo at every stop

    Every place has a page with a photo mission. Add the photo and the page gets the day's postmark, and a pin drops out.

    • Stick it on, get the stamp

      The postmark lands on the page, dated the day you were there.

    • A pin for every stop

      Each stop has its own enamel pin. Get there on the planned day, and it comes numbered.

    • And a line

      Write a line under the photo. Whoever you travel with can add one too.

  3. Back home

    The book is already made

    The last page sums up the trip: the stamps, the photos, the lines. Turn a few pages into pictures to post, then stand the book on your shelf.

    • Make pictures, post them

      Pick pages for a 3:4 or 9:16 set, or long pictures, with a caption and hashtags ready for Instagram, X or WeChat.

    • One card for the trip

      The cover, a photo, the days and the stamps, the pins you collected: the whole trip in one picture.

    • Onto your shelf

      One trip, one book, standing cover-out. The pins you collect can go on the felt board on top.

A board full of pins

Each place has a pin of its own, drawn the way an enamel pin is made. Turn it in the light, pin it to a page, or set it on the felt board on top of your shelf. Over a hundred are drawn so far; here are some from the first four destinations.

The SoCal coast

  • Surfboard
  • Tide-pool sea star
  • Seagull eyeing the fries
  • Strawberry shake
  • The old lifeguard tower
  • Sea lion with a ball
  • Palm with lights
  • Avocado

Kyoto

  • Vermilion torii gates
  • Inari fox with a key
  • Three-color dango
  • Bowl of matcha
  • Five-story pagoda
  • Koi in the pond
  • Pottery tanuki
  • Red paper lantern

New York City

  • Lady Liberty
  • Yellow cab
  • Bagel with schmear
  • A slice to fold
  • Street pretzel
  • Pigeon eyeing a pretzel
  • Brooklyn Bridge
  • Subway entrance

Mount Rainier

  • The mountain is out
  • The whistling marmot
  • Mountain goat on the ledge
  • The ranger's flat hat
  • The homestead cabin
  • The meadow in bloom
  • Alpenglow
  • The mountain upside down

iPhone Duo

On a folding iPhone, it is a book

Closed, the outer screen is the cover. Open, the inner screen is the spread, and the hinge is the spine. On any other iPhone the pages turn one at a time, and nothing is missing.

Captured in the iPhone Duo simulator. Real-device footage arrives in late October.

Five destinations, maps already drawn

Each destination is a map pack: an illustrated map, a few ready-made routes, and a photo mission and a pin for every stop.

  • The SoCal coast

    Laguna's tide pools and sunsets, then on to LA

  • Kyoto

    Torii gates, bamboo and matcha: the old capital on foot

  • New York City

    Skyscrapers, Central Park and pizza by the slice

  • Mount Rainier

    Glaciers, wildflower meadows and waterfalls, all the way round one mountain

  • Oahu, Hawaii

    Waikiki and Diamond Head, Pearl Harbor, then up to the North Shore

  • Somewhere else?

    Make a blank journal: write the place on the cover, set the days on the luggage tag, add stops as you go. And tell us which map pack you want next.

You might be wondering

  • No sign-up

    It opens on a finished sample journal. Tap the photo on its empty page, and you know how it works.

  • Your journal stays with you

    Photos and words stay on your own phone, never on our servers.

  • Free, no ads

    The first version is free, with no ads and no in-app purchases.

Want to be among the first?

Join the waitlist