Field Trip is a mobile app that uses your location to send push notifications about your surroundings, alerting you about interesting places to see or things to do.

Use Field Trip while traveling

Field Trip is an app that makes you better aware of your surroundings, allowing you to learn more about points of interest or find activities to do in unexpected places. The app is currently available for iOS and Android, and it’s also been developed for Google Glass. Although Glass has yet to be adopted by a wide-scale audience, it might be the platform best suited for Field Trip’s capabilities. As you scan a particular area, the app pulls information about certain sites, offering historical information, ideas for further exploration and other facts. Content is pulled from a variety of sources, including several different bloggers and publishers. Although I’ve yet to test Glass myself, Field Trip’s demonstrative video makes it seem like using Field Trip on Google’s product is as easy as looking around at your surroundings and receiving instant updates and information about what you’re seeing.

Use Field Trip in your home city to discover something new

On the iOS and Android platforms, the interaction between the user and the information given is not quite as seamless. Still, the ability of the app to alert you of your surroundings is a cool feature to have in your pocket. Field Trip uses GPS to determine your location, then regularly sends you updates about nearby places worth checking out in the form of push notifications. It’s easy to tinker with the settings based on the amount of notifications you’re willing to see, as well as the type of information that you want to read. The app is especially useful during travel — particularly road trips or other vacations in which you may or may not have set sightseeing plans. Otherwise, it’s great to have while walking around your home city — you never know what you might discover.