Memory map apps compared: which tool keeps your stories on a map?

Which tool should you choose?

Choose by the job you want done.

• To keep the stories of your life, or a parent's, at the places they happened, and let family read them in a browser: Here My Story.
• To record a trip while you are on it, with your route drawn automatically: Polarsteps.
• To keep a daily journal and see your entries on a map: Day One.
• To build a custom map with layers, imported data or several editors: Google My Maps.
• To receive a printed book of a parent's answers to weekly questions: Storyworth or Remento.
• To have an iPhone place your photos on a map automatically: Mapmediary.

How do they compare side by side?

What is Here My Story best at?

Here My Story is a free personal memory map: a private map of the places where your life happened, where each pin holds a story, a photo and a date. It is not a travel tracker.

• Memories from any year. You place every pin by hand and can date it back to 1900. Nothing depends on a photo's location data, which matters for childhood homes and a grandparent's stories.
• Reading in a browser. Relatives open the map from a link on whatever device they have. There is nothing to install.
• A map and a journal. The same stories appear on the map and in a list grouped by year.
• Safe sharing. The people you invite can read the map and can't change it.
• Stories that wait at a place. Any story can be marked "Only readable at this place," so the reader has to go there to open it. How that works.

Where does Here My Story fall short?

It is new, and it is deliberately small. As of November 2026:

• There are no iPhone or Android apps. It runs in the browser.
• Each pin holds one photo. There is no audio or video.
• Each account has one map, and only its owner can add stories.
• It doesn't track routes or trips.
• It doesn't print books or import from other apps.

If one of these matters to you, one of the tools below will suit you better.

What is Google My Maps best at?

Google My Maps is the most flexible free tool for making a custom map. A map can have up to 10 layers and 10,000 places, you can add photos and videos to any place, and you can let other people edit the map with you. Maps are kept in Google Drive.

It is less suited to stories. Each place has a title and a description box, with no journal or timeline view, and there is no My Maps app for phones: Google's help pages say to create and edit maps in a web browser. More on My Maps and memory maps.

What is Day One best at?

Day One is a journal first. If you write most days, it is a better home for that habit than a map: it has apps for every platform, rich entries, and a map view that shows your entries as pins. You can set an entry's date to any time in the past and, in the iPhone, Mac and Android apps, set its location by hand.

The difference is the starting point. In Day One you write an entry and it can have a place. In a memory map you choose a place and it has a story. The free Basic plan allows one photo per entry and one device.

What is Polarsteps best at?

Polarsteps is built for travel. It tracks your route by GPS while you are on a trip, arranges your photos and notes into steps, and can turn the trip into a printed book. It is free, with an optional paid tier. If you want a record of a journey, it does that better than Here My Story does.

Everything in Polarsteps belongs to a trip, so it has no natural place for the house you grew up in or the bench where your father sat.

What about iPhone memory map apps?

There are many small iPhone apps for pinning memories, and two represent the main approaches. My Memory Map is a private map diary where you add entries by hand; it is for iPhone only. Mapmediary places your photos on a map automatically using the location stored in each photo, which is quick for recent years and does little for memories from before you carried a phone.

If you and the people you share with all use iPhones, these are worth a look. If the readers include a grandparent on an Android tablet or a brother on a work laptop, a map that opens in a browser is simpler.

What about Storyworth and Remento?

Storyworth sends the storyteller a question each week for a year and binds the answers into a hardcover book. Remento does something similar with voice recordings. Neither has a map. They are the right choice if a printed book is what you want to end up with. How a memory map compares with Storyworth.

What about apps for leaving a message at a location?

A few small iPhone apps, such as Koko, TimeCapsules and Drop, let you leave a message that opens only when someone reaches a place. They are built around a single message between friends. Here My Story has the same idea as one option on a story in a family's memory map: mark it "Only readable at this place" and readers must be within about 200 meters to open it, in a web browser, with no app. How location-locked stories work.

What about Queering the Map and Historypin?

These are community maps, not personal ones. Queering the Map collects anonymous public posts about queer experience at places around the world. Historypin lets communities and archives pin historical photos and stories. Both are public by design. A personal memory map is private by default and belongs to one person or family.

Common questions