The friend who's already been, in your pocket

The best travel advice has always come from someone who's actually been. They know which side of the river to stay on, which queue is worth an hour of your life, and what everybody gets wrong about the famous thing.

That's the job of the Journey Companion. Ask it something — mid-trip, or six months before you go — and you get an answer with an actual opinion in it.

It knows where you are

Ask what's good nearby and it looks at real places around you, not a generic list for the city you happen to be in. Ask at eleven at night and it won't send you somewhere that stopped serving at three.

It remembers you

Tell it once that you're vegetarian, or that you travel with a five-year-old, and it stops offering you things that don't work. That carries between conversations — you're not re-explaining yourself every time you open the app.

It has opinions

You'll be told when something's overrated, when a queue isn't worth it, and what to cut when you've only got three days. A companion that likes everything equally is no use to anyone.

Ready to ask it something?

• ✦Open the chat — it's available anywhere in the app
• ✦Ask something specific: "somewhere good for dinner near here, not touristy"
• ✦Push back on the answer. It learns from that.
• ✦When you're ready, ask it to plan the whole trip

Messages and nearby searches cost coins; the cost is shown before you tap.