App Updates

How to Use Discovery Mode in RoadHistorical

Discovery Mode alerts you to Texas historical markers in real time as you drive — no searching required. Here is how to turn it on and get the most out of it on your next Texas road trip.

Texas has more than 16,000 official historical markers — more than any other state in the country. Most of them sit quietly along roadsides, on courthouse squares, and in small towns that most travelers drive right through without a second glance. RoadHistorical exists to change that. As a Texas historical preservation platform, its mission is to connect people to the stories embedded in the land they are already traveling across. Discovery Mode is the feature that makes that possible in real time.

What Is Discovery Mode?

Discovery Mode is a continuous background feature in RoadHistorical that monitors your location while you travel and alerts you when you are approaching a Texas historical marker. You do not need to open the app or search for anything. Turn it on before you hit the road and RoadHistorical does the watching for you.

Think of it as a history-aware co-pilot. Whether you are on a long stretch of highway through the Hill Country, winding through a small East Texas town, or cruising along the Gulf Coast, Discovery Mode surfaces the markers you would otherwise miss entirely.

Why Discovery Mode Matters for Texas History

Texas historical markers are the physical backbone of the state's preservation efforts. Each one was researched, verified, and placed by the Texas Historical Commission to mark a person, place, event, or structure that shaped Texas. Many markers tell stories that never made it into textbooks — local legends, Civil War skirmishes, the founding of communities that no longer exist, and the lives of people who built the state from the ground up.

Discovery Mode turns every road trip into an act of preservation. When you stop, read a marker, and mark it as visited in RoadHistorical, you are participating in the broader mission of keeping that history alive and discoverable for the next generation of Texas travelers.

How to Turn On Discovery Mode

Getting started takes less than a minute:

1. Open RoadHistorical on your iPhone.

2. Tap the Discovery tab at the bottom of the screen.

3. Toggle Discovery Mode on.

4. Allow location access when prompted — "Always Allow" gives you alerts even when the app is in the background.

5. Set your alert radius if you want to customize how close you need to be before a notification fires.

That is it. You are now set up to receive real-time alerts any time you come within range of a Texas historical marker.

What Happens When Discovery Mode Finds Something

When you get close to a marker, RoadHistorical sends a notification to your phone. Tap it to open the full marker detail — including the official inscription, historical context, and any AI Tour Guide insights available for that location.

From the marker detail screen you can:

Read the full historical background curated from the marker and surrounding context.

Ask the AI Tour Guide a question to go deeper — who were the people involved, what happened after, how does it connect to Texas history broadly?

Listen to an audio narration of the marker details so you can keep your eyes on the road.

Mark the location as Visited to track your progress and unlock achievements.

Save it to Want to Visit if you want to come back later.

Tips for Getting the Most Out of Discovery Mode

Set "Always Allow" for location access. This is what lets Discovery Mode work when RoadHistorical is running in the background. Without it, you will only get alerts when the app is open.

Adjust your alert radius for the type of road you are on. On a fast highway, a wider radius gives you more warning time. On a slow scenic drive through a small town, a tighter radius keeps alerts focused on what is immediately around you.

Pair it with audio narration. Texas back roads and Discovery Mode were made for each other. Turn on audio narration so you can hear marker details read aloud while you drive, hands-free.

Check your badge progress after a long drive. Discovery Mode is the fastest way to rack up visited markers, which unlocks RoadHistorical's achievement badges and trip milestones. After a road trip through the Hill Country or along US-90, open the app and see how many badges you earned.

Does Discovery Mode Work Without Cell Service?

Yes. Cell coverage in rural Texas can be unreliable, and RoadHistorical is built with that reality in mind. Core marker discovery is powered by locally cached data, which means Discovery Mode can still find and surface nearby markers even when your signal is weak or spotty. You will not miss a marker on a remote stretch of highway just because you are out of LTE range.

Start Discovering Texas History Today

RoadHistorical is free to download on the App Store for iPhone. Download it here and turn on Discovery Mode before your next drive. Texas has over 16,000 stories waiting along the roads you already travel — Discovery Mode makes sure you never drive past one without knowing it.

Android users: RoadHistorical for Android is in active development. Sign up for early beta access at roadhistorical.app and be among the first to experience Texas historical preservation on Android.