No background GPS
Apple Photos and Immich metadata reconstruct past travel without continuously recording where you go.
Maplight
Your photos light up the world.
Maplight turns the location history already in Apple Photos and Immich into warm clearings across a dim globe. There is no live GPS tracking and no empty map that starts only after install.
No account · No ads · No subscription
How it helps
A lifetime of travel, revealed from the photos you already keep.
Every photo location becomes an approximate, permanent discovery. Mapsake estimates the land you have illuminated, builds a year-by-year history, and keeps exact origins private.
Permanent discoveries
Removing a source photo never restores the fog. You remain in control with explicit rebuild and erase actions.
Measured progress
Choose a 5, 10, or 15 km reveal radius and see estimated land area, Earth percentage, countries, continents, origins, and sources.
History worth sharing
Scrub through discovery years, make a short vertical reel, or export illuminated-world and statistics Passport cards.
Private by design
Private sync stores approximate geohash cells, Friends receive totals only, and public links use separately enabled generalized illumination.
On every Apple screen
Maplight extends to iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, Apple Watch, widgets, complications, Passport, and Ambient Atlas.
Questions
What travelers ask.
Does Maplight track my location in the background?
No. Maplight uses location metadata from photo sources you choose and does not add continuous GPS tracking.
What happens if I delete a source photo?
The discovery stays lit. Maplight is a durable travel memory, not a live mirror of the current source library.
Are exact photo locations public?
No. Friends receive totals only. A public Maplight link is separately enabled and contains generalized cells without dates, sources, photos, or exact origins.
How accurate is the uncovered area?
It is an estimate based on the selected reveal radius and an equal-area land grid. Ocean is excluded and overlapping circles are counted once.
Can I start over?
Yes. Rebuild from current sources or erase Maplight history starts a new synced generation so older discoveries do not return.
Build the atlas once, then keep discovering it.
Mapsake is free on the App Store and keeps your core travel history under your control.
Download Mapsake