Things worth knowing before you start, and the questions that come up afterwards.
Each story is built from established reference sources, chosen for its subject before a word is written, and every chapter lists the ones it drew on. The writing is done with AI, which is what makes a library this wide possible, and a story on any subject ready in minutes. Treat a story as a way into a subject, and use the sources when you want to go further.
Sometimes. Check the sources at the end before you rely on a detail, and use the flag in the app when something looks wrong. We read those reports and fix what they turn up.
The most-read history subjects online lean heavily towards Europe and North America, the last two centuries, and famous individuals, and a library assembled from those lists would lean the same way. So we went at it from the other direction. We listed the shelves a history section ought to have, covering the ancient Near East through to the Pacific, and filled them in. Most of what you will find never makes a most-read list.
Because it is being written for you at that moment. You can leave the app and come back once it is done.
Most run six to ten short chapters of a few minutes each, and you can pick up where you left off.
They are the borders that existed at the time. A story set in 1919 is read on a map of 1919, so the country you are looking for may not be there yet.
Yes. When a chapter moves to a new place, the map moves with it.
No, and it never asks. It reads your phone's region setting to decide where the map opens and, for Pro Plus readers, to lean the suggestions towards your part of the world. That is a region, and nothing more precise.
A synthetic voice that runs on your phone. It downloads once and then works without a connection. Nothing is recorded and no audio leaves your device.
No. Every story can be read aloud on all three plans. The two-a-day limit on Free counts stories opened, however you choose to take them in.
It will, sometimes. The library covers every continent and about six thousand years, and names like Zwangendaba or Raukawa are hard for a synthetic voice. The written text is on screen either way.
No. A good podcast or channel has a voice, a point of view and weeks of work behind every episode, and none of that is on offer here. What Cartalore offers instead is range: a library of subjects no show will ever get round to, which you can read or listen to, and for Pro Plus readers whichever one you ask for. It works better alongside the podcasts than in place of them.
No. You can skip the first screen and read as a guest. Signing in with Apple or Google is what carries your library to another device, and what carries a subscription with it.
Two things, both optional: which parts of history interest you, and anything you want to say about what you like reading. They only steer what gets suggested.
Settings → Delete account, in the app. Immediate and not reversible: your profile, saved stories and reading progress go, along with any story you had shared by link. It does not cancel a subscription (see below).
Access to the whole curated library of 2,000+ stories and all of the map: browse it, search it, read up to 2 stories a day, with text-to-speech on every story. The library keeps growing, and a free account is meant to be worth keeping on its own.
Two things. The daily limit goes, so you can read as much of the library as you want, and you can ask AI questions about any passage you are reading, up to 200 a month. $4.99 a month or $47 a year.
Everything in Pro, plus the parts that work from your own reading: up to 60 stories a month written on any subject you choose, up to 500 AI questions a month instead of 200, a say in what each story focuses on, and personalized recommendations. $9.99 a month after a 7-day free trial, or $95 a year.
If you mostly want to read what is already there, and ask about it as you go, Pro is the one. Pro Plus is for asking the library for subjects it does not cover yet, and for having it learn what you read.
Yes, on both paid plans. Pro is $47 a year, 21% off paying monthly, and Pro Plus is $95 a year, 20% off. Annual plans are cancelled the same way as monthly ones.
No, the trial is on Pro Plus. Apple allows one introductory offer per Apple ID across a set of related subscriptions, so it goes on the plan where it is most useful.
Yes, in your Apple account, the same place you cancel. Moving up takes effect straight away and Apple credits what you have already paid; moving down takes effect at the end of the period you have paid for.
Prices here are in US dollars. Apple sets the amount and the currency for your own country, including any tax that applies there, so the figure in the app is the one you actually pay. Where the two disagree, the app is right.
In your Apple account: Settings → your name → Subscriptions → Cartalore, or from Settings → Manage subscription in the app. Apple owns the billing and does not let us do it for you. Cancelling during the trial stops it becoming a paid subscription as long as you do it at least 24 hours before the trial ends.
Try Settings → Restore purchases first, which is also what to use after reinstalling or on a second device. If it still does not show up, write to us.
The app asks first and explains what it means. After you agree, anyone with the link can read it, with or without the app. It is not listed anywhere, not searchable, and not on the map for anyone else: the link is the only way to reach it. Whoever has it can pass it on.
Yes. Stop sharing it and every link to it stops working. Deleting your account does the same to all of them at once.
Then it is not being shared any more, because the person who wrote it either stopped sharing it or deleted their account. There is nothing wrong with the link and nothing to retry.
Yes. The last ten stories you opened stay on your phone, pictures included, so you can carry on wherever you are. Browsing the rest of the library needs a connection.
English for now.
Support has the contact address and the account-admin steps in full.