SmartCompanion
Open-source PWA audioguide for museums and cultural institutions that runs in any browser.
SmartCompanion is a free and open-source Progressive Web App for delivering interactive audioguide experiences in museums, tourism projects, and other cultural institutions. Visitors open it in any modern mobile browser — no app installation required — and navigate station-based audio tours with playback, images, and a light and dark interface that follows the system preference.
Every aspect of an app is customizable. Institutions fork the repository or use the bundled engraft templating tool to set a title, logo, colors, and icon, which generates a complete PWA icon set at build time. Colors are derived automatically from a background and primary color, and content is supplied as a JSON file that can be hosted externally or bundled into the build. Built-in i18n supports multiple languages.
The built static site can be deployed anywhere static hosting works — GitHub Pages, Netlify, or the paid SmartCompanion hosting service — and the fully open-source version costs nothing except hosting. Compared with commercial audio guide platforms like izi.TRAVEL or Hearonymus, it trades a managed catalogue and authoring CMS for full ownership of the app: no vendor lock-in, no per-visitor fees, and complete control over branding and data, at the cost of managing your own content files and hosting. A service worker with offline support covers rooms and rural areas without connection.
