Penguindor — an Intelligent Guide for Enjoyable Walks

Dubadu’s video-first platform was originally created to make property search enjoyable.
Our idea has always been simple: technology should not complicate life — it should make it easier, more engaging, and more emotional.

And where do we experience the strongest emotions and impressions? In travel, of course.

Meet Penguindor!

The Dubadu team has created a new and exciting product — Penguindor, an intelligent travel guide that transforms an ordinary city walk into a personal audio tour.

Almost everyone has experienced the moment when you want to learn more about the place around you, yet hiring a private guide, adapting to someone else’s schedule, or finding a tour in your language is not always easy. Especially in Europe, where private tours can be quite expensive and group excursions are strictly time-based.

That is exactly where Penguindor comes in.

How does the app work?

Penguindor automatically detects the user’s location, identifies nearby landmarks, and begins telling their stories aloud — right in the middle of a walk.

Users can choose their search radius — 100, 200, or 500 meters — or customise it manually. Nearby attractions are displayed on the map, and switching between them is simple and intuitive.

The entire experience is designed to feel natural and seamless: instead of constantly checking a screen, users can simply enjoy the city while their digital companion guides them along the way.

What makes the app especially interesting is its AI-driven foundation. Penguindor does not simply store pre-written articles — it uses artificial intelligence to generate short, informative, and easy-to-listen-to audio stories about landmarks in real time.

The app already supports seven languages and works almost entirely in a hands-free mode, even running in the background while automatically updating information as the user moves through the city.

Who is Penguindor designed for?

Penguindor can be valuable for several audiences at once.

• First and foremost, for travellers themselves. The app helps people feel the atmosphere of a city, notice hidden details, learn the stories behind places during a simple walk, and enjoy more spontaneous experiences without planning guided tours in advance.

• It can also become a useful addition for professional tour guides. After a guided excursion ends, guides may recommend Penguindor so their clients can continue exploring independently. After all, nobody spends 24 hours a day with a guide, while curiosity about the city often remains.

• Another important audience is travel agencies. Penguindor allows agencies to expand their services by offering clients an additional travel tool. In practice, agencies can tell travellers that wherever they go, they will always have access to an intelligent audio guide that allows them to explore cities at their own pace.

As Dubadu CEO Kyrylo Hrytsenko explains:

“By developing technologies inside Dubadu, we naturally began creating new products based on them. While working on spatial interaction technologies, we realised they could be used not only for real estate, but also for travel. Penguindor is a way to make discovering a city more vivid, simple, and accessible.”

The future of the project

The team emphasises that Penguindor is not trying to replace professional guides entirely. The stories are intentionally concise — usually no longer than two minutes. It is more of a “smart walking” format, where users quickly receive the essentials: history, context, and fascinating facts.

However, the project may evolve much further in the future.

According to Kyrylo Hrytsenko, one of the most promising ideas is allowing ordinary people to create their own audio or video tours and earn income from them:

“Imagine someone who truly knows their city — through personal experience, family stories, or years of interest — being able to record their own emotional and unique tours about local landmarks. These may include details impossible to find in public sources. This could become an entirely new format for urban excursions. By sharing their stories, people could also earn money. In this way, the app becomes not only a source of enjoyment, but also a potential source of income.”

Ultimately, Penguindor may evolve into a platform where AI-generated content and authentic human storytelling complement one another.

What is especially fascinating is that the app helps people notice details they normally ignore — even in their own neighbourhoods. For example, Kyrylo Hrytsenko shared that thanks to Penguindor, he discovered the history of an old sculpture above the entrance to his building, despite passing it for many years without ever knowing its story.

And perhaps that is the true idea behind the project: technology should not distance people from the real world — it should help them see it more deeply, attentively, and beautifully.

Penguindor is already available for download, and the team aims to attract its first 10,000 users through the free version of the app.

The world becomes far more interesting when you discover its hidden little secret!

TO DOWNLOAD:

Android

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dubadu.penguindor.travel

Apple iOS

https://apps.apple.com/ua/app/penguindor/id6758052700?l=uk