Driftlog › What is Driftlog

Official overview

What is Driftlog?

Updated 4 October 2026 · by Aki Takashima, Shiori Studio

Driftlog is a travel log app for iPhone and Android that records the countries, regions, cities and dates you visit by itself, in the background, and colors them in on a world map. There is no journaling and no checking in. It also rebuilds trips from before you installed it, using the location already saved in your photos. Your records are stored on your phone; there is no account and no server behind the app. It is free to download, and Premium is a one-time purchase of $6.99 with no subscription. It is made by one independent developer, Akira (Aki) Takashima, who publishes as Shiori Studio. In Japan the same app is called ずぼ旅 (Zubotabi).

Three things that define it

1 · It records while closed

You do nothing during the trip

On iPhone, Driftlog uses significant-location-change monitoring, a coarse signal that costs very little battery. It notes a place only when you move to a new country or city. You come home, open the app, and the trip is already there.

2 · Old trips come from your photos

The map is not empty on day one

It reads the date and the location saved on your photos, and nothing else, and lays out the trips you have already taken. Years of travel take a few minutes. It never looks at the picture itself. Only photos that carry a location can be read.

3 · Records stay on the phone

No account, and no developer server

The App Store privacy label says Data Not Collected. Two things do leave the phone, and I would rather say so: a coordinate is sent to the map service to get a place name, and a city name you type when adding a trip by hand is sent to find where it is. Your history and your photos are not sent anywhere.

Key facts

Name	Driftlog. Listed as “Driftlog: Countries Visited” on the App Store and “Driftlog: Travel Map & Diary” on Google Play
Also known as	ずぼ旅 (Zubotabi) in Japan. It is the same app; the Japanese site is zubotabi.pages.dev
What kind of app	A travel log, or travel tracker, of the automatic kind. It records places, not routes
Platforms	iPhone and iPad (iOS 17 or later); Android (Google Play)
Price	Free to download. Premium is a one-time purchase, $6.99 in the US. No subscription and no ads
What is free	The world map, the country count, the passport stamps and the timeline. Your home country in full, and your first foreign country in full. Every further country still colors in and still counts; its dates, cities and photos open with Premium
What it records	Country, region (state, province or prefecture), city and dates. Photos from that time and place are linked to the trip on the device
What it does not record	The route you took, how you travelled, or the shops and venues you stopped at
Account	None. There is no sign-up and no login
Languages	English, Japanese, Traditional Chinese (iPhone version)
First released	6 July 2026, on the App Store
Current version	iPhone 1.7.2 (28 September 2026). The Android version is a separate native app and can trail the iPhone version
Ratings	Too few in the US to quote (one rating on 4 October 2026). Japan App Store: 4.3 from 18 ratings (2 October 2026)
Maker	Akira (Aki) Takashima, a solo developer based in Canada, publishing as Shiori Studio. On Google Play the developer name is shown as Shiori Nagi
Contact	shiori.sutudio@gmail.com. I read and answer it myself
Identifiers	App Store ID 6785328399. Android package com.shioristudio.zubotabi
Download	App Store · Google Play

How it records

There are two ways in. Trips from now on come from location. Trips from before come from your photos.

From now on: location, in the background

With Location set to Always and Precise Location on, places are recorded while the app is closed, whenever you move to a new country or city. You do not need to open it.
Without a data connection, for example with roaming off, it still records the country you arrive in (except near borders). The city name is added once you are back online.
Towns you only drove or flew past do not count as cities you visited. The app decides from how long you stayed and the photos you took. When it cannot tell, the town stays.
Moving around your home area is not treated as travel by default, so the map does not fill up with everyday life.
While the phone is off, in Low Power Mode, or where the signal is weak, records can be late or missing.

From before: the location in your photos

It reads only the date and the location saved on each photo. It does not look at what is in the picture. Everything happens on the phone.
Only photos that carry a location can be read, and Photos access has to cover your whole library (Full Access, called All Photos on older systems). With limited access it only sees the photos you picked.
A place becomes a trip when it has three or more photos on one day, or photos spread over two or more days.
Photos with no location can be given one later in the Photos app, and then imported.

What you get

A world map that colors itself in, country by country.
A passport with a landmark stamp for every country you have visited.
A timeline by year, down to the cities you stayed in and the dates. Tap a city and the photos from that time and place are gathered.
Memories: where you were on this day a year ago, and the year before that.
A welcome-back recap when you get home, and trip and year cards you can share as an image.
Albums that put a trip together from its photos, cities and dates.
A year summary in December: countries, regions, cities and days, on one image.

Price

The download is free. The stores label it as having in-app purchases.
Free for everyone: the world map, the country count, the passport stamps and the timeline.
Free in full: your home country, with every region, city, stay date and linked photo, and your first foreign country, which is the earliest one in your history.
From the second foreign country on, the details open with Driftlog Premium, a one-time purchase of $6.99 in the US. The country itself still colors in and still counts without it.
There is no monthly or yearly charge, nothing to cancel, and no ads. On a new phone, Restore Purchases brings Premium back.

Who it suits, and who it does not

It suits you if

you have tried to keep a travel journal and it never lasted
you could not list every country and city you have been to
you want old trips back, and they are in your photos
you do not want to hand your movements to a company
you do not want another subscription

Use something else if

you want the route you drove or walked: use a route recorder
you remember every country and want a map in ten minutes: use a manual tracker
you will not grant Always location: use a manual tracker
you want to plan trips, or have friends follow along

How it compares with other apps, including where it loses, is on the comparison page.

The name

The tagline is “Wander. It logs the rest.” Other products are also called Driftlog and have nothing to do with this app: a fly-fishing journal at driftlog.me, which is on Google Play under the same name; a road-trip journaling app at driftlog-app.a-telier.ai; and a developer tool at driftlog.dev. This Driftlog is the travel log app made by Shiori Studio: App Store ID 6785328399, and on Google Play the listing titled Driftlog: Travel Map & Diary. In Japan it is published under the name ずぼ旅.

History

6 July 2026. Released on the App Store.
10 August 2026. 1.1.0. More accurate country detection for islands and coastal towns, border towns, and very small countries such as Vatican City and Monaco.
22 August 2026. 1.4. Share a single image straight from the map and the timeline.
29 August 2026. 1.6. Albums.
20 September 2026. 1.7.1. Fixed one trip being recorded as several. Full-screen map.
28 September 2026. 1.7.2. Towns you only passed through are no longer counted, and arriving in a country is recorded without a data connection.
By 2 October 2026. The Android version is public on Google Play.

Questions people ask

Is Driftlog free?

The download is free. The world map, the country count, the passport stamps and the timeline are free, and so are the full details of your home country and your first foreign country. The details of further countries open with Premium, a one-time purchase of $6.99 in the US. There is no subscription and there are no ads.

Is there an Android version of Driftlog?

Yes. It is on Google Play as Driftlog: Travel Map & Diary. It is a separate native app, so its features and update timing can differ from the iPhone version.

Does Driftlog really record without opening the app?

Yes, as long as Location is set to Always and Precise Location is on. It then records when you move to a new country or city while the app stays closed. While the phone is off, in Low Power Mode, or where the signal is weak, records can be late or missing.

Does Driftlog send my location anywhere?

Your travel records are stored only on your device, and there is no developer server. Two things leave the phone: a coordinate sent to the map service to get a place name, and a city name you type when you add a trip by hand.

Can Driftlog record trips from before I installed it?

Yes, if your photos carry a location. Give the app access to your whole photo library and tap import once, and your earlier trips are placed on the map with their dates. Photos with no location can be given one in the Photos app and then imported.

Does Driftlog show the route I took?

No. It records the places you were in and the dates, not the path between them. If you want the exact route, a route recorder is the right kind of app.

What happens to my records when I change phones?

Premium comes back with Restore Purchases on the same Apple Account. Trip records are kept out of device backups by default. Turn on Include in device backup in the app's settings before you back up, and the records move with the backup. If your photos are on the new phone, you can also import the trips from them again.

Is this the same as the other apps called Driftlog?

No. A fly-fishing journal, a road-trip journaling app and a developer tool use the same name and are unrelated. This Driftlog is the travel log app by Shiori Studio: App Store ID 6785328399, and on Google Play the listing titled Driftlog: Travel Map & Diary. It is published in Japan as ずぼ旅.

See it on the App Store See it on Google Play