Your daily walk,
through a classic.
Bematist is a step counter that walks you down the real route of Dracula, the Odyssey, Moby-Dick and more. Reach a place from the book, and the passage written there unlocks.
- For iPhone
- Steps from Apple Health
- No account
You already walk. Now it goes somewhere.
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Pick a book
Dracula from Munich to the Borgo Pass, the Odyssey across the Aegean, Holmes from Baker Street to Dartmoor. Every route comes from the book itself.
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Walk like you already do
Bematist reads your steps from Apple Health: the school run, the commute, the dog. There's nothing to start or stop, and every step moves you down the road.
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Arrive, and read
Reach a place from the story and the passage written about it unlocks, word for word, under a hand-tinted plate.
Some pages you walk to.
Every passage waits at the place it happened. Before you get there you can see how long it is and how far away: 3.4 miles, about a day at the pace you walk. You can't read a word of it yet.
There's no padlock and nothing to buy. The only way to read it is to walk there. When you do, the plate fills the screen and the passage is yours to keep.
The real book, word for word.
This isn't a summary with a map attached. Every passage is taken from an original public-domain edition, with the translator named, and the reader lets you carry on from wherever you've walked to.
First you will come to the Sirens who enchant all who come near them. If any one unwarily draws in too close and hears the singing of the Sirens, his wife and children will never welcome him home again, for they sit in a green field and warble him to death with the sweetness of their song. The Odyssey, Book XII · translated by Samuel Butler · unlocked at The Green Field
Which book would you walk?
Where the story happened somewhere real, you walk it on a real map. Where it didn't, like the yellow brick road or the circles of Hell, the map is drawn by hand. Tap a book to see how long it would take you.
Also on the shelf: Three Men in a Boat, The Call of the Wild, The Count of Monte Cristo, Kidnapped, Don Quixote, The Travels of Marco Polo, and more.
A new book every month
The library doesn't stop growing. Walkers vote on the next book, and a new one arrives every month.
Set a pace your legs can keep.
You choose when you'd like to finish: in three days, a week, a month, or at true scale if you're patient. Bematist works out the pace from how much you actually walk, so four thousand miles of Homer fits into ordinary days.
A rough guide, at about 0.75 m a step. In the app it comes from your own 30-day average in Apple Health, and the pace stays fixed for the whole journey so friends walking with you stay comparable.
Walk it with friends.
Start a journey and send a link. Friends who open it join you on the same road, with everyone's dot on one map in their own colour. You walk your streets and they walk theirs, wherever they live.
- One link, no sign-ups. Nobody needs to create an account to join.
- A fair race. Everyone in a party walks at the same pace, so the map tells the truth.
- Walked it? Show it. Every arrival and every finished book becomes a card worth posting.
Quiet days don't reset anything.
Most step apps punish you for the day you had a cold. Bematist has no streak to lose. A quiet day is just a short bar, and your place on the road only moves forward.
- Straight from Apple Health. Steps from your iPhone and Apple Watch count, even when the app is closed.
- Your goal, not someone else's. Bematist suggests a daily target just above what you already walk, not a fixed ten thousand.
- No account, no email. Your step history stays on your iPhone.
Also in the app
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Home Screen widgets
Today's steps, or the steps still to go to your next stop, without opening the app.
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A heads-up before you arrive
A note on the morning you should reach the next place, so a passage never sits unread in your pocket.
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Real maps, or drawn ones
Apple Maps where the route is real, and a hand-drawn map for the places no atlas has.
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Several books at once
Walk the Odyssey for the long haul and Dracula for October. Every journey moves with every step.
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A plate for every stop
Hand-tinted engravings in full colour, or in their original monochrome if you prefer.
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A reader that's yours
Set the text size and the paper (parchment, white, sepia or night) and read on from wherever you've got to.
bematist noun
from Greek βηματιστής, bēmatistēs, "one who paces"
A surveyor trained to measure distance by counting his own steps. Alexander the Great marched with bematists in his army, walking and counting so that the length of the known world could finally be written down.
Every walker here is doing the same thing, one book at a time.
Questions, answered
How does Bematist count my steps?
It reads steps and walking distance from Apple Health, which your iPhone (and your Apple Watch, if you wear one) already records. It uses Health's distance rather than guessing from your stride, because Health is already calibrated to you. You don't need to open the app or press start. Walks you took with it closed still count.
The Odyssey is almost four thousand miles. Is that realistic?
Yes, because you set the pace. Pick when you'd like to finish (three days, a week, a month, or your own setting) and Bematist scales the road to the walking you already do, using your own 30-day average. At true scale, the same book would take years.
Is it the whole book, or a summary?
The real text. Passages are taken word for word from original public-domain editions, with the translator named where there is one. The in-app reader opens the full book, so you can read on from wherever you've walked to.
How is this different from a virtual walking challenge?
A virtual walking challenge gives you a route and a badge at the end. Bematist gives you a book: the route is the one the story actually takes, and the reward at every stop is the passage written about that place, which you can keep reading in the full text.
What happens if I miss a day?
Nothing. There's no streak to break and nothing resets. Your place on the road only ever moves forward.
Do I need an account?
No. There's no sign-up and no email address. Your step history stays on your iPhone. When you walk with friends, the party only sees the name you choose and where you are on the road.
How does walking together work?
Start a journey, tap Invite, and send the link however you like. Anyone who opens it on an iPhone with Bematist joins your party on the same road and walks at the same pace, wherever they live.
How are new books chosen?
By vote. A new book joins the library every month, and walkers choose which one.
Is there an Android version?
Not yet. Bematist is built on Apple Health, so it's iPhone only for now.
Finish a book on foot.
Every book you finish stays on your shelf: Dracula, 656 miles from Munich to the Borgo Pass; the Odyssey, nearly four thousand. What goes on yours first?
- For iPhone
- No account