Explorer

A personalized guide to the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) in NYC.

Download Explorer, the Museum’s free mobile app! Get a map, turn-by-turn directions to exhibits and amenities, customized recommendations for what to see, and more! 

“A great aid to anyone seeing the museum for the first or 40th time.” - The New York Times

Available in English, Spanish, French, and Portuguese. Explorer is automatically set to the language of your device.

Map and Turn-by-Turn Directions

Get directions to exhibits and amenities, including shortest and accessible routes.

Get Recommendations for What to See

Explorer recommends exhibits based on interests you select—and sorts them by how close they are to your location.

Learn More About the Museum’s Exhibits

Go behind the scenes and dive deeper with videos, fun quizzes, and more.

Find the Nearest Restroom

Explorer provides you the shortest route to restrooms, shops, exits, and more.

How does Explorer know where you are? The Museum has placed more than 700 Bluetooth beacons throughout its 45 permanent halls. These tiny beacons give off signals that your phone can detect (when Bluetooth is enabled). Your phone calculates your position based on detecting three of these beacons simultaneously. This triangulation is not always perfect, especially in certain areas like large, multi-level halls, meandering walkways, or stairwells. Your phone should be able to detect the hall that you are in and provide turn-by-turn directions, but sometimes the “blue dot” is not exactly in the right place. In some rare cases it will even be missing. Moving to another area and waiting a few moments will usually fix the issue.

The Museum’s free AMNH-GUEST Wi-Fi also varies in strength throughout the complex. Certain materials and large exhibits (i.e. the Blue Whale) either absorb or reflect the radio signals used by Wi-Fi, further complicating this technology. If you experience difficulty connecting to Wi-Fi in a particular part of the Museum, you can usually fix the issue by moving a short distance away.

We’d Love to Hear From You!

Your feedback is important and will help us improve your Museum experience. Email explorer@amnh.org.

Supported by

Bloomberg Philanthropies