How it works

From your pocket to your ears, in a few taps.

There is nothing complicated about using Rosetta Audio Guides, but seeing the whole flow before you start removes any doubt. This page walks through it step by step — getting the app, choosing and downloading a tour, saving it for offline use, and then simply listening as you wander. The whole point is that the technology disappears and leaves you with a knowledgeable voice in your ear and complete freedom to explore at your own pace.

The flow

Four taps and a pair of headphones.

That is genuinely all of it. The first three steps you do before you set out; the last is the museum visit itself.

Get the free app

Download Rosetta Audio Guides from the app store — free, on iOS or Android. No account is needed to start, and the app itself never costs anything; you only pay for the tours you choose, several of which are free.

Choose your tour & language

Open the tour library, find the museum or site you are visiting, and pick your language. You see exactly what the tour covers and how long it runs before you commit to anything.

Download it for offline

Tap download and the tour saves to your phone, so it plays with no signal at all inside the museum. Do this on wi-fi — at your hotel, say — and you need no mobile data on the day. More on the offline page.

Press play and wander

Headphones in, press play, and explore. The tour follows the natural route through the place, but every stop is yours to pause, replay, skip or linger on. The visit bends to you, not the other way round.

The controls that matter

Built for standing in a gallery, phone in hand.

The app is designed for the reality of using it — one-handed, in a quiet gallery, sometimes with gloves or a bag in the other hand. The controls are large and simple: a big play and pause, an easy way to jump to the next or previous stop, and a clear list of the tour's stops so you can hop straight to the object in front of you if you have wandered out of order. You can adjust the playback speed if you like a slower or quicker pace, and the tour remembers where you stopped if you put the phone away for a coffee. Nothing buzzes, nothing nags, nothing interrupts — the app's whole job is to get out of the way and let you listen.

Because most people use a tour with headphones in a hushed space, we have kept the interface calm and uncluttered, with none of the notifications and badges that clutter so many apps. You can follow the tour straight through like a story, or treat it as a reference and tap to whatever you are looking at. Either way works, and the accessibility page covers how the controls work for visitors with different needs.

The audio tour app open on a phone screen in a gallery

Common questions

What people ask before their first tour.

Do I need headphones?

They are best — for you, so you hear clearly, and for everyone else, so you do not disturb the gallery. Any headphones or earphones work. If you have forgotten yours, the phone speaker works at low volume, but please be considerate of other visitors.

What if I lose my place in the tour?

You cannot really get lost — the tour shows a clear list of its stops, so you simply tap the one matching the object in front of you. And the app remembers where you paused, so picking a tour back up after a break is effortless.

Will it drain my battery?

Playing audio uses little power, far less than the screen or a map, so a tour barely touches your battery. For a long day of several museums, the same sensible advice as any travel applies — a small power bank never hurts — but a single tour is light on the battery.