For galleries and museums
Visitors tap a card at your entrance, point their own phone at any work and hear about it in their own headphones. No app to download, no handsets to hand out, and no code or number on the wall beside the art.
Visitors use their own phone and headphones. You don’t hand anything out.
One small card at the entrance opens the tour in the phone’s browser, by NFC tap, a QR code or a short web address.
Any work, in any order. Popcode recognizes the artwork itself, so there’s nothing posted beside it.
A 30 to 60 second stop plays in their headphones, with a transcript underneath. The phone can drop to their side while they look.
Your buttons appear when the stop ends: inquire about this work, become a member, give or plan a visit.
Most small spaces choose between rented handsets, a guide inside a museum app, or QR codes on the wall.
| Popcode | Usual options | |
|---|---|---|
| What visitors use | Their own phone and headphones, in the browser | A rented handset, or an app they download first |
| On the wall | Nothing beside the work; one card at the entrance | A stop number or QR code beside each work |
| Finding a stop | Point the phone at the work | Type a number, or scan each code |
| After each stop | Your buttons: inquire, join, give, visit | Varies by platform |
| What you learn | A dashboard of which works people stopped at, how far they listened and what they tapped | Varies by platform |
| Time to launch | Built with you in time for the opening | Varies; app platforms can take weeks to set up |
Commercial galleries with a new show every month, art fair booths, open studios, artist-run spaces, and small and mid-size museums with rotating exhibitions or a permanent collection. Pilot pricing this season starts at $1,500 for a single show of up to 30 works, including the entrance card and a dashboard for the run of the show. See all plans →
Want to try it first? On your phone, go to popcode.app/wrenalder, tap Start and point it at a painting from our demo tour.
No. The tour opens in the phone’s own web browser. There’s nothing to download, no account to create and no password to remember.
No. Popcode recognizes the artwork itself, so visitors just point their phone at a work. The only code in the room is on one small card at the entrance.
Any recent iPhone or Android phone with a camera, in its own browser. iPhone XS and later and most Android phones can open the tour by tapping the NFC card at the entrance; anyone else can use the card’s QR code or type the short address.
Every stop can carry its transcript, shown under the player, so visitors can read along. That also serves visitors who are deaf or hard of hearing.
Popcode recognizes flat work: paintings, photographs, prints, drawings and textiles. A list for choosing a stop by title, for sculpture and other objects, is coming.
Whoever knows the work best: you, your curator or the artist. Record on a phone or upload an audio file. If nobody wants to be the voice, we can make a natural-sounding AI voice from your script.
Pilot pricing this season is $1,500 for a single show (regularly $2,500), $3,900 for a gallery year (regularly $6,500) and $7,500 for a museum year (regularly $12,000).
Fast enough for a program that changes every month. Once we have photos of the works and the audio, we build the tour, test it on real phones and have it ready before the opening.
See how it works, then book a 15-minute call.