Swiss solo founder ships a conversational AI travel guide that talks back

Matzu is a live, conversational AI walking guide for any city: it plans the day to your taste, tells the story behind each place on arrival, and answers your questions as you walk - hands-free, in five languages.

Zurich, August 2026. A Swiss lawyer turned solo AI builder has released Matzu, the tour guide that talks back: an AI walking guide you hold a conversation with while exploring a city. There is no team, no investors and no company behind it - the app was designed, built and shipped by one person.

You decide what the day looks like. Matzu doesn't hand you a fixed itinerary. You tell it what you want - architecture but no museums, a slow morning, food markets, something for kids, two hours instead of six - and it builds that tour. Change your mind halfway through and say so, and it rebuilds around you. The traveller leads; the AI does the work.

As you arrive at each place, Matzu tells you the story behind it, and you can ask whatever you like afterwards. Because it knows the city you're in, you can also ask "what's going on here this week?" and get what's actually happening around you.

The app speaks English, German, Italian, French and Spanish, and can adopt regional accents. A tour of Zurich can be narrated in Swiss German; a walk through Edinburgh in a Scottish accent.

Unlike audio-guide apps built on pre-produced content for a fixed list of cities, Matzu generates everything live. It works in any city in the world - including the small towns no catalogue covers - and the guide is a conversation rather than a recording.

The app is free to download. Instead of a subscription, you buy minutes of conversation: you are only charged while you are actually talking with Matzu, not for having the app open or walking with it. New users get 30 free minutes; packages start at USD 1.99. Matzu is built on Google's Gemini Live API and is available on the App Store and Google Play.

"I planned a two-week trip through Japan with AI. The planning worked fine - but on the ground it fell apart. At every corner I was digging the old chat back out and switching to Maps to find the next place. An AI that can speak should simply walk with you and tell you what you're standing in front of. Nobody had built that, so I did," says founder Gian-Reto Schulthess.

Availability: iOS - https://apps.apple.com/us/app/id6777523260 | Android - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.karvadim.matzu | Web - https://matzu.ai

Matzu
Gian Reto Schulthess
Ottikerstrasse 34
8006 Zurich
Switzerland

Press contact: Gian-Reto Schulthess
Email: gian-reto@matzu.ai
Phone: +41 76 570 02 21
Web: https://matzu.ai

Matzu is developed and operated by Gian Reto Schulthess, an independent developer based in Zurich, Switzerland. There is no company, no team and no outside funding behind the app; it is a one-person project, available worldwide on iOS and Android.

This release was published on openPR.