From Distrx to a Connected Local Experience: The Locable App Is Here
When we announced the acquisition of Distrx in 2024, we saw how excited people were about using mobile apps to discover local places, events, and experiences.
We also saw a challenge: businesses and organizations didn’t want another calendar to maintain. Even when they wanted to be included, adding and updating information in a separate Distrx account often didn’t happen.
The new Locable app builds on what people enjoyed about Distrx and connects mobile discovery to information already shared through Locable’s Local Connections Community Information Grid - this is what powers Locable's Community Engagement Core and provides the content that makes Express Email Newsletters incredibly fast to create and send.
Local participants can contribute through connected sources without having to maintain a separate Distrx calendar or even manually submit to their Main Street, Chamber, or Tourism Organization.
Explore the Locable app for tours, maps, and local experiences.
More Ways to Discover Your Community
Residents and visitors can use the app to find local events, businesses, organizations, and places. Communities can create walking tours, maps, scavenger hunts, seasonal guides, and other experiences that bring local stories and destinations together.
People can also follow their favorite organizations and businesses to see their latest content in a discovery feed. That gives them a direct way to keep up with local updates, with less reliance on other platforms’ algorithms to decide what they see.
Connect information and extend its reach
The app connects to Locable’s Community Information Grid, which helps local information reach more people and places. It can draw on resources such as a self-updating community calendar and local business directory, alongside information shared by participating organizations.
Community websites remain an important home for this content. Main Streets, Chambers, tourism organizations, and other community anchors feature local information prominently, where people can discover it, link to it, and share it. The app adds another way to experience that content: visitors can download it to follow a tour, explore local places, and enjoy the experience while they’re here.
Community anchors help make these connections possible. When neighboring communities participate, their information can be cross-promoted on participating websites and discovered through the app, extending reach across the region.
The next chapter for Distrx users
The Distrx app is being phased out and the old system will be going offline in October. If you enjoyed using Distrx, download the new Locable app to continue discovering local communities and experiences.
The Locable app carries forward the discovery people loved about Distrx and gives communities more ways to help people find, follow, and participate in the places and organizations that make local life worth exploring.
Tours Are Now Shareable Website Content
Tours are also website content.
Each stop can help tell the story of a local business, landmark, museum, or attraction on your community website - giving people something they can discover and share, and a reason to experience the place for themselves.
Put simply, the content in your tour does marketing for your community and can be easily distributed to social media, your email newsletter, and, of course, be discovered by Google and AI.
The app adds an on-the-ground way to follow the tour while visiting.
All Locable Communities and participating businesses and nonprifits are included in the new mobile app, while Tours are available on the Community Engagement Core's Coordinate Plus plan.
