Temple Square

Review by eFreeware

Temple Square is the official visitor companion for the grounds of the same name in Salt Lake City, Utah, published by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It is a free app in the Travel & Local category, and its job is to help a guest work out what is worth seeing, when to see it and how to get around once they arrive.

What makes it worth a place on your phone is the combination of planning and orientation. Rather than a static brochure, it gathers tours, exhibits, events, artwork and films into one place, builds a day plan around your interests and the time you have, and then hands you a map and audio commentary for the visit itself. If you are organizing a trip to Temple Square, that is a more useful starting point than searching around for individual listings.

Who gets the most from this guide

The app is built for two sorts of people. The first is someone making a first visit who has no idea how the grounds are laid out or how long anything takes, and who would rather arrive with a rough schedule than improvise. The second is a returning visitor who has already seen the obvious things and wants to branch out into artwork, films or particular exhibits.

It also suits anyone traveling with a group, because the planning side of the app is about fitting experiences into a day rather than browsing endlessly. The personalized plan is the feature that does this work: you organize what you want to do and the app is designed to let you move through it at a comfortable pace.

The audience is deliberately broad, which shows in the content rating of Everyone and the mix of formats on offer. That said, this is a guide to one specific place. It is not a general Salt Lake City travel app, and it will be of little use to anyone whose trip does not include Temple Square itself.

Planning a day around your interests

The core of the app is discovery and scheduling. It covers tours, exhibits, events, artwork and films, and the developer says recommendations are shaped by what you are interested in and how much time you have available. In practice that means you tell it something about your day, and it suggests a route through the options rather than presenting an undifferentiated list.

From there, a personalized visit plan lets you assemble those choices into something you can follow on the ground. The idea is to keep the pace comfortable, so the plan is less about cramming everything in and more about knowing what comes next. For a first visit in particular, that structure is the difference between wandering and seeing what you came for.

The app is aimed at both first-time and returning guests, and the range of content supports that. Someone on a second or third trip can skip the headline experiences and build a plan around the smaller ones, while a newcomer can lean on the recommendations to get oriented.

Tickets and timed entry

Tickets for some tours and events can be booked through the app. Reservations are time-based, which the developer explains is a way of managing capacity and keeping arrivals orderly. If a particular tour matters to you, booking ahead through the app is the sensible move rather than turning up and hoping.

The app also provides guidance on entry and timing, so you know where to be and when. That is a small thing, but on a site with several venues and scheduled programming it removes a lot of the guesswork from a day out.

Only some tours and events are reservable this way, so it is worth checking the app before you travel rather than assuming everything can be booked. The ticketing side is one part of the app, not its whole purpose.

Maps and audio on the grounds

Once you are there, an interactive map shows locations and key amenities across Temple Square, which is the basic tool you need to find a building, a meeting point or a facility. It is the part of the app you will return to most often during a visit.

Audio guides cover certain spots on the map. These add historical context and stories to specific spots, so the app doubles as a light self-guided tour in places where nothing is scheduled. If you like context while you walk, this is the feature that will hold your attention longest.

Both features are tied to the grounds themselves. The map is for navigating the site, and the audio is attached to particular locations within it, so neither is much use before you arrive.

What it costs and what you get

The app is free to download. There are no ads, and there are no in-app purchases, so nothing inside it is gated behind a payment or interrupted by advertising. That is unusually clean for a visitor guide, and it means the whole feature set is available to everyone who installs it.

Tickets for select tours and events are reserved through the app, and reservations are time-based. Reservations are time-based.

The app has been installed more than 50,000 times and holds a 4.6 average from 106 ratings, which is a modest sample but a positive one. It was released on April 3, 2026, and last updated on September 25, 2026, so it is a recent arrival rather than an established institution.

How it compares with other visitor guides

The obvious alternative is a general city guide covering Salt Lake City as a whole. Those tend to spread their attention across restaurants, transport and attractions citywide, whereas this app goes deep on a single site. If Temple Square is the centerpiece of your day, the depth here is the advantage; if it is one stop among many, a broader guide may fit your itinerary better.

A paper map or a printed leaflet is the other comparison, and the app's case rests on being interactive and current: an interactive map, a plan you can adjust and audio at specific locations are things print cannot do.

There is also the option of simply walking the grounds without any guide at all. The app is for people who would rather arrive informed, know what is scheduled and have the stories behind what they are looking at. That is a preference, and it is the preference this app is built around.

A worthwhile download for a Temple Square visit

For anyone planning time at Temple Square, this is an easy recommendation. It is free, it carries no ads or purchases, and it covers the practical side of a visit, from choosing what to see and building a plan to reserving a timed ticket, finding your way and listening to commentary at particular spots. The developer has kept it current since its April 2026 release, with a September 2026 update adding account and local data management options, a customizable profile display name, improved verification for ticket details and refreshed featured cards.

It suits first-time visitors who want structure, returning visitors who want to go deeper, and anyone traveling with others who needs a shared idea of the day. The one thing to be clear about is the scope: this is a guide to a specific place, and its value depends entirely on whether that place is on your itinerary. If it is, install it before you go and reserve anything that matters.

What's new in version 1.0.13

* Added new options for managing your account and locally stored personal data. * Added support for customizing your local profile display name. * Improved security and verification for member and guest ticket details. * Updated access-code bookings to select the reservation group’s ticket quantity automatically. * Refreshed featured-card styling and improved overall stability.