Battle Lens
Historical battle encyclopedia
History, one battle at a time.
Pick what you care about — era, war, region, outcome — then swipe up, one battle at a time. The familiar vertical feed format, every card a real moment in ~3,500 years of world history.
Available on iPhone, iPad & Android. Requires iOS 17 or Android 8.0 or later.
What's inside
Every feature.
None of the noise.
The Feed
The main view. One battle per screen, full-bleed image, serif headline. Swipe up for the next, down for the last — the vertical-feed gesture you already know, applied to world history. Pair it with a filter and the whole archive becomes a feed of exactly what you want to read.
The World Map
Every battle plotted on a satellite map. Era-coloured pins, a locate-me button, and cross-tab focus from the feed.
The Dossier
Commanders, troop strengths, casualty breakdown, outcomes, strategic result, related battles, notable commanders you can tap to read more, sources. The full story.
Filters
Slice 4,763 battles by era, region, battle type, outcome, significance, war, year range — instantly.
The Commanders
Browse 396 historically significant commanders — Napoleon, Caesar, Lee, Wellington, Saladin. Each with portrait, biography, lifespan, and the full list of battles they fought in. Tap a battle's Notable Commanders to jump from the dossier to the person.
Listen
Battle and commander summaries, read aloud. Hit the speaker icon on any dossier, scrub the timeline, and download tracks for offline playback on flights, runs, or the school run.
Battle Lens Pro
Unlock search, advanced filters, bookmarks, listen-to-summaries, nearby battles, and the On This Day widget with a single one-time purchase.
Eras covered
From Thermopylae to the present.
Ten eras span ~3,500 years of military history. Each one carries its own colour across the app — the palette is part of the navigation.
How it works
Browse, don't search.
Pick a slice.
Filter by era, region, war, or outcome — or open the app raw and take whatever history hands you. Turn 4,763 battles into exactly the ones you want to see.
Swipe up.
One battle per screen — full-bleed image, serif headline, outcome badge. Thermopylae. Agincourt. Gettysburg. Stalingrad. Fallujah. The vertical-feed gesture you already know, applied to ~3,500 years of military history.
Dive in.
Anything that catches you — tap Details for the full dossier, Map for the location, Save to come back to it. Then back to swiping.
By the numbers
The dataset, in one line.
Privacy
Your history stays in your hands.
No accounts.
Nothing to sign up for. No email. No password. No profile. You open the app and you're in.
No network.
The entire dataset — 4,763 battles, 3,136 images — ships inside the app. It works on a plane. It works in a tunnel. It works forever.
No tracking.
No analytics, no ads, no telemetry. Not even a crash reporter beyond Apple's built-in one. What you read is your business.
Pricing
Pay once. Keep forever.
Battle Lens is free to install. Unlock every feature with a single one-time purchase.
Free
The core experience
- Full-screen battle feed
- World map with era pins
- Full detail dossier per battle
- Dataset stats & charts
- Works without internet
Battle Lens Pro
One-time purchase · no subscription
- Everything in Free, plus:
- Search — by battle, location, war, or commander
- Advanced filters — region, type, outcome, war, year range
- Bookmarks & Saved tab — save anywhere, browse them as their own list
- Listen — battle & commander summaries read aloud, with offline download
- Nearby battles — discover what happened near you
- On This Day widget for your Home Screen
Pay once, keep forever on the Apple ID or Google account that made the purchase. Price may vary by region.
Start with Thermopylae. End up somewhere you didn't expect.
4,763 battles. 76 wars. 396 commanders. Pick what you care about — then swipe.
Requires iOS 17 or Android 8.0 or later. Phone and tablet.