Esri Story Maps

It started with a question: In the digital age, how could maps and multimedia content be woven together to create rich, interactive experiences?

Then, it grew into a mission: to enable anyone to create visual stories, powered by place, regardless of their technical expertise. The lessons learned—and the feedback received—over the eight years that followed built a critical foundation for the creation of ArcGIS StoryMaps.

ArcGIS StoryMaps made its debut at the Esri User Conference in July. Jennifer Bell, the product manager for ArcGIS StoryMaps, transported attendees to Nepal and Tibet as she rebuilt the Mapping Mount Everest story by Alex Tait, a geographer for the National Geographic Society, live. 

Immediately after, customers around the world began creating immersive stories and collections with the new product. Their feedback helped transform ArcGIS StoryMaps into a powerful storytelling app for GIS professionals to share their work with the world.

Thanks to continual product development, the most familiar classic storytelling patterns are made available in ArcGIS StoryMaps, and organizations of all sizes successfully transition to it. With thousands of stories published daily, storytellers worldwide embrace ArcGIS StoryMaps.

It is also the end of an era, as the classic Esri Story Maps templates are removed from the ArcGIS Online Configurable Apps Gallery. Esri Story Maps enters extended support, meaning stories can be created but only critical maintenance updates are made to the product.

Esri Story Maps has moved into mature support and no further updates will be made to the software. 

In contrast, ArcGIS StoryMaps receives new features and enhancements, ensuring that immersive storytelling with maps evolves with the changing needs of content creators and readers.

Esri Story Maps will be retired in Q4 2025. At that time, it will be removed from ArcGIS Online, and any stories created with Esri Story Maps will no longer be available.