--- title: White House App: Point it at a Dollar Bill for Inside Look description: The Obama administration released an app on Thursday that lets users see an interactive, 3-D video of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue canonical: https://time.com/4588032/white-house-app-dollar-bill/ author: Abigail Abrams article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-12-01T20:32:05.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:50:46.836Z article:section: Politics og:title: Get an Inside Look at the White House by Pointing This App at a Dollar Bill og:description: From the Fourth of July fireworks to state dinners og:url: https://time.com/4588032/white-house-app-dollar-bill/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf006998f3e3486c8/6988b052cd1bba092c703437/white-house-south-lawn-united-states-barack-obama-administration-events.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Obama Remarks at BET·s ·Love and Happiness: A Musical Experie og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Get an Inside Look at the White House by Pointing This App at a Dollar Bill twitter:description: From the Fourth of July fireworks to state dinners twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf006998f3e3486c8/6988b052cd1bba092c703437/white-house-south-lawn-united-states-barack-obama-administration-events.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Get an Inside Look at the White House by Pointing This App at a Dollar Bill > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Abigail Abrams](https://time.com/author/abigail-abrams/) ## Abigail Abrams Dec 1, 2016 8:32 PM UTC  South Portico of the White House is lit up during the BET’s “Love and Happiness: A Musical Experience” performance on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C., Oct. 21, 2016. South Portico of the White House is lit up during the BET’s “Love and Happiness: A Musical Experience” performance on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C., Oct. 21, 2016. Ron Sachs—picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images by [Abigail Abrams](https://time.com/author/abigail-abrams/) ## Abigail Abrams Dec 1, 2016 8:32 PM UTC There’s a new way to visit the White House—without leaving home. The Obama administration released an[ app](https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2016/11/30/how-see-white-house-dollar-bill?utm%5Fsource=email&utm%5Fmedium=email&utm%5Fcontent=email658-text1&utm%5Fcampaign=ar) on Thursday that lets users see an interactive, 3-D video of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue as it goes through a whole year of seasonal and state events. The app, called 1600, can be downloaded for both [Apple](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/1600/id1179840697?mt=8) and [Android](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.whha.sixteenhundred) devices. Then, when app users point their smartphone camera at a dollar bill, they will see the White House come to life. The video is not explicitly political, but the White House seemed to recognize that some Americans are looking for a sense of stability as President Barack Obama prepares to hand the country over to Donald Trump next month. “You’ll see that even as seasons and people change, the White House endures as an institution of American democracy,” Press Secretary Josh Earnest wrote in a [White House blog post](https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2016/11/30/how-see-white-house-dollar-bill?utm%5Fsource=email&utm%5Fmedium=email&utm%5Fcontent=email658-text1&utm%5Fcampaign=ar) announcing the app. Users may not get to sit next to Canadian Prime Minister [Justin Trudeau](http://time.com/4255070/obama-white-house-ted-cruz-gop-trudeau/) at a State Dinner or roll an Easter egg with [Beyonce and Jay Z](http://time.com/4274082/beyonce-jay-z-blue-ivy-white-house-easter/?iid=sr-link1) in person, but the app does offer a glimpse at events including state visits, July Fourth fireworks and animated snowmen on the White House lawn. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4588032/white-house-app-dollar-bill/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4588032/white-house-app-dollar-bill/"},"headline":"Get an Inside Look at the White House by Pointing This App at a Dollar Bill","datePublished":"2016-12-01T20:32:05.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:50:46.836Z","description":"From the Fourth of July fireworks to state dinners","url":"https://time.com/4588032/white-house-app-dollar-bill/","keywords":["White House","Tech","Barack Obama"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf006998f3e3486c8/6988b052cd1bba092c703437/white-house-south-lawn-united-states-barack-obama-administration-events.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Abigail Abrams","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/abigail-abrams/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf006998f3e3486c8/6988b052cd1bba092c703437/white-house-south-lawn-united-states-barack-obama-administration-events.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Obama Remarks at BET·s ·Love and Happiness: A Musical Experie","caption":"Obama Remarks at BET·s ·Love and Happiness: A Musical Experie","creditText":"Ron Sachs—picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4588032/white-house-app-dollar-bill/","name":"Get an Inside Look at the White House by Pointing This App at a Dollar Bill"}}]}] ```