New favorite phone app for exploring nature!

We’ve been loving the Seek app for identifying plants when we’re out exploring. The app uses your camera and image recognition technology to identify plants, animals, and fungi. It’s a fun addition to stopping and smelling the flowers.

It “gameifies” being outside, by giving badges for discoveries and offering optional challenges. They’re cute features but the coolest part really is the identification of plants, animals, and fungi.

Seek doesn’t store or transmit location data, and you don’t even need to create an account to use the app (but you can if you want to). The app is totally free from iNaturalist, which a collaboration between the California Academy of Sciences and the National Geographic Society.

It’s available for iOS and Android, and it does require internet in order to access the iNaturalist database and use the app.

We haven’t had luck using it for bugs or animals yet (except humans and cats!), just because they don’t stay still long enough, but you can also use a still photo to attempt identification.

Here is a seaside pea!

Small purple flowers with many round green leaves.
Screenshot from the app.

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