Seek by iNaturalist评价分析

I find it hard to navigate

I’ve had so much fun learning from this app but it’s just wrong most of the time now and gets hung up after the first identification. I’m going to try the iNaturalist app instead, made by the same folks, which I hope works because I do feel so grateful for all I’ve learned from the Seek app the first few years.

So much is great about this app. It’s user friendly, the id model is remarkable and reliable. I just hate that it is such an invasion of privacy. It requires you to give access to your location, and doesn’t allow you to save any other options such as location or geoprivacy. If you don’t allow location access then it forces you to choose your location on a map EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. It is incredibly tedious and frustrating and done so deliberately so people give in and allow access. Unfortunately when you have to select it, the location starts out in the wrong area and soon people will just hit okay to get through the process faster rather than select an area that encompasses the spot you took the picture at. I hope they fix this, the other plant id apps are catching up. Taking off a star because of you leave one star the devs can delete it. If you don’t give them access to your location and choose to do it manually they nerf the app and you can no longer get ids. Also for the love of plants stop making us go through that stupid reminder every time we open the camera, put a box that we can check saying that we understand and make it so we don’t have to see it every single time

This app was 4.5/5 before the most recent update. Now I can’t get a single accurate response. 50% of my finds are “human” because my hand is in the photo (holding the flower or bug) or the AI picks up one of several species around the one I’m trying to nab (already a problem before, but much worse now), OR it’ll just completely and obviously miss the mark. A clear picture of a praying mantis turned up 3 different beetles and a type of ant before landing on a (incorrect) species of mantis. Disappointing for such a wonderful app.

Lately I can’t open the app and get it to identify anything, I have to take a picture outside of the app then imported but then there’s like a 50-50 percent chance of it just saying “we believe this is a member of the class of Dicots.” When it works, it’s great easily a four or five star, but this is not even worth one right now.

Something has recently broken in this app. It used to be really accurate. Now, it regularly cannot identify a common object, but but most importantly it regularly misidentifies common plants. This does not give me confidence that it can actually identify things I don’t recognize. This is particularly problematic now that it was working a few seasons ago, but now cannot identify common things like live oaks. Point it at a native grass and it barely recognizes it as a grass. Point it at a block of concrete and it tells you it is a bird.

Nearly every scan is wildly wrong

Can’t identify anything. Can’t save photos. Annoying to use

This app used to be 100% reliable. Now, it rarely even recognizes ANYTHING is in view let alone identifying it. Others say they’ve added AI. If so, go revert your code to beforehand, because THIS APP SUCKS NOW.

I have used this app for years, and I love ID-ing plants, birds, animals. I’ve recommended it to countless people in the past, but with the newer AI powered version, it’s not doing great. Today it told me that ducks (with green heads) were a “canada goose”. Yesterday it claimed a pelican (with a trademark long pelican beak) was a “common merganser”. I have been using it to check invasive plants in my yard, and it’s misidentifying those as well. I thought it would get better over time but this is embarrassing… I miss its former reliability.

App does not sync with website so you must use both. The year is 2026. Ridiculous

Loved this app but used to be able to upload a photo for identification. No longer works. Glitch in the latest update?

This app does a lot of cool stuff! There are two reasons I don’t use it: - The initial safety “Remember screen” is not safe at all and a poor design choice. At least provide a setting to turn it off! I appreciate the warning and fully agree it should be there a few times, but not as a persistent message. This has the unintended effect of drawing a person’s awareness away from nature and into the app, ironically leading to them becoming less aware of their surroundings. App deloading can make this an even more frustrating experience especially when low power mode leads to that occurring more, compounded with this being more common for people going on long hikes, and even further since people that are into long hikes could also be more into Seeking things as they go along which drains battery further and thus low power mode. - It should give a link to the species after identification to quickly get to more details about the capture. This could be a direct link to Wikipedia or a prebuilt Google search link, anything to just get the species name easier into a place it can be searched for. EDIT: the link does exist, but only if you are logged into iNaturalist - On the species page, why can you not view other photos of the plant fullscreen?!

Inconsistent with correctly identifying species

Says my dog is a gerbil among many, many wrong IDs. Too many wrong IDs to count. I am surprised this has a 4.8 star rating. Any browser image search gives accuracy.

It thought my cat was a guinea pig and that our weeping cherry tree is a Siberian Elm. I can’t figure out how to tell it it’s wrong.

Everything I take a picture of says dicot family. I is not even able to always identify common plants. I would not recommend.

I use to love this app. I enjoyed collecting species that are local to me. Lately though the app has sucked. I know what the animas and plants are before I try and add them to my observations. If I take a picture with my phone without the app usually it’s correct. But if I use the seek app while taking a picture it’s always wrong. For some reason it thinks every bird is a cardinal. Even wax wings and finches.

I have uploaded over 100 clear photos and the app has yet to identify any of them.

They stopped updating the app in 2024. They say there’s “minor bug fixes” in the logs, but the app and all its features are exactly the same as when I joined in 2024. Even the newest available challenge dates to December 2024. And it is missing a lot of species. Believe me, I know the these things. Not only do I use Seek daily but I am also a scientist with a phd in biology

I used to love this app. It was a great way for me to explore the world around me and learn about the natural environment. But lately it either doesn’t recognize species, or the app freezes and has to be restarted.

Apparently every plant is a dicot, I never knew

La pianta di Giacinto dice che è un insetto. Dico solo questo…….

I’ve fine that Google can do everything this app can do better. Which really sucks and I was hoping this app would be worth it, but it is. Google can do about the same thing just as well. In some cases even better.

Let me start by saying is such Great idea but it can’t even identify a large mouth bass because I set the bass in a spot where the cam could easily identify it but it couldn’t find any sign of life it also thought my Pomeranian was a fox

It identified a rock as a flower, my cat as a dog, a million year old fossil of a fish as a flower, along with numerous other mistakes.

It identified a pecan tree as a bird.

I’m so surprised by all the good reviews. I’m an enthusiastic gardener and need a good plant identification app. Seek identifies every other plant as a Dicot. When scanning an insect it has a hard time focusing and after a while it won’t identify. Wished there was a better option.

Iphone photos never properly upload to inaturalist from seek observations. Just ends up uploading a bunch of useless data with no pic. Identification can be extremely accurate or completely off. Just about useless for most native grasses as well. You won’t be able to identify birds unless they are basically in your hand. This app struggled to identify a common grackle at 2 yards

I literally download the app and it can’t identify anything.. at ALL!! It’s calls a tree a literal bird and every time I log into the app, it changes what I’ve already seen. So I have clue what to do.

Keeps crashing when I try to identify anything on iPhone 16 pro max

Has a hard time identifying anything, cannot recognize animals, very poor

Sure Seek might seem easier, but it isn’t trustworthy. Using AI to identify plants can be dangerous if you get the wrong ID. Inaturalist classic relies on actual scientists to confirm the ID of your observation which is essential to proper identification. Trying to use AI to bypass that will only end up with people getting hurt because they will think something is edible when it’s not.

I have a couple of rabbits I wanted look into but it doesn’t offer any information.

Half the time it inaccurately identifies and usually it can’t even see bugs

I used this app for years but it has recently started giving this error message on my iPhone 16 pro Sorry, we weren't able to capture your photo [capture/unknown]: Error Domain=AVFoundationErrorDomain Code=-11800 "The operation could not be completed" UserInfo={NSUnderlyingError=0x139a8 6f70 {Error Domain=NSOSStatusErrorDomain Code=-16802 "(null)"}, NSLocalizedFailureReason=An unknown error occurred (-16802), AVErrorRecordingFailureDomainKey=4, NSLocalizedDescription=The operation could not be completed}

simply does not work

I got 6 different species from one bug

Help The button to view what other species there are on the home page has ceased to work. Sometimes, it will also say that the camera failed to load. Also, I can’t access the “January 2025” challenge. When I try, it just freezes on a blank screen and I cannot do anything.

The app worked really well when I first installed it but now every time I take a photo the app is unable to register it. I’ve tried multiple times on the same insect, but it just doesn’t work. I really do love this app and I hope they can fix the issue.

11-25-2025: the library has expanded. Yet, the UI is still much to be desired 6-07-2025: I’m glad they updated the library, just wish they’d redesign the UI 2-19-2024: Is there a reason why ‘open’ Challenges dating back to 2019 cannot be deleted? 1-29-2024; Who designed this mess? # Home page: when selecting an option from the drop down none of the species displayed are in alphabetical order. # Achievements: shows Species and Challenges badges. No descriptions - You just have to know what icons mean. # Challenges: I have 6 challenges in progress with a percentage of completion. Further down (way down) the page, it shows 3 completed but no dates of completion. # My Observations: I count 159 but I doubt the accuracy of a few as one was tagged as a Mexican free-tailed bat but was actually a leaf. # Notifications: this page just doesn’t make sense. It shows a whopping 207 notifications that I ‘almost finished a Challenge’ or ‘Completed’ one. NONE have dates or names the challenge. Are they duplicates?

It cannot seem to identify a red rose! I’m trying to show it my flower bouquet, but it either identifies the plants as insects or exotic species. Very flawed. Ai isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

This throws an error every time I try to take a photo. Finally worked and wildly off base

Idk why but the “all species” button just won’t even work when i try to press it.

It literally identified my opuntia as a Cucumber!

What is going on? This app was amazing not too long ago. Now it tells me my dog is human.

Multiple family members having same issue, it locks up, times out, then gives a giant message on a black screen about failure to save photos - we all get the error. Poor QA practice and regression testing.

Terrible at identification. I tested on 100% known trees and plants I have cultivated and it was wrong 100% of the time. If using this app, be cautious of the information you get. I took the same pics and had chatgtp i.d. them with much higher success…which isn’t saying much.

I used to use Seek all the time and then I kept getting the message that the camera wouldn’t load the pictures so I deleted the app and reinstalled it, which caused me to lose all my observations now I have the reinstalled app and I am still getting the message that my observations are not being recorded because the camera isn’t taking the picture for some reason I haven’t seen anything about this anywhere

I used to love this app, but since a recent update, it no longer will log my photos. Gives me an error that the camera cannot be loaded. I have deleted the app and reinstalled, but still getting the error. I used to would recommend this app, but no longer would I recommend this app to anyone.

Great for identifying all kinds of species and learning about them. The camera freezes often in this version. Update - I am deleting this app until the authors fix it. It is totally useless on my iPhone 16 Pro running iOS 26.0.1

iPhone with latest update and now the app glitches every time I take a picture and shows a coding object. Sometimes it crashes and shuts down. Can’t find another way to contact support other than leaving a bad review to get attention. Will update if problem is corrected.

Pictures have been showing errors. Deleted entire app to start all over - still not working!

This app not only gives incorrect answers but delivers the occasional big laugh by analyzing a date palm as being a relative of the parrot!😂 I give this app a one finger rating guess which one!

The title says it all.

This app started off great. Today I tried to use it to identify a bug and it amends with some kind of error about the camera. Camera works great. I deleted and reloaded the app with no success.

Seek used to work just okay, but now it won’t save photos or take me to the identification page at all

Was once the best program and now it malfunctions every chance it gets.

The camera constantly freezes and crashes and the app returns with an “unknown” error. It’s the most buggy app on my phone and yes … my iOS and the app itself are up to date. When it works it’s great, but they need better quality control.

It was a great app until a few weeks ago, now I get an error message every time I try to identify something

I have found this app unable to ID my plants most of the time. Other apps are far more useful.

I dont know if its just me but whenever i take a picture of really anything it says it the complete opposite of what it is. Like for example i use a picture of a human and uts says it a mushroom.

This used to be one of my favorite apps. For the last two updates, all it can tell me is that everything I point it at is a dicot and it gets no further, or it doesn’t pick up anything at all. Today it tried to tell me that a big flowering plant was a tree frog.

Identification can hit or miss; and, those ‘misses’ lead to some misidentifications, which hurts the app’s usefulness. (A hibiscus is not a garden dahlia). The auto ‘take a photo at species level’ is convenient, but often leads to blurry and disappointing images. Lastly, having a dedicated search feature to query specific plants in the user’s area would also improve the usefulness of this app.

After the most recent update the app no longer adds or saves my pictures. Quite aggravating considering I have discovered some interesting species over the last 3 wks. I’m done with this app

Recent update includes camera bug. Loved it until now. Same problem as other recent reviewers.

Camera view kept showing a spinner instead of ever showing what was actually in front of the camera. Problem persisted even after killing and restarting the app.

I can put the same insect pic in Seek and iNaturalist and I back the word 'bug' Google image IDs it instantly sadly AI will replaced Seek and INaturalist

Apparently, every plant is a dicot but that’s as far as it goes. Not really helpful for accurate identification.

This app constantly informs me that “ sorry, we weren’t able to load the camera. Unknown/Unknown” when I just snapped pictures the day before or a few hours before. Then I can’t close the app. When I click the X in the top left corner, it doesn’t do anything. It will also say: “Sorry, we weren't able to capture your photo If your permissions are set to 'Selected Photos', you may need to restart Seek or visit iOS Settings > Seek > Photos > Selected Photos to choose which photos to display here”. I don’t have “ selected photos” turned on! Not sure how I get these errors after I’ve used it previously. I think it just works whenever it feels like it. Quite frustrating.

I recently purchased a new phone and all of my observations are gone.

It was pretty good at first but then I was in my woods and it couldn’t identify a porcini and it was very obvious. I took many pictures from many different angles and still couldn’t get anything. The only thing that is stopping this from getting one star is that it could identify some plants and birds, even though it could only identify a single mushroom. Also it can’t identify trees.

Don’t waste your time. It has no idea what it’s trying to identify 90% of the time. If you can get the right camera angle for it to try and identify something. Don’t hold whatever it is either or it will be classified as human:( deleting.

Remove the remember button. I purposely don’t remember. Whoever designed this clearly doesn’t use it

Input a photo of a bird feather on a white tissue (for contrast). The app decided that the tissue in the image was Covid-19, logged my sighting as a virus (absurd for so many reasons—we cannot yet take photos of viral particles with a mobile camera, I'm quite confident!). The app will not allow me (or I cannot easily locate the option) to remove or change this inaccuracy, rendering itself not only unusable but illustrating its own untrustworthiness quite effectively.

Too Long; Didn’t Read: This is an excellent app, but a species search feature and a report incorrect identification feature would be very useful. Not Too Long; Did Read: I love this app. It is incredibly useful and provides a lot of insight into the world of plants, bugs, animals, fungi, and more. However, it lacks a search function. I would like to be able to look into different species from the app. Additionally, there is no way to correct or report an incorrect identification. In all honesty, it doesn’t necessarily need these features, but if they were to be added it would be an improvement. Otherwise, I highly recommend you try this app, whether you are an aspiring entomologist, agriculture fanatic, or even just a casual birdwatcher. 4/5 stars, well made, just not without its imperfections.

When I first got this app the camera feature was great and I could get close and zoom in while still keeping focus….but now i can’t get close to an object or try to zoom in on anything because it immediately gets blurry. I came here to see if there was an update, but there isn’t. Please fix this!

This app thought a pikachu was a striped skunk,a doorknob was a fungus,a washcloth a bat,a brush a insect,a book an insect,my cousin a tricolored bat,and a chicken a landfowl,and my other cousin a crab cactus,and a drawing of a squirrel a moth.

first out the gate. this app rocks. i love this app. i use it everywhere and its been a huge aid in learning about the flora and fauna in my area and impressing my friends when i can tell them what something is! however, there are a few annoyances i have that i think would make the app so much better. my biggest pet peeve is when the app gives an incorrect ID and I have no way of telling it nope, wrong, go back and try again. I find it annoying that i have to completely back out and retry, and I worry about incorrect IDs being saved to Seek’s knowledge bank or to my observations. I think a system like Merlin Bird ID’s where it asks you “is this your bird?” so you can confirm or go back and double check would be beneficial. secondly, a better information source for looking up more about the species. INat just uses Wikipedia. i love wikipedia, but it really sucks when I find a cool plant and click the see more link to learn more about it and it’s a wikipedia article with 2 sentences and maybe 3 cited papers I can’t access. I don’t know how this could be improved using INat’s current infrastructure, but I wonder what could come out of partnerships with other knowledge banks like the Xerces society or regional native plant societies. that’d be awesome!

I used to enjoy using this app but the camera functionality is really bad now? Like it won’t focus on up close items.