A review on iNaturalist's Seek

I found this app after I decided to join iNaturalist a few months ago. It's an app that lets one identify a species by snapping pictures of it. Be it an animal, plant, fungi, you name it.

I found Seek quite useful, and to be honest, I'm surprised that by this app, most of the organisms I often see in my neighbourhood are way more diverse than I previously thought. This is especially true for plants (as this journal is written, I've identified approximately 190 species of plants). And thanks to Seek's identification, it's easier to find how to grow and care for plants now, although whenever it got stuck, Google Lens will do the job.

At the first months of using Seek, the app had few features: one of the most notable features that's missing is a search bar in 'My Observations'. The lack of this feature forced me to scroll for a long time to review some of my observations. It might not be a nuisance for some of you, but speaking of UX (user experience), it is.

Seek also has issues regarding identifying several species. At one occasion, it mistook a guppy as a Siamese fighting fish/betta. It also mistook a couple more, but since it was too much, I'd rather not list 'em here. You get the idea.

I wrote some criticism and suggestions on a Seek-related forum, which include inclusion of a search bar in 'My Observations' and improvement in identifying. It seems (IDK whether this is true or just pure coincidence) the dev heard me; now there is a search bar in 'My Observations'. Also, in 'Challenges', the app lets you know which species you've identified that matches the badge's requirements, so you don't have to ID the same species more than once (with observation list as long as a playlist, it'll be hard to keep on track in which species that have been ID'd). Oh, I also wrote something about 'replacing photos of a species', since I found it annoying to capture a photo of a species, and the photo ended up looking like 'an accidental selfie' and it takes long to replace the photo. If you capture a quick-moving species, well, best of luck with this nuisance. But now, 'Replace Old Photo' has become my best companion.

While it seems to keep struggling to identify a couple of species, there are lots of improvements in Seek. I highly appreciate the efforts the dev took to improve the UX of the app. Just don't stop being awesome. There are lots of similar apps like this (esp. the aforementioned Google Lens or PictureThis), but I'll stick to Seek. It brings the same joy naturalists in Victorian era also experienced - collecting and curating them.

Here are some observations I did with Seek's help:

Posted on August 26, 2020 04:15 AM by