What is the “Seek” App?
Seek is an app allows you to take photos of plants and animals to both identify and learn more about them. You do not have to create an account and do not have to log in to use it. They also say “no personally identifiable information is collected from logged out users.”
Click through the images below to see what the Seek experience is like:
Seek has a cute system of giving you badges for things like identifying a certain type of species for the first time or having achieved the identification of 100 species, etc. I wasn’t a part of the Scouts growing up, so this app makes me feel like I get to experience a tiny sliver of what that experience might have been like lol.
Above you’ll see my first ever photo taken on Seek back when I lived in Boulder, Colorado. I was amazed by its accuracy despite my distance from the animal and quickly became obsessed with using the app.
Is the “Seek” App free?
COMPLETELY FREE! No ads, no subscriptions, no premium tier, and no hidden fees. Just the pure beauty of exploring nature.
What are the downsides of the “Seek” App?
Identification can sometimes take a while, which doesn’t always work for animals on the move! Also, as soon as you try to take a photo live through the app, there are warning notifications about being careful in nature. Sometimes by the time you’ve clicked to continue, your pretty bird has flown off.
The app infrequently even struggles with identifying plants that are standing still. I’ve found the best work around is to just take the photo with your regular cellphone camera and then later place it into the app to see if you get an identification.
Would I Recommend the “Seek” App?
The answer is a resounding yes. It’s a cool way to explore new places and to keep a record of all that you’ve seen. It might also be a great way to get children more engaged when traveling. When I was taking screenshots in the app for this blog post, it brought me back to some of the nature moments I had in Japan, especially the abundance of flora in Okinawa.
Other Seek Memories
While in Peru, I saw a black waterbird floating across a lake. Once it hopped onto land and neared, I marveled at how the red part of its head looked like someone had built a hard shell and placed it over the bird’s face. That’s when I remembered that I could use Seek to find out more information about it. I also saw some beautiful birds near that same lake with blue details around their eyes that looked just like eyeliner *>.<*
While in Hawaii, I made it to the summit of the most muddy hike of my life and was tickled to see an animal slink its way over. I was sure it was used to being fed by strangers and refrained, although another traveler fed it some of their lunch. That bought be enough time to identify it with the Seek app; it was my first ever sighting of a mongoose!
A home for my words. 
Share your thoughts and/or questions.