How to identify plants and flowers with your iPhone camera | AppleInsider (2024)

FAQs

How do I get my iPhone camera to identify plants? ›

Open the Photos app on your ‌iPhone‌ and select a picture with a clearly defined subject, such as a flower or animal. Check the info ("i") icon at the bottom of the screen. If it has a little star over it, tap it – this indicates there's a Visual Lookup you can examine.

What you need is PlantSnap, an app that takes advantage of the machine-learning framework built into iOS to instantly identify more than 300,000 species of plants, flowers, and trees. All you have to do is take a photo. Simply snap a photo of a plant to identify the species.

Now, when your ‌iPhone‌'s camera is close enough to an object, the flower icon will appear in the Camera app and can be tapped to enable or disable Macro mode. Apple has also added a new Preserve Settings option for Macro Control (Settings -> Camera -> Preserve Settings -> Macro Control).

PlantNet is our number one pick for a totally free plant identification app. PlantNet describes itself as a “citizen science project on biodiversity”. It counts on its users to create a botanical database and the user is the last word on whether or not the plant listed is a match.

Yes, it can! Well, Google Lens' plant identification can. Google Lens is available as a standalone app for Android users. Meanwhile, iPhone owners get Google Lens bundled as part of the Google Photos app.

First, snap a photo of whatever you want to identify. Then open the Google Photos app, select that photo, and tap the Google Lens icon. From there, you should be able to access many of the tools and features mentioned above on your Android phone.

Launch Google Photos. Select a photo of an object. Tap on the Google Lens icon. View further details about the object, or take an action when prompted.

The PlantSnap app can be downloaded on both android and IOS devices for free. However, there is a premium version of this app, and switching to premium is constantly encouraged.

What is the best free plant app for iPhone? ›

Flower = Macro (we're going to call this close-up). Close up focusing is for when you want to bring your camera lens really close up to your lucky penny to snap a photo of it.

PlantSnap

PlantSnap has partnered with Snapchat to allow users to identify 600,000+ plants in 37 languages. It's super easy to use and has both a free and premium version, so no matter where you are, you can learn more about the plant life around you.

The only drawback I found with PlantSnap is it's required sign-up. In order to use the app, you must first register by entering in an email and password. Other than that, this app is the perfect plant identification app if you don't mind paying $3.99 for it.

PictureThis® identifies 1,000,000+ plants every day with 98% accuracy - better than most human experts. Get your gardening questions answered and become a “green thumb” with the plant identification power of PictureThis!

The Google Lens feature is enabled by default in the camera app on most Android phones. You'll need to check if the Lens icon displays in the app, as shown below. Open the Camera app and tap the Lens icon in the lower-left corner. In some app versions, tap Modes and select the Lens icon.

Google Lens is a powerful and free app that can allow you to read out text from a sign, book or handout as well as translate text and even recognise objects.

Welcome to EyeSpy, the world's best object recognition mobile app. EyeSpy gives you answers to every visual unknown at the snap of your iPhone or iPad camera. Identify animals, cars, fashion, movie posters, barcodes, words or anything else you can see with your eyes (and even some things you can't!)

What is the best app for identifying objects? ›

Google Lens: identify objects and learn about them

Google Lens image recognition software allows you to identify and learn about most things you come across in your daily life: buildings, gadgets, cars, articles of clothing, plants, animal breeds, jewelry, and even artwork. A notable exception is people.

Leafsnap is a free app on iOS and gets our second-place spot for best plant recognising apps. It can instantly identify thousands of plants, flowers, fruits, and even trees! Instead of wasting time chatting to your plant enthusiast pals, just download Leafsnap and you're pretty much sorted.

With iOS 15, Apple gave iPhone users the ability to perform visual look ups on photos taken using the camera. The iPhone can now recognize and identify numerous subjects, one of which is plants! This little known feature is useful in a few ways.

NatureID is free to use with unlimited plant identifications but only allows for a single plant health diagnosis; full access needs a subscription. The main feature in them all is the ability to identify plants around your house, garden, or while on a walk.

For teachers, community educators, and citizen scientists who want to be able to identify plants they find as well as learn and share information about them, iNaturalist (iOS, Android) is the app we recommend. Expert researchers and other experienced users wander the app and confirm publicly shared identifications.

The percentage accuracy (often in the 30- to 40-percent range) on some plant identifications at the time of review isn't entirely reassuring. One really fun feature on the app is that it saves when and where you took the plant photos, creating a personalized catalog of your flower and plant explorations.

The Bloom effect appears when there is a lot of light. More light in bright areas of the scene makes the effect more visible, especially in case of slightly or even heavily overexposed image.

Nearly all digital cameras have a macro mode. You'll know if yours has one because one of the menu buttons will have an icon of a flower on it. This switches the camera into a special close focus mode and many allow you to get less than 10cm from the subject.

How do I use my camera to identify plants? ›

First, snap a photo of whatever you want to identify. Then open the Google Photos app, select that photo, and tap the Google Lens icon. From there, you should be able to access many of the tools and features mentioned above on your Android phone.

Is it cloudy outside? Want to check for Martians in the middle of the day—even when you're stuck indoors? Now you can. Just point your iPhone or iPad toward the sky to view constellations, planets, and satellites above—no telescope required.

With iOS 15, Apple gave iPhone users the ability to perform visual look ups on photos taken using the camera. The iPhone can now recognize and identify numerous subjects, one of which is plants! This little known feature is useful in a few ways.

Yes, you can photograph planets using your iPhone. For this to work, you'll want to use the eyepiece projection method with a telescope. Simply place the camera lens of your phone perpendicular to the center of the telescope eyepiece to capture the action.