PictureThis 4.4 for Android
- Description
- What's new
If you’ve ever been on a walk and wondered, "What kind of tree is that?" or "Is this weed in my garden actually a flower?", PictureThis is the app you’re looking for. It’s essentially a high-tech plant expert in your phone, suitable for professional gardeners as well as people who just want to keep their desk plant alive.
How it Works
The app is incredibly simple: you snap a photo of a plant, and within seconds, the AI identifies it. It claims a 98% accuracy rate across more than a million species. But it doesn’t just give you a name; it gives you a full dossier on the plant, including its history, what it symbolizes, and, most importantly, how to take care of it.
Standout Features
- The "Plant Doctor": If your plant looks sickly, you can take a photo of the leaves, and the app will diagnose the problem (like pests or dehydration) and tell you how to fix it.
- Personalized Care Tips: Every identified plant comes with detailed care instructions (how much water, light, fertilizer, etc.), helping even novice gardeners keep their plants healthy. You can set up watering reminders as well, so you never forget to hydrate your green friends.
- Toxic Plant Warnings: If a plant you scan is poisonous to pets or people, the app will alert you with a warning, helping you keep your home safe. For example, if you photograph a lily and have cats at home, PictureThis will let you know if that plant could be dangerous.
- Light & Water Tools: The app includes a light meter and water tracker. You can measure how much sunlight a plant is getting using your phone’s camera sensor, and log or get reminders for watering schedules. This takes some guesswork out of plant care.
- “My Garden” Collection: PictureThis lets you save the plants you identify into a personal list (your “garden”). You can catalog your houseplants or create a wishlist of plants you love, complete with photos and notes. It’s like a digital journal of all the plants you’ve discovered.
The User Experience
The design is clean and very easy to navigate. You don't even need to create an account to start scanning. However, there is one major "human" annoyance: the app is very aggressive about its Premium subscription. Every time you open it, you’ll likely have to close a pop-up asking you to start a free trial.
Free vs. Premium
PictureThis operates on a freemium model. In the free version, you can perform a limited number of plant identifications before you hit a cap. Essentially, the free app gives you only a handful of “credits” for IDs. After you’ve used those up, you’ll need to either wait or earn more credits to keep identifying. The main way to earn extra free IDs is by watching advertisements or sharing the app on social media. For example, you might get a prompt saying you’re out of free IDs, and then be offered to watch a 30-second ad to get one or two more identifications. This system allows occasional use for free, but if you’re trying to identify multiple plants in one outing, it can become tedious.
For those who really enjoy the app, opting for PictureThis Premium unlocks the full experience. The Premium subscription costs about $30 to $40 per year (prices vary by region). There is even a weekly payment option (around $2–$3 per week), but that route ends up significantly more expensive over a year and is generally not recommended unless you only need it for a very short term. What do you get with Premium? In short: unlimited identifications, no ads, and all the advanced features unlocked. There’s no more worrying about credits or watching ads; you can identify as many plants as you want, back-to-back. Premium users also gain full access to the detailed care guides for every plant, the disease diagnosis tool without limitations, the ability to track an unlimited number of plants in your “My Garden” list, and the 24/7 expert consultation feature. The app essentially becomes an ad-free, unlimited plant encyclopedia and helper.
A word of caution: Many users have complained about the 7-day free trial. If you sign up and forget to cancel, it will automatically charge you for the full year. If you try the trial, set a reminder on your phone to cancel it on day six!
How it Compares
If you want something totally free and don't care about the "extra" features, Pl@ntNet is a great alternative. It’s run by scientists and has no ads, but it’s not as "pretty" or feature-rich. The trade-off is that PlantNet’s interface and features are more bare-bones – it focuses purely on identification and may sometimes give you several possible matches for a photo (since it aggregates data from a community), rather than a single definitive answer. PictureThis, by contrast, usually provides one primary ID result with a polished presentation and loads of extra context like care tips. Google Lens or apps like iNaturalist also provide a quick way to get a name, but they won't tell you how to save your dying succulents. When it comes to other commercial apps, there are a few, like PlantSnap, which offer similar photo identification services. However, PictureThis has proven to be more accurate in head-to-head tests – for example, one test found PictureThis identified plants correctly 100% of the time, whereas PlantSnap achieved about 85% accuracy.
Final Verdict
PictureThis is easily the most polished and accurate plant app out there. It turns a boring hike into a learning experience and makes gardening feel a lot less like guesswork. As long as you can ignore the constant nudges to upgrade, it’s a fantastic tool for anyone who wants to connect a bit more with the nature around them.
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