Picture Insect
reviews and complaints

This is supposed to be a free app? After I opened the App and read everything, I find out it’s free for 7 days! After that it’s $29.95 a year. I’m using the app to identify the insects around our new home in a new state.
I have used this app one time, I had already taken three photos of the same insect so I used one of the photos on this site. The site answer was very clearly wrong, a picture of a different insect was provided for comparison and it shows a completely different insect! I then used the additional two photos and received two more answers which were different from each other and different from the first answer. I’m not going to use this app and I’m certainly not going to pay for this “free” app! I gave one star because you have to give at least one to make your review go through.

I downloaded this “free” app to take a picture of the bug that just bit my screaming daughter’s leg. Turns out the bug was an assassin bug and was harmless but had very painful bite. So we all relaxed and forgot about the incident until a about a week later when we saw a mysterious $29.99 charge to our bank account that we had no idea where it came from. I contacted apple.com and found out it was from this app that (without my authorization or knowledge) charged me this amount for a “premium” account that I did not authorize! I have reported it to report a problem at apple.com and have emailed the fraudulent company to resolve the issue. We will see if they make it right or not. I will update this review with a positive note if the company refunds my money that they stole from my bank account.

I tried this on a spider 1/2 inch in diameter. It gave me everything from a wood tick (I know what those look like) to several varieties of moth, to a brown rat. Not kidding. A brown rat. I also had to get within a foot of the spider to take a decent photo; zoom wouldn’t work well enough from any further away, even 2 feet, on my iPhone that tends to have excellent zoom capabilities. I tried reporting the inaccurate reading (seriously. Not a rat of any color. Wrong phylum entirely), but that wasn’t an option. I tried putting “spider,” but it wanted me to pick which one. Feeling that to be somewhat defeative of the purpose of downloading the app to begin with… I gave up. Less than 10 attempts on the same creature, and I’ve blown through my free tries. No reason to think the paid version is any better. No thank you.

The vendor offers this application through the Apple Store stating that it is free during an one-week trial period when you can cancel the subscription. I did not like the application and spent several hours trying to find a way to cancel the subscription before I get charged ~$30. My account at Apple or iTunes finds the subscription as “free for one week”, but does no offer any option to cancel. Instead, it offers many options to subscribe! Even if I accept the minimum one-week period, I am not sure whether that subscription will remain for one week and will not be extended automatically: it is described as “weekly”.

To me, this process appears to be intentionally conceived to deceive.

I apologize and withdraw this bad review if there is a clear way to cancel the subscription without any automatic renewal and billing.

I am a professional in insect and invert care and keeping. I’ve owned many tarantulas, spiders, roaches, scorpions and many others. I’m always seeing new spiders in the wild I didn’t know of but lots of insects can be easily misidentified, especially by an app that goes on one picture alone. I got curious and decided to test it with my own inverts. My curly hair was misidentified as a rose hair by no fault of the app. It’s common to mistake the two due to their markings being so similar. I also tested it on my Mexican Redknee, a more identifiable species. While the app did get it right, I noticed a picture that was not a Mexican redknee on the insect page. This app is mostly accurate but still be aware that it’s AI May misidentify a big as harmless but could actually contain powerful venom!

Be safe and use the app wisely!

As far as making an app to identify a bug just by taking a picture of it.. does it get anymore convenient? I HATE spiders but I just moved to an area that’s by a forest and see these big spiders marching around the house. Pretty much just wanting to see what is or isn’t poisonous and the fact this app can pretty much identify most insect even by uploading a pic is...5 stars worthy.
It gives a lot of info but there are specific answers I want to know and it would be nice if it provided a little bit more info about the insects, if they can harm your animals or family/friends, and/or how common they are, what attracts them, how to handle them, etc. That would make it more interesting and provide more than sufficient information that I think most people would be curious to know. I’m using the free trial and may try the full version to see if it provides more features. Brilliant!

… what I mean is, I try reserving 5 stars for apps that are close to flawless in providing the service I bought it for.. this came very close, I like the concept, the app is user friendly however it lacks a glossy of bugs I tried to identify. Without knowing just how tough if not impossible it is to acquire everything! You may want to rate it with less! However, the fact that this app knows this, explaining this and other great facts inside, helps you realize this app just hasn’t been finished! It’s constantly asking for new material or correct what you believe it is.. (if you don’t know, don’t add it. There is this place called a library which hold so much information, I’m sure if your a true hobbyists, you’ll find your answer there, then add it!)
So basically this app needs our help to fill this apps glossy up! If this app is globally placed, we may even find a new species of arachnid or insect if we’re lucky! So that is why I want to give it a 5 but maybe as we add more constant, it’ll change.

Update- the app doesn’t work anymore. It says “reconnected” and then goes right to a white screen. I’ve tried to delete it and redownload and it still doesn’t work. For 20$ a year, it’s disappointing.

This app is pretty good. It makes accurate identifications most of the time, and has a lot of great info about the ID’d insect. It also gives several options of IDs in case the first is not spot on. This is a great feature.

The reason is gets 3 out of 5 stars is for two reasons.

1) When you upload a picture from your library to ID- you have no control over where the scanner will look when it scans it. This is frustrating because it makes it impossible to identify certain t
bugs, and often gives you several wrong identifications. This could be remedied by being able to zoom out on the picture in order to get the full insect into the scanning zone.

2) This is a paid subscription app. It costs 20$ a year- so it is not free as advertised.

If the scanner picture issue is resolved, this is well worth the 20$ a year.

I was heading into bed and noticed a small bug crawling on my sheets (technically my shorts that were on my sheets). HORRIFIED I picked up my shorts, took them into the bathroom and snapped a picture of the alien-looking bug. Then after freaking out a bunch and debating sleeping in a different room, I had the idea to check if I could submit my picture anywhere to identify the bug.

That’s how I came upon this app. Now my picture was sorta blurry, but to my surprise it scanned my picture and pulled up a bug that looked EXACTLY what I saw in my bed. (A Fire-Brat if y’all wanna look it up)

Now, not only did I know the identity of the bug, but loads of interesting things about it; like the fact that it isn’t harmful and doesn’t bite, what may have caused it to be there, and how I can prevent it.

I wasn’t expecting much since it’s the free version but WOW. Can’t go to sleep until I leave a review like this app is a game changer. Definitely recommend it for anyone who is either creeped out by bugs, interested in them, or lives with a bunch. You won’t regret it!

App seemed ok. Tried it out with a picture and seemed like it did a pretty good job of analyzing the photo and suggesting possible identifications. It only gave me the option of $19.99 subscription for a year which I didn’t feel was really worth it for how much I would end up using it. I followed the instructions on the app to cancel the subscription by emailing a request to the developers and didn’t realize, since I’ve never used subscription based apps on my phone before, that you actually have to go through the App Store to cancel and the app instructions only say to email them to request a cancellation to try and get you to not cancel. So now I’ve ended up paying the $19.99 for the year subscription despite thinking I cancelled by emailing the company. Requested a refund through Apple and hoping to get the money back. If the subscription was cheaper or they offered tiered subscriptions I would have thought it was worth it for me since I would only be an occasional and casual user. I could see someone like my dad who is a landscaper, this would maybe be more worth the $19.99 price.

Being someone who grows a lot of food and is a student of environmental science I was excited for this app.

Pros:
-Easy and aesthetic interface had me identifying insects in no time.
-The first choice they gave me was right 100% of my pictures submitted. They even give a few extra choices just in case.
-Complete scientific name and familiar classification.

Cons:
-Doesn’t really tell you much “regular” information. A lot of my pictures were pest species and no info was given on how to deal with them. Sure I can google it but isn’t that what paying is for?
-Some of the explanations seemed like they came from someone who’s not entirely mastered English. Which isn’t a negative cause they haven’t mastered English. I can infer and figure out what they’re saying. But it’s a scientific app. Kinda something you wanna be exact in your descriptions.

Overall this app is cool on the surface and helped me ID a lot of different insects. But it lacks real substance with regards to dealing with pests or giving any detailed info on species. I understand it’s difficult given the sheer amount of insects out there. I might keep this till the seven day mark but unsure. Thanks for listening to me blab.

We are unschoolers, which means we practice child-led learning. My six-year-old is our miniature biologist. A few weeks ago, he kept me at the laptop for half an hour googling “beetles with black bodies and red legs,” trying to identify a bug he saw on the porch. (I didn’t see the bug, and we never found a picture that matched his description.) I bought this app immediately after. Best money I’ve spent all year. Hands down. No contest.

My seven-year-old’s interests are different. He’s fascinated with toxicology. So, every bug he finds (especially spiders), he insists on identifying it and reading the app’s indications of whether or not the bug will bite humans, and—if it does—he compiles knowledge of first-aid responses and symptoms to look out for.

Suffice it to say, this app has saved me loads of time, and I appreciate it so much. We’ve enjoyed being able to identify the creepy crawlers in our yard and then deep dive into YouTube and Google to find more information about them.

To the techs who designed it, I hope your coffee is always strong enough to carry you through your day. Bless you.

Sincerely,
A Homeschool Mom who tried to buy field guides, but field guides don’t have indexes with a six-year-old’s descriptive language

SOLUTION to cancelling subscription:

iPhone users:
Go to Settings —> select your Apple ID —> subscriptions —> here should be a list of all the apps you subscribe (pay money) for: select the app you want to unsubscribe from (Picture Insect - Insect ID Pro) —> select the red unsubscribe option. Make sure to do this within the 7 day window.

Background: I downloaded this app to try to identify if a spider in my kitchen was a brown recluse. It gave me three guesses, one of which was a brown recluse, and the other two’s pictures and information didn’t seem to match. Not super helpful when it comes to potential medically significant venom...I realize this app is not for clinical purposes, so I’m not criticizing it for that, but a little more knowledge would have been helpful to at least narrow it down.

Most importantly: The fact this app isn’t forthcoming about its subscription service makes it feel sleazy and kind of taking advantage of less tech-savvy people who might not know how to cancel the subscription, or even know they are signing up for one. I can see my mother falling into this trap and then not ever realizing she is being billed month to month. I probably would have stuck with it, but for that reason, it makes me lose respect for the developers. There are many other great identification apps out there, explore those first. I’ve had success with Seek - a little rough around the edges, but the app gets better all the time.

I’m glad there’s so many good reviews and that so many people are happy with this app but unfortunately i’m not. It’s a well made app and it looks good but every time I use it it pops up a bug that doesn’t even remotely look the same. I have a brand new iPhone SE 2020 so I have an up to date brand new camera that takes clear images and every time i’ve used this the pictures came out amazingly so I know it’s not because i’m taking a bad picture. I just downloaded this app today because I keep finding crazy looking caterpillars in my garden that I have no idea what they are and i’m never able to find out what they are by looking it up online so I looked up caterpillar identification and this app popped up. The caterpillar i’m trying to identify has bright green and brown stripes and has short white spikes sticking out of the brown stripes. The first time I took a picture of the caterpillar they showed me an all brown caterpillar. The second time I did it they showed me an all green caterpillar with black spikes. And finally the third time of trying they showed me a red and black caterpillar. At this point it honestly seems like they’re just showing random caterpillars and not actually using my pictures to identify it. I’m not sure if i’m just unlucky or if the app doesn’t like me (lol) or if all of the good reviews on here ain’t real (i’ve seen a lot of apps have fake paid reviews to get people to download so wouldn’t surprise me). But who knows maybe it’s because i’m using it for free and didn’t choose to pay for the “premium” version or sign up for the free trial of it. But oh well i’m gonna delete this app and keep on looking for a legit way to identity the bugs in my garden. Wouldn’t reccommened it but who knows you might have better luck then me ‍♀️

As a hobbyist and bug lover, the prodpect of adding more and cooler bugs to my virtual collection is very fun. Picture insect does an amazing job at simple identification, but i see huge potential for it to be so much more. With just a few added features: 1. Some kind of social aspect 2. Rarity rankings, collection scores 3. Albums, a “favorites” section 4. Goals, incentives 1) A collection sharing feature would be incredible for attracting new users. Being able to view the bugs in the collections of my friends would just be so fun. 2) A rarity ranking feature would give users more incentive to find bugs they have never found before. It could be a simple Ai that compares data from users in your area and determines what percentage of them have a certain critter in their collection. I could imagine the feeling of finding a super rare bug and the gratification it could add. If you were able to view your collection’s score, especially in combination with a social feature would intoduce an element of competition. 3) Albums could be very useful to organize your bugs and seperate them based on any metric (location, family and genus, coloring etc.) Additionally having a favorites roster with a hard limit of 5 or so could be a way to represent your collection in a succinct way. It would make showing your best pictures to friends easier, even without a network social feature. (I find myself doing this alot :D) 4) If you were to go further to make this app more attactive to non-bug lovers, introducing quests of some kind could be instrumental. Ex. Find 5 bugs in one day. Identify a bug within a certain family. Identify a bug with max size of over ___ 10cm. Of course some kind of award for completion would be very fun, aka. Badges, stars, titles. Ok if you got this far thank you for reading. I am no game dev but I understand expecting these changes is a tall order, but I really do see an app like this becoming a phenomenon, and not just for bug people/gadeners/pest control/entomology. It could be a sincerely good game if you will.

Took a picture and your app identified this spider as a black widow, I knew that was wrong. I did a web search and identified it as a golden orb weaver spider. I’m in Costa Rica and evidently it is common here. Maybe if the app had a location identifier it would be better, because there aren’t black widows here.

I tried the free trial of their premium and cancelled that day and they still charged me! This is especially problematic because I am not unemployed due to the coronavirus and have limited funds! I am asking Apple to refund the money and I requested that they cancel my membership again so we will see what happens.

Thought this was a one time purchase but turns out it’s $30 a month and having a super hard time figuring out how to cancel the subscription. All this hassle because I wanted to identify a caterpillar which to its credit it did but the pricey subscription it forces on you not worth it. Still trying to figure how to cancel.

Downloaded this app to identify spiders in my apartment, worried some of them might be dangerous. When the biggest spider came out, app claimed no internet connection. (My internet was working perfectly fine for all other apps.) Tried restarting it many, many, many times, tried deleting and redownloading the app. Still nothing.

This app isn’t worth the $20 they are asking. It didn’t identify the insect, it took multiple times before finally it recognized the bug! NOT worth the $20! Also it says you can cancel before the 7 days if you don’t like this app but there is no place where I can go in the app to cancel! I’ve sent two emails asking to cancel and no response!

Selected pictures of biting bugs in my house. Alas, it came back with a total mismatch that looked nothing like my bug. On a second try, it came back with a rodent matching and insect.

I'll grant my images are not particularly high res because the bugs are so small; this app was so far off I'm canceling it immediately. Didn't even keep it for 10 minutes.

A bug bit me and I really wanted to know what it was. I downloaded this app, and tried to identify it. The app continued to give me different insects with each picture, but none identified it. So I deleted the app. I took my time and I finally identified it myself!

Now weeks later, I find out I was charged for a year. I want my 19.99 back. It did not work!

I was testing out this app for fun at first but now I’m testing it out because I wonder if it works good. It doesn’t work well at all. I take a picture of a fly and it thinks it’s a horse fly. I take a picture of fly eating something yellow and it thinks it’s a Sonoran bumble bee. I take a picture of a stink bug and they think it’s a prince baskettail. This app is stupid.

Not what I expected. I didn’t care for the fact that they auto renew. If I want it I can renew all by myself.

A few weeks later and ur asking for another chance? Why u do an auto renew and I totally disagree with that policy. If I pay for something and use it and like it if I miss it I will renew all by myself. I don’t want or need u going into my pocket to auto renew. Thanks

I get the best photos possible, granted the little gnat-looking house plant pests are very hard to photograph but holy geez they are far from this app’s identifications. I finally killed one and got a decent pic. Your app tells me it’s everything from a yellow fever mosquito to some kind of horned backed spider when clearly it’s a tiny black insect with clear wings. I keep trying though ...

I had downloaded the app on a trial basis after it said that there was a 7 day trial period and I could choose to not renew after the trial period and funds returned.
However, not only was I charged but there is no way for me to choose to not renew. There is no 7 day trial details inside the app. To make things worse the "VIP Premium" contact or support page is broken and returns an error message "please enter a valid email" when you go click submit.

I purchased this app to figure why these little beetle like bugs keep finding there way in my flour or open seasonings or any mix for that matter so I bought this app. Took 3 pics of this bug and each time it gave me a different bug name and description with we can’t seem to locate your bug in our database type answer. It has to be a common bug cause I moved threw every food item away and it’s at the new house. I need help so I can rid this bug for good.

I tried this app to identify a tick, and it did no better than what I was able to do myself based on internet photos. Now I’m trying to cancel within the 1-week free trial period to avoid being billed $20 for an annual subscription - and there’s no way to cancel! No option in the app, no way to contact developer (who is in China), and it’s not showing up in my Apple account subscriptions or purchase history. Trying to contact Apple for help.

DON’T GET THIS APP!

After this app failed to identify a common insect I attempted to cancel the subscription the same day. A few days later I got a notice saying the subscription was going to be charged to me, I cancelled again. Now Apple has charge the subscription to my card.
The insect was identified as two different bugs, neither correct, using the same photo, it was a very good photo of a posed, dead insect.
I have attempted to contact the company but get only automated replies.

WARNING DO NOT DOWNLOAD this thinking you can check it out for free. Its a trick.
I thought it was a free app with in-app purchases but after downloading they revealed its a free trial and that will default to an auto renewing subscription for nearly $30/yr.

I CANCELLED IT THE SAME DAY I DOWNLOADED IT! Still they are charging me as if the trial just expired and I wanted the most expensive version.

The free trial defaults you to $29.95/mo even if you cancel it during the free trial - youre stuck with it. THATS NOT HOW FREE TRIALS WORK!

This app is trash...there is no real database for matching the bugs you take pictures of with whatever they have on file...and what they have on file is either Super basic or someone else that has this app took a picture...you can literally put in your own definitions of the bug...like you discovered some new species...which let’s be honest..not entirely likely...this app is literally having you pay them for you to give them whatever “knowledge” of bugs you have that they don’t have in their database...which is an alarming amount...this app is not worth buying...just go look it up on google, that’s free...and probably more accurate

I had 11 bugs I have caught in my home and from walks and hikes outdoors. I also added a photo from online of a bug someone else had posted. Out of the eleven, 3 were correctly identified. I used one bug 4 times and received 4 different identifications.
I downloaded thinking it might be useful but I will cancel as you do get a 7 day Free Trial. At the end of your trial, you will be charged $29.99 per year.
I feel the developers have a good idea but the app needs a lot of work.
Don’t waste your time or money. I tried it for fun. If someone seriously needed to identify a bug because someone had been bitten or for any reason, this is definitely not a good source for identification.

I was initially excited about this app. I have a large plumeria collection, so want to identify friends and foes, since there are many destructive critters out there.
But, my excitement quickly turned to disappointment when I found that pictures of the same insect were identified as different creatures.
In one photo, it is named a citrus white fly, the next picture, taken seconds later, it’s called a carpet beetle. This was not an isolated event, but happened multiple times.
So, sadly, this app cannot be relied on for any kind of accurate identification. Hope those who’ve previously reviewed how safe they feel, because they think they can correctly ID venomous spiders and insects realize that this is no more than a random “intelligent” guess.