How It Works

1. Add a sighting

Drop in a photo — or several. Life Observer reads the capture time and, if your camera recorded one, the GPS position, and offers them as a starting point. It never fills them in behind your back; you accept them or you do not.

2. Ask what it is

Press Identify and the photo goes to an identification service, along with the month and a deliberately rounded location. You get up to five candidates, ordered by confidence, each with the marks visible in your photograph that support it, and a caution wherever a look-alike is easy to confuse.

Pick one, edit it, or ignore the lot and type the name yourself. Sightings record whether the name came from you or from a photo match, which matters later if you ever want to re-check your own list.

3. Decide who can see it

Three settings, per sighting:

• Private — only you. This is the default for everything you add.
• Shared — the members you name, plus anyone holding a share link you created. Links can carry an expiry date and can be revoked at any time.
• Public — visible in the community feed and to anyone on the web.

Changing your mind is one click, and it applies immediately to everyone.

4. Watch the list grow

Your life list counts each species once, with the date you first recorded it and the date you last did. Every individual sighting stays intact underneath.

What leaves this server

When you ask for an identification, the photograph, the month and the rounded location are sent to the identification service. Your name, your email, your exact coordinates and your notes are not. Nothing is sent unless you press Identify.

What this is not

It is not a safety tool. An identification from a photograph is a suggestion about what something probably is, not a determination that anything is safe to eat, touch or handle. That is true of every app of this kind, including the ones that do not say so.