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Show HN: Wildex – Pokémon Go for real wildlife

AnujNayyar | 2026-02-16 21:12 UTC | source

Wildex Identify Plants/Animals

Identify Animals, Plants, Bugs

Only for iPhone

Free · Designed for iPhone

99 points | 70 comments | original link
Dear HN,

My wife and I both love nature and have always wanted a Pokémon go style app, to collect and learn about different species we find.

All the usual species identifying apps were didn’t feel fun enough, so we designed and built one together!

Would love for you guys to give it a try and share any thoughts you have.

Comments

kylenessen | 2026-02-16 21:51 UTC
Why not iNaturalist?
AnujNayyar | 2026-02-16 22:02 UTC
iNaturalist is great for identification and information, but it lacked the fun and soul we were looking for.

It doesn’t feel like you’re playing when you use it, it feels like you’re in biology class (no hate to them).

Wildex gives you cute fun facts and lets you build up points for rare species finds. It feels like a completely different experience.

jacquesm | 2026-02-16 22:16 UTC
> It doesn’t feel like you’re playing when you use it

That's a feature, not a bug. Gamifying nature is a bad idea. It's tourism, but with the worst kind of tourists.

DeLopSpot | 2026-02-16 23:25 UTC
iNaturalist specifically has a gamified Seek app for new users which is more approachable and has more 'fun' elements than the main iNaturalist app: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/seek-by-inaturalist/id13532241...
bix6 | 2026-02-16 22:00 UTC
Can we get a paid version with no linking? Your 3rd party ad / tracking isn’t compatible with my desires.

Otherwise looks fun!

AnujNayyar | 2026-02-16 22:04 UTC
Definitely soon, we just wanted to build a version that everyone can use regardless of income.

Unfortunately inference costs means we needed something (ads) to keep the servers online.

Out of curiosity what would you say is a fair price for this?

bix6 | 2026-02-16 22:06 UTC
I would not pay monthly but I would pay lifetime like 10 or 20 bucks.

Seek is free and good so if I’m paying for the fun aspect I would probably cap out around $20

Edit: might even be able to pull off like $10/yr but I’m increasingly tired of those as well

GNOMES | 2026-02-16 22:05 UTC
Thinking back to 2016 when Pogo launched there were news stories about trespassing, people getting hurt etc for virtual creatures...

I could easily see someone be foolish enough to go up to predators

AnujNayyar | 2026-02-16 22:12 UTC
We thought about this and specifically decided not to award xp based on an animals danger rating.

Even though we warn users in the onboarding to take care in the wild, TikTok and similar platforms have shown people acting foolishly is not something you can fully control

dylan604 | 2026-02-16 22:21 UTC
Do you put up anything when ID'ing a dangerous situation like "RUUUUUN!!!" or similar? Maybe a more serious idea would be to give some sort of visual indication of danger vs loading some text to read that says it's dangerous.
echoangle | 2026-02-16 22:07 UTC
How does it identify the animals/plants? Is there a specialized model for that?
herpdyderp | 2026-02-16 22:09 UTC
No go with all the tracking.
AnujNayyar | 2026-02-16 22:19 UTC
As people are requesting we will make a paid version pronto with no ads.

As per apple guidelines you can request us not to track and the app of course respects that.

The location data is used only for helping us narrow down the collection species!

anotherpaul | 2026-02-16 22:10 UTC
Someone asked for the model you use but I am also curious how you handle ambiguous IDs. Not everything is clear cut especially when it comes to fungi and bugs.

Inaturalist uses second opinions what's your solution?

Edit: cool idea for the app btw, I always call inaturalist my Pokémon deck already so I think it's a nice new angle :)

gnatman | 2026-02-16 22:36 UTC
It appears the Wildex user in your 2nd screenshot is about to get mauled to death.
SunshineTheCat | 2026-02-16 22:59 UTC
Wait, so you're saying going up to catch a mountain lion for my collection when I'm out on a hike is a bad idea...
helterskelter | 2026-02-17 06:27 UTC
If this app gets popular you know somebody is going to be heading to the woods with their smartphone and a 5 gallon bucket full of bacon grease to lure in a griz.
Fire-Dragon-DoL | 2026-02-17 08:31 UTC
That gave me a good laugh
AnujNayyar | 2026-02-16 22:38 UTC
Just as an example, we are currently at lady bird lake in Austin, tx and saw a turtle on the bank. It turned out to be a red eared slider turtle. The app informed us that they can breathe through their bottoms! Who knew!
swyx | 2026-02-16 23:31 UTC
i thought this was more common than it is, but it's also not rare. Claude:

Around a dozen turtle species globally can breathe through their cloacas (rear openings), with roughly half living in Australian rivers. The main species that have truly mastered this ability include the Fitzroy River turtle, Mary River turtle, and white-throated snapping turtle. Additionally, some freshwater turtles like Blanding's turtle use a more limited form of cloacal respiration during hibernation when trapped under ice for extended periods. The Fitzroy River turtle is particularly impressive, obtaining up to 70% of its oxygen needs through cloacal respiration and staying submerged for up to 21 days. The white-throated snapping turtle can get nearly 70% of its oxygen this way as well. These turtles have specialized structures called cloacal bursae—sac-like organs with densely packed papillae (small blood vessel-rich structures)—that allow oxygen from water to diffuse directly into their bloodstream.

haunter | 2026-02-16 22:48 UTC
DREAMPRESS.LTD > https://www.dreampress.ai/

It's all porn. Sigh, I hate this world. I really do feel like 2020 was the timeline alternating enigma event and we can never go back

blorenz | 2026-02-16 22:59 UTC
You have a snow leopard in your app screenshots. The Chinese woman just made the latest news cycles about being mauled by attempting to get a selfie with one. I hope those who use your app will ensure they are taking photos from a very safe distance.
deadbabe | 2026-02-16 23:30 UTC
The second photo is a tiger lunging at the camera ready to kill the user.
swyx | 2026-02-16 23:30 UTC
(semi serious) are there any ways to distinguish photos from being taken up close with no barrier vs behind plexiglass in a zoo?
appplication | 2026-02-16 23:46 UTC
I don’t think you’d want to solve for plexiglass since not all zoos have that but you could just cluster sightings and if you have 1000 sightings in a very particular location it wouldn’t be hard to identify.