Originally published on naturego.app .

Nature GO is a free Android app that builds a nature dex from short videos. This is how it turns an 8-second clip into a species suggestion, and where it deliberately stops.

In short: you film the animal live in the app for about eight seconds while moving the phone the way the app asks. A server samples four frames, checks that they come from one real scene, then suggests a species with the visible evidence behind it. You confirm the suggestion before it enters your nature dex.

1. A live clip, never a photo

Nature GO only accepts video filmed in the app. Gallery photos and imported files are refused, so every entry in the dex is something you actually found. Before you record, the app gives one movement to make: keep the subject in frame and move the phone slowly to the left, or to the right. The direction is drawn at random for each clip and the challenge expires after ten minutes.

2. Four frames checked on the server

You choose whether to send each clip.…