Mineralo

What is this rock?

Point your camera at a stone and Mineralo tells you what it is likely to be — and why it thinks so, describing what it actually saw in your photograph rather than reciting a textbook.

Answers you can weigh

Most stones on most beaches are nondescript, and an app that confidently names every one of them is lying to you. When a specimen has nothing diagnostic about it, Mineralo says so instead of picking the nearest match and dressing it up with a number. An identification you can trust is worth more than one that is merely fast.

A collection that maps itself

Every find you keep records where you were, so your collection doubles as a map of the places you have been — and you can find your way back to the good spots. Ranks and badges mark the milestones: new species, new places, rarer material.

Works where the rocks are

Rocks are outdoors, and outdoors has no signal. When the network does not answer, identification runs entirely on your iPhone.