Signed I totally agree with you. Apps are a great tool and I would be lost without my google lens. I also use it to identify insects and anything that is unknown. I Like I mentioned to lisaam, it all depends on what you do after getting a correct result. All of the people that use apps for plant ID's and who then post their screenshots are gardening newbees who are caught up in excitement. Ive been in more advanced plant ID groups that didn't allow apps, but how could the administrstors know whether someone got their ID from an app? I just don't feel it's very useful when someone gets a correct ID and shows the screenshot. It stifles further discussion, unless someone like me comes in afterwards and fills in the details about the species and how to ID it. I use my app for confirmation when I believe I know the species. I just acreenshot the plant and apply google lens to the pic. I takes a good deal of knowledge to discern whether the app results are correct or not. I would say that google lens is correct about 50 percent of the time. Ive figured out tricks to get better results by manipulating the photos. I try to find something distinctive about the plant in the photo, and then I crop the photo to only show the distinctive section. Sometimes rotating the photo gets better results.

Maybe I can help you with that. Please leave a message on my profile page, and I will follow up.

A friend is having a lot of fun with chatGPT and doing designs for herself and her family.