Terms of Use

Spotter is made by Real Blue Software LLC, a Wisconsin limited liability company (“we”, “us”). These terms cover the Spotter apps for iPhone, iPad and Android, the website spotternature.com and its web demo (together, the “Service”).

You accept these terms when you create an account or sign in (the app tells you so next to the button), or when you use the Service without an account, such as the web demo. If you don’t agree, please don’t use the Service. Our Privacy Policy explains what we do with your information. The App Store or Google Play terms also apply to how you got the app and to purchases. Section 18 has terms that apply when you got Spotter from Apple.

You must be at least 18 years old (or the age of majority where you live, if that is higher) to create or use a Spotter account. Spotter is built for adults. The identification service we use is offered for adult audiences only, and we don’t design Spotter for children.

Parents and teachers are welcome to use Spotter with children, on the adult’s own account and device, with the adult in charge. Children and teens shouldn’t create their own accounts.

Where the law requires it (for example, in Texas), the app asks Apple or Google for the age range on your store account. If it shows you’re under 18, you won’t be able to create an account. If we learn that an account belongs to someone under 18, we will close it and delete its data. Parents can contact us at dgauger@realbluesoftware.com.

Spotter’s identifications, safety ratings, toxicity notes, lookalike lists, edibility information and every other result are generated by an artificial-intelligence model. They can be wrong, incomplete or out of date, even when the confidence score is high. They are for general information and learning only.

• Never eat, taste, touch, handle or use any wild plant, mushroom, animal, rock or other material based on Spotter. Many toxic species look like edible ones.
• Spotter is not medical, veterinary, poison-control, toxicology, foraging or other professional advice, and no doctor, vet or expert reviews results before you see them.
• If a person or animal may have been exposed to something, don’t wait on the app. In an emergency call 911. In the US, call Poison Help at 1-800-222-1222 (free, 24/7). For a pet, call your vet or the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center at (888) 426-4435 (a consultation fee may apply).
• Stay safe outdoors, follow the law and local rules (private property, parks, protected and endangered species, collecting and fossil-hunting rules), and don’t disturb wildlife to get a photo.

You use the Service and act on its results at your own risk. You accept the risks of handling, eating or otherwise relying on anything you identify with Spotter.

You can sign in with Apple, Google or an email address. Keep your sign-in secure and tell us if you think someone else is using your account. One account per person; accounts can’t be sold or transferred. You can delete your account at any time in the app (Profile, then Delete Account) or through our data deletion page.

Spotter is free to use with a daily limit on identifications. Spotter Premium unlocks unlimited identifications and the full species detail. What each plan includes, and the free limit, are shown in the app and may change over time; we’ll never take away something you already paid for during the period you paid for.

Billing and refunds. Apple or Google bills you, collects any tax and handles refunds under its own policies, so we can’t issue refunds ourselves. Request one from Apple or Google Play. We never see your card details.

Price changes. If we raise a subscription price, you’ll be told in advance as the store requires, and where the law or the store requires your consent, the new price applies only if you agree. You can cancel before it takes effect.

Lifetime. Lifetime Premium is a one-time purchase for as long as we offer the Service and the Spotter app, not for any person’s lifetime. If we ever shut Spotter down, we will give at least 90 days’ notice in the app.

Comped or promotional Premium (for example from a referral or from us) lasts for the time stated when it is given and doesn’t renew or charge you.

You can share your referral code or link. When a new user applies it within the time shown in the app, both of you get the reward shown in the app at that time (for example, extra identifications or days of Premium). The rules:

• Only new accounts can use a code, once per account, within the window shown in the app.
• No self-referrals, duplicate or fake accounts, or paying or tricking people to use your code. We may withhold or remove rewards earned that way, or close the accounts involved.
• Rewards have no cash value, can’t be sold or transferred, and can’t be exchanged for money.
• Promote your code honestly. Don’t spam, and don’t post it on coupon sites, in paid ads or where the rules don’t allow it.
• We may change or end the program, or the rewards, at any time. Rewards already credited stay with you unless they were earned against these rules.

Your life list, milestones, weekly challenges, badges, streaks and any year-in-review summary are just for fun. No purchase is needed to take part, and they have no prizes, cash value or chance element, so they are not a contest, sweepstakes or lottery. Never put yourself, others or wildlife at risk, or break any rule, to complete one. We may change, reset or retire them.

You keep ownership of the photos, notes and other content you add (“your content”). You give us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to host, store, copy, process and display your content only to provide the Service to you: to identify what’s in it (including sending it to the service providers named in our Privacy Policy), to show your history and life list, to share it with the people you choose (for example, a Collection), and to keep the Service secure. The license ends when you delete the content or your account, apart from backups that expire on their normal cycle.

We don’t sell your content, we don’t use your photos to train AI models, and we don’t use them in marketing without asking you first.

Only upload content you have the right to use. Please don’t upload photos where people are the main subject, or photos of other people’s private information. If you send us feedback or ideas, we may use them without owing you anything.

Don’t:

• break the law, or use Spotter to harm, harass or track people or to harm wildlife or protected species;
• upload illegal, sexual, violent or hateful content, or anything that infringes someone else’s rights;
• scrape, copy or resell the Service or its content, access it by automated means, or get around limits, payments or security;
• reverse-engineer the app except where the law allows it;
• use Spotter to build a competing service or to train AI models;
• overload, probe or disrupt the Service, or misuse invite codes, Collections or referral codes.

The Service, the app, the Spotter name and logo, and the text and design we create belong to us. We give you a personal, non-transferable license to use the app on devices you control, for your own non-commercial use, under these terms.

Some content comes from others under their own licenses and keeps its credit: reference photos from iNaturalist contributors, animal recordings from xeno-canto recordists, and images from Wikimedia Commons. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors. Other product names and logos on our website, including App Store, Google Play, Google Lens and competing apps, are trademarks of their owners, who don’t sponsor or endorse Spotter.

If you think something on the Service infringes your copyright, email dgauger@realbluesoftware.com with the work, where it appears, and your contact details, and we’ll look at it promptly.

The Service relies on other companies (for example Google, Apple, RevenueCat and iNaturalist). We aren’t responsible for their services, content or availability, and links to other sites are provided as a convenience.

To the fullest extent the law allows, the Service and all results are provided “as is” and “as available”, without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, non-infringement, accuracy, completeness or that the Service will be uninterrupted, timely, secure or error-free. We do not warrant that any identification, safety rating or other result is correct.

To the fullest extent the law allows, Real Blue Software LLC and its owners, employees and contractors will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary or punitive damages, or for lost profits, data or goodwill, arising out of or related to the Service or these terms, including any decision you make, or anything you eat, touch or do, because of a result, even if we were told such damages were possible. Our total liability for all claims relating to the Service is limited to the greater of the amount you paid for Spotter in the 12 months before the claim and US $50.

Some places don’t allow these exclusions or limits, so some may not apply to you. Nothing in these terms limits liability that can’t be limited by law, such as liability for fraud, or for death or personal injury caused by our negligence where the law doesn’t allow that to be excluded, or your mandatory rights as a consumer.

If someone makes a claim against us because you broke these terms, misused the Service or infringed someone else’s rights, you agree to cover our reasonable costs and losses from that claim, to the extent the law allows.

You can stop using Spotter and delete your account at any time. We may suspend or close an account that breaks these terms, puts others at risk or exposes us to legal liability, and we’ll tell you why unless the law or safety prevents it. If we close your account without cause, we’ll refund any unused prepaid Premium we received, or help you get it from the store. Sections 3, 8 (feedback), 10 and 12 to 17 continue after your account ends.

Spotter changes as we improve it, and we may add, change or remove features. If we change these terms in a way that materially affects you, we’ll tell you in the app or by email at least 14 days before the change takes effect (unless the change is required by law sooner). If you keep using Spotter after that, the new terms apply; if you don’t agree, you can stop using it and delete your account. The version and date are at the top of this page and past changes are listed at the bottom.

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Wisconsin, USA, without regard to its conflict-of-law rules. Please contact us first; most problems can be sorted out by email. Any lawsuit about the Service or these terms will be brought in the state courts in Waukesha County, Wisconsin, or the US District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, and you and we consent to those courts. Either of us may bring an individual claim in small-claims court instead. If you live outside the US, or in a state or country whose consumer laws give you rights that can’t be waived (including the right to sue at home), those rights still apply.

If a court finds part of these terms unenforceable, the rest stays in effect. If we don’t enforce a term right away, we haven’t waived it. These terms and the Privacy Policy are the whole agreement between you and us about the Service.

• These terms are between you and Real Blue Software LLC, not Apple. We, not Apple, are responsible for the app and its content.
• Apple has no obligation to provide maintenance or support for the app.
• If the app fails to meet a warranty that applies by law, you may notify Apple and Apple will refund the purchase price, if any; Apple has no other warranty obligation.
• We, not Apple, handle any claims about the app (product liability, failure to meet legal requirements, consumer-protection or privacy claims) and any claim that the app infringes someone’s intellectual property.
• You confirm you are not in a country under a US government embargo or on a US list of prohibited or restricted parties.
• Apple and its subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these terms and may enforce them against you.

Real Blue Software LLC, New Berlin, Wisconsin 53151, United States.
Email: dgauger@realbluesoftware.com

• October 12, 2026: Rewritten. Adds the 18+ age requirement, subscription, trial, cancellation and refund terms, the referral program, challenges and badges, how we use your photos, Wisconsin governing law, and the App Store terms.
• June 14, 2026: First version.