FAQ

The questions we get most often — what's free, how identification works, subscriptions, and privacy.

What's free, and what needs Premium?

Logging is free and unlimited: photos, cutouts, species and measurements, spots and weather, the calendar and stats, widgets, and iCloud sync. None of that requires a subscription, and the paywall never blocks you from saving a catch.

The only Premium feature is cloud AI species identification. Every device gets 3 free identifications for life; after that, continuing to use AI identification requires a FishCap Premium subscription. Without a subscription you can still pick the species by hand from the built-in species list and save the catch in full.

How does species identification work?

After you take a photo or choose one from your library, the app makes the cutout on your device and then automatically sends that one photo (the cut-out fish on grey, or the original photo when no subject was found, downscaled to at most 1024 px) to FishCap's own Cloudflare Worker, which forwards it to Google's Gemini model — there is no extra button to tap. Along with the image we may send an optional coarse region code, a freshwater/saltwater hint, and your app language; the first two only reorder the candidate species. GPS coordinates are never sent. The app then shows you the candidates to confirm.

If you are offline, or the app already knows your free identifications are used up and you are not subscribed, no request is sent and you go straight to picking the species by hand.

How accurate is it?

AI identification is a suggestion, not a determination. Lighting, angle, glare, juveniles, and look-alike relatives all throw it off; a fish that isn't in our list comes back as an "AI guess" name. You have the final say, and you can change the species at any time. Do not rely on it to decide whether a fish is safe to eat, venomous, or protected under local rules.

Why only 3 free identifications?

Every identification costs us a real call to a cloud model. Three is enough to try it on your own fish and your own photos before paying anything, while everything else in the app stays unlimited — which we think is more honest than a crippled free version.

What does the subscription cost?

FishCap Premium comes as an annual or a monthly plan, billed through Apple In-App Purchase. Prices are shown on the paywall and on the App Store and vary by region. Subscriptions renew automatically unless canceled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period.

How does the free trial work?

The annual plan includes a 3-day free trial. When it ends it converts automatically into a paid subscription unless you cancel at least 24 hours before the trial's end. The app schedules a local notification to remind you one day before. A free trial is available once per Apple ID.

How do I cancel or restore?

Cancel: iPhone Settings → tap your Apple Account at the top → Subscriptions → FishCap → Cancel Subscription. You keep access until the end of the paid period. Deleting the app does not cancel a subscription.

Restore: on a new phone or after reinstalling, signed in with the same Apple ID, go to Profile → Subscription → Restore purchases, or tap the restore button on the paywall. More on the Support page.

Who handles refunds?

All payments go through Apple, and Apple decides refunds. Request one at reportaproblem.apple.com. We cannot issue refunds ourselves.

Where are my catches stored? Do they sync?

They live on your device and sync through your own iCloud private database to your other devices signed in with the same Apple ID. Sync is on by default and free, and there is no account to create — FishCap has no login at all; your identity is simply the Apple ID on your device. We have no server that can read your catch log.

Who can see my photos and locations?

Photos stay on your device and in your own iCloud. A photo is sent only for identification, automatically after you take or choose it (not when you are offline, or when your free identifications are used up and you are not subscribed). FishCap's server does not store photos; it caches only the identification result (no photo) for up to 24 hours so a retry is not charged twice. Under its paid API terms Google may retain request content for a limited time for abuse monitoring and does not use it to train models. Location is used on-device for spots and weather (weather comes from Apple WeatherKit) and is stored only in your own records — it is never sent to our server or any third party. Share cards hide location by default and never include coordinates.

Does it work offline?

Yes. Capture, cutout, effects, picking a species by hand, saving, the calendar and stats all work with no network, and nothing is deducted from your allowance. Only cloud AI identification needs a connection; without one the app falls back to the manual species picker and leaves the weather fields empty. Pending changes sync to iCloud once you're back online.

How do I change the app's language?

FishCap ships in nine languages: English, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Japanese and Korean. In iPhone Settings, find FishCap → Language and pick a language for this app alone, without changing your whole phone. Widget text follows the same setting.

How do I get in touch?

For questions, a wrong identification, or to have device-side records on our server deleted, email willisshan66@gmail.com.