Short answers to the questions we hear most often, about safety, privacy, and how the app works.
Will the app tell me a mushroom is edible?
No. Grzybiarz is an assistant, not an oracle. It shows the most likely species with calibrated confidence, features to check, and toxic lookalikes, but the final decision to pick and eat is yours, at your own responsibility.
Does it work without signal in the forest?
Yes. Fruit-body detection, species recognition, and maps work fully offline, on your phone. A forest with no signal is exactly the environment the app is built for.
Do my photos and finds go to a server?
Recognition yes, upload no: the model scores the photo on your own phone and needs no network for it. A photo leaves the phone only when you decide so, that is when you mark a find as public together with the consent to show the photograph, when you turn on the training contribution, or when you send frames in the tester programme. Finds stay on your phone. Trips including the route go to your account so the history does not disappear with the phone; only you can see them, and you can turn the upload off in settings. You can also export everything to GPX or to a trip backup file.
How accurate is the recognition?
The app returns several most-likely species with calibrated confidence and a checklist of morphological features. It is a hint based on a probabilistic model, not a verdict, you always see why the model is confident, or why it isn’t.
Which devices does it run on?
The full feature set (camera, litter detection, and offline maps) runs on Android and iOS phones. The web version is for browsing the atlas and learning.
How many species does the atlas cover?
Over 100 Central European species with descriptions, seasonality, habitat, and diagnostic features, compiled from mycological literature.
Does the app replace a mycologist?
No. It helps you build knowledge and flags risks, but it does not replace experience or consulting an expert. When in any doubt, have the mushroom checked by an expert.
What about toxic lookalikes?
Critical pairs (for example penny bun vs Satan’s bolete, or parasol vs death cap) are always shown next to the recognition result, with an anatomical feature comparison. You decide with full context.
What is Forest Hunt (Podgrzybek GO)?
It is a field game built into the app: virtual specimens stand in real woodland, true to season and habitat, and catching one means naming the species in a quiz. On top of that there is the Grzybdex, levels, badges, a mycelium that grows from kilometres walked, and flush windows after rain. The game runs fully offline, and the leaderboard is opt-in.
Are the mushrooms in the game real?
No. Game specimens exist only on the map; nothing is drawn on the forest floor or pointed out for picking. The quiz teaches species features, but never decide about collecting or eating a real mushroom based on the game; that is what the atlas and the toxic-lookalike comparison are for.
Does the game work outside Poland?
Yes. In Poland, Czechia and Slovakia you download an offline map package and play with no signal at all. In Germany, Austria and Greece the forest data for your area fetches itself, and once fetched it stays on the phone and keeps working offline; the map arrives as a stream, so you do not have to download a whole country before a holiday. Outside those countries the game says plainly that there is no data yet, instead of showing an empty map.
Who sees my name if I add friends?
Whoever accepts your invite. A friend sees the name and photo from your profile, and that is what a friends list is for. Whoever you send an invite to sees neither until they accept: they get a four-character tag. On the leaderboard you are a tag by default too, and your name goes there through a separate switch in your profile. Routes, coordinates and catch times never reach friends at all. With no name in your profile there is nothing to show, so nobody sees anything.
How do I avoid losing my account and my data?
Open Settings, Manage account and press Copy under the recovery code. It is copied together with the account ID, and coming back needs both. Keep it off the phone: in a password manager or an e-mail to yourself. We do not hold the code, the server stores only its fingerprint, so none of us can read it back for you. Trips, finds, XP and the Grzybdex are saved on the phone so they work with no signal, which also means they go with a lost phone. What reaches the account: trips with history enabled, published finds and ranking points.
I am switching phones. How do I get my account back?
Settings, Manage account, "Sign in to an account from another phone". The same screen greets you on first launch, under "Already have an account?". Enter the recovery code, four groups of four characters; it also contains digits, including 0 and 1. Leave the "Account identifier" field empty and fill it in only when the code alone does not find the account, which applies to accounts created before August 2026. If the code is gone and you have an e-mail linked, choose "No code? Sign in by e-mail". The recovery code is not single-use and keeps working after you sign in.
What is the difference between a recovery code and an invite code?
A recovery code, for example HQT3-FTHC-G7ET-HFM3, is the password to your account. The app generated it for you, only you know it, and you should not send it to anyone, us included. An invite code, for example GRZY-K7DM-9TQF, comes from us and goes into the Tester programme; it opens the testing programme but signs you into nothing. If somebody asks you for "the code", make sure which one.
Is the app paid?
During the beta test it is free to use. Details of any paid plans will be announced in advance, before launch.
How do I join the test?
On Android, open the Grzybiarz listing on Google Play and join the open test, with no invitation and no code. On iPhone, open the public TestFlight link from the home page; the TestFlight app needs to be installed.