Meet the Scout guides: the nature app for kids with characters who explore too

Every Scout comes with a friend. When your child sets off on a walk, a guide comes too: someone to gasp at a beetle with, to wonder out loud with, and to say "come and look!" to. When they get home, the same guide is waiting in the app to tell them all about what they found.

There are eight guides, and no two are alike, because no two children explore the same way. Some want a bubbly best friend, some want a calm voice, some want a detective and some just want a laugh.

Hear them say hello

Tap a guide to hear them. These are the real voices your child hears on the walk and in the app.

Meet the eight, and who each one suits

Sophie, the curious explorer

Sophie is nine and wants to know about everything, right now. She's bubbly, easily delighted and full of "ooh!", and she's always asking your child to look a little closer.

Great for: the child who stops at every puddle and asks "what's that?" about all of it.

Kai, the laid-back legend

Kai is eleven and takes life at his own easy pace. He never shouts; he just finds everything quietly amazing, especially beetles under logs and crabs in tide pools.

Great for: the child who'd rather turn over stones than race down the main path, and the one who finds loud excitement a bit much.

Professor Fig, the gentle storyteller

Professor Fig is a kindly old naturalist with a white beard and a lifetime of watching wild things. He speaks gently, often starts with "Well now…", and there's usually a little story behind every find.

Great for: the child who loves learning from an expert, and the one who always asks "but why?".

Zara, the nature detective

Zara is twelve and treats every walk like a case to crack. Tracks, nibbled leaves, a dropped feather: every creature leaves clues, and she notices them. She's sharp and dry, and she never gushes.

Great for: the logical, puzzle-loving child, and the older one who's starting to find "cute" a bit babyish.

Bramble, the cheeky hedgehog

Bramble is giggly, snuffly and ridiculously excited about beetles (and snails, and flowers, and leaf piles). Every find is the best thing ever.

Great for: the child who needs a laugh to get going.

Pip, the chirpy robin

Pip is a fizzy little robin who sees everything from up high and talks in quick, chirpy bursts: "Quick, quick, before it flies away!" Birds are Pip's favourite thing in the world.

Great for: the bird-mad child, and the one who's always running on ahead.

Willow, the calm night owl

Willow is a tawny owl who speaks softly, never rushes, and notices the small things hiding in the shadows and under the leaves. With Willow, a walk slows right down.

Great for: the quieter child, the one who finds busy and noisy hard work, and the nervous explorer who'd like a gentle voice beside them while they get braver.

Otto, the splashy joker

Otto is a river otter who loves water, pebbles, mud and silly jokes. Everything is a game, and most games end with a splash.

Great for: the child who'd rather be in the stream than next to it.

What does a guide actually do?

On the walk, your child points Scout at something alive and their guide helps them look. When Scout has a good idea what it might be, the guide says so as a hint, never a verdict: "Ooh, that looks like it might be an orb-weaver spider!" If it isn't sure, it says nothing rather than guess. Then your child snaps it, and the real answer waits for home.

Where we are today: the camera's nature model is trained and running in our testing app on a phone, standing in for the camera while we finish the hardware.

Back home, the photos go to the Scout app on your family's tablet, phone or computer. Every new find becomes an illustrated Discovery Card, and the guide reads its facts aloud, in their own voice. Then the conversation can carry on: your child taps a question ("Does it bite?", "What does it eat?") and the guide answers about that species, in character and honestly.

For the science behind the naming, see How Scout knows what it's looking at.

How children get their guides

Sophie and Kai come with every Scout. Your child picks one to start with, and the other stays with them too, so they can switch whenever they like.

The other six live in the Scout Store in the app, and children earn them with coins. Coins only come from exploring: getting outside and finding things. They can never be bought with money, and there's no way to skip the walking. So when your child finally brings Zara or Willow home, it's because they've been out there looking.

Why give a nature camera characters at all?

A friend makes it easier to ask. Children are often braver about asking questions when they're asking a friendly companion rather than a search box. There's no such thing as a silly question to a hedgehog.

A voice turns facts into a story. A fact read aloud by a character your child likes lands differently from the same fact in small print. It becomes something Professor Fig told them, or something Otto got excited about.

A guide shows how naturalists think. Because the guide says "I'm not sure" when it isn't, children hear that not knowing yet is normal. That's how real scientists work: look closer, check again, and don't pretend.

It's company on the walk. Some children love setting off alone down a path. Others like to feel someone's with them. A guide is there either way.

These are my ideas. Help me shape them.

I'm Richard, and I'm building Scout for my own twins and for families like yours. I'll be honest: this cast is my own first set of suggestions. I've given each guide a personality and a voice, and pictured the children they'd suit, but none of it is set in stone.

Our founding families get a real say in which characters end up on Scout. So I'd love to know: who would your child like to explore with? A favourite animal, a different kind of character, a voice that would suit them better? Email me at hello@scoutcam.ai and tell me. I read every one.