Support & FAQ

Open the Measure tab and lay the phone flat where the plant will sit, screen facing up toward the light. The app waits for two things, that the phone is level and that the light has stopped changing, then the Take reading button unlocks.

Put the phone where the pot will stand rather than beside the leaves. You are measuring the spot, not the plant.

Because you would never see it. The phone lies face up on a table while it measures, so a viewfinder would be aimed at the ceiling at the one moment it mattered. Solspot shows a live gauge instead.

No photo or video is captured at any point, and nothing is written to your photo library.

Check that the screen is facing up. Solspot measures through the front camera, so the screen has to face the light. A phone lying face down is perfectly flat, it is just measuring the tabletop.

Because a single number would be a claim the app cannot support. A phone camera is a good relative light sensor and an imprecise absolute one, so every reading shows how far off the lux figure could be.

The category, Low, Medium, Bright Indirect or Direct, is the dependable part, and it is what the plant matching uses.

Probably not. Indoor light is far dimmer than it looks, because your eyes adapt to it and a light meter does not. A spot that feels bright often meters a few thousand lux, which genuinely is Medium.

For scale, an overcast day outdoors is around ten thousand lux and direct sun is closer to a hundred thousand. To reach the Bright Indirect band indoors you usually need unobstructed south-facing glass near the middle of the day.

Both. Under household lighting most rooms honestly land in Low, because lamps put out a small fraction of daylight.

Measuring on the inside of the window is the correct way to do it. Glass cuts some light, and that loss is part of what your plant actually gets. Measure a spot when it is at its brightest.

The whole app is free. Every reading including direct sun, every plant match, every filter, and as many saved spots as you like. There is no subscription, no advertising, and no in-app purchase of any kind.

No. The measurement and all 100 species run on the device, so the app works in full on a plane or in a basement. The only time it reaches the network is when you tap through to a plant shop, which opens in a browser sheet.

Anonymous product events (which screens get opened, which filters get used, which light category a reading fell into) and automatically captured crash reports. This is on by default.

To turn it off, go to Settings, then Privacy, then Share anonymous analytics. The switch stops the analytics SDK itself rather than only muting the app's own events, and it takes effect immediately instead of at the next launch.

Solspot never sends imagery, never sends what you searched for, and never sends a reading tied to a place. The full detail is on the privacy page.

The ASPCA toxic and non-toxic plant lists, and nowhere else. Each verdict names its source on the plant's own page and explains what it is based on.

A species that does not appear on those lists is marked unverified rather than assumed safe. Treat all of it as guidance rather than veterinary advice.

Open the spot, then press and hold the reading in its history and choose Delete. To remove a whole spot, swipe it in the Spots list.

iPhone and iPad running iOS 18 or later. The measurement needs a front camera and a motion sensor, which every supported device has.

They are links to shops that sell the species you are looking at. Some carry an affiliate tag, which can earn a commission at no extra cost to you, and the app says so beside any link that does.

They have no influence on which plants are matched to your light.