Art makes our life beautiful. However, it is hard to understand art if you don’t know what you are looking at.
By the way, if you love animals and want to know more about them, you should take a look at 7 Best Bird Identification Apps.
This is why we have collected the best apps to identify pieces of art. Most of them are free of charge. You will find good options for iOS, as well as Android users.
Smartify: Museum & Art Guide
This application is the best tool to study art and enjoy great artwork. Smartify will guide you through the world of beauty, elegance, and intelligence.
Not only does the app has a full set of options but it also has a smart and nice interface. However, let’s focus on the features you will get for free:
- Scan the artwork to identify it. The only thing you have to do manually is to scan the object. Then the AI will analyze the image and give you the result. It usually takes up to 10 seconds.
- Read the description. When the artwork is recognized, you will be provided with a short description. This will allow you to learn new facts easily and fast.
- Let Smartify be your guide. You will see a number of museums and galleries available in the app. Tap on the name of the museum, and you will be able to listen to a beautiful story about the masterpieces. All the audios are easy to listen thanks to a gentle voice and interesting facts about artists.
However, here comes a serious disadvantage that might upset you. You can only scan the pieces of art. If you want to upload an image from your gallery, this is impossible. You can’t identify the image you have found on the Internet as well.
Another serious thing is that not all the galleries and museums are represented in the application.
You can get the application on the App Store, as well as Google Play for free.
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Mereasy
This application can also help you to identify different works of art. Yes, Mereasy is less powerful than other apps listed here but it is also worth trying.
This tool is more about paintings than monuments or literature. So you can use the app in galleries only.
Here are the best options you will explore for free:
- Take a photo right from the app. Then Mereasy will try to recognize it. If it finds similar artwork in its database, it will give you the info. However, the database isn’t huge so you can often get no result, which is frustrating.
- Get information about other types of artworks, such as historical buildings, architecture, and many other objects. However, please keep in mind that this section isn’t that big so identification isn’t always possible.
The app doesn’t have a high rating, which is logical – the identification option isn’t ideal. What is more, there might be some UI bugs but still, they don’t have a big impact on the functions.
All the app’s functions are available at no cost with no ads.
Both Android and iOS users can download Mereasy on their devices.
Google Arts & Culture
If you want to learn art and history, this app is a must. It contains a great number of artworks, such as famous pictures, masterpieces of architecture, monuments, and many other things.
Google Arts has a pretty simple UI that is clear right after the download. It helps you not to waste time trying to understand how the app works.
Let’s take a look at the best features you will see in Google Arts & Culture:
- Try Pocket Gallery. It will help you get much closer to the world of art by carrying your favorite artworks right on your smartphone.
- Enjoy Art Selfie. This is a cool option that allows you to have fun and learn art at the same time. You need to take a selfie and then upload it to the application. Then Google Arts will analyze the info and find give you the picture that looks like you.
- Watch 360° videos. This is a truly stunning option to try! You can visit historical sites without exiting your room. It sounds like a great opportunity to get new experience and learn more about art.
- Virtual museum tours. If you always wanted to visit a famous museum or art gallery, this is a great option. You can dive deep into the atmosphere of gorgeous galleries and enjoy the beauty of art.
However, if your primary aim is to identify artworks by picture, this app can’t help you. It’s more about learning art and having fun.
Google Arts & Culture is available at no cost. What is especially cool is that there are no ads that might distract you from identifying works of art.
ID-Art
This is a truly powerful tool that can help you to identify pieces of art. However, it’s not a typical art recognition app. Its function is a bit different – it allows you to identify the pictures that were reported stolen to the Interpol.
What can you do in the application?
- Take a photo of the picture and upload it to ID-Art. The app will analyze the image and tell you if it was stolen and reported stolen to Interpol.
- If your picture has been stolen, this app may also help you by providing new info about it.
- Explore a huge database of stolen works of art. You can use advanced search to find what you need fast and easily.
The app is quite easy to use. To get started, you just have to download the app and open it. You don’t even need to create an account.
ID-Art is available on the App Store and Google Play.
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Learn Arts & Paintings – Artly
It is high time you start learning art and history! And Artly is a good tool to do it. It is quite simple and powerful at the same time.
This is one of the most highly-rated art identification apps. Users praise it for its big set of options and a huge database.
Here are the coolest options you will discover in Learn Arts & Paintings:
- Solve various quizzes and tests. This is a fun way of testing your knowledge of art. This is more interesting than passing hard exams or reading books. So relax and learn at the same time.
- Read about different historic periods and study the pieces of art that refer to them. For instance, if you are interested in the 18th century, you can easily set a filter and see the list of artworks created in that period of time. All the data is divided into categories that makes the search simple.
- Visit famous museums all around the world. This is a great opportunity to visit such places even if you have no money and time to travel. Just choose the museum you are interested in and start the digital tour.
What’s more, the app has a pretty big set of options devoted to sculptures. Make sure you check it – it’s fun and informative.
Both Android and iOS users can enjoy this striking tool at no cost.
FIND ART – SHAZAM FOR ART
This app is also about scanning and recognizing artworks. However, it is a bit different from the others listed here.
It will help those people who often sell and buy pictures. However, if you need to buy a picture, you have to know its value. FIND ART will use AI principles to identify and recognize the pictures in a few seconds.
Unfortunately, the app is quite rough, it needs some more work to become good. First of all, there are some bugs and the app might crash at times. Secondly, the UI is quite outdated and buggy.
However, it still is worth trying as it performs identification functions more or less well.
At the moment, you can download FIND ART on Google Play and start identifying pictures easily.
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Famous Art – Paintings
If you are in love with paintings, you may find this application quite useful. This tool is quite easy to use and requires no specific instructions.
It has a pleasant UI. If we talk about the functions it provides you with, there are no serious bugs.
Let’s see what you can do in Famous Art:
- Discover the world of paintings. You can watch almost all the pictures and other works of art sitting at home. You don’t need to go anywhere and pay money. Just browse the catalog and choose what you want to look at.
- The application will provide you with a huge set of articles and images. What is especially cool, you can bring all the paintings with you as the app works offline.
- Study the pictures properly. You can zoom in and out to study all the little details of your favorite picture.
- Read the articles about artists and paintings. If you are studying arts at university, this is the best tool you can use.
- Try to solve a hard quiz. This is a fun game that tests your knowledge of art. Test yourself and your friends!
The app is rated 4.4 out of 5 on Google Play. Users love the app for its simplicity and powerful sets of options. What’s more, you can study a lot about art.
At the moment, Famous Art is available on Google Play at no cost.
Google Lens
Google Lens is a useful tool for the identification of everything around you including paintings, notes, signboards, and so on. You take a photo of a masterpiece and the app attempts to identify it for you. It typically gets the obvious things right. However, if you’re hoping it will recognize your finger painting of a cat as a secret Van Gogh, well, that’s just wishful thinking.
Just follow a few simple steps to use it. First, snap a photo of the painting or artwork you’re interested in. Then, provide some key details like the artist’s name and basic information in the designated fields. Once done, let the app work its magic.
It is important to note that if you have a crucial art assignment that depends on it, it would be wise to double-check the answers provided by the source with a more dependable one.
Do they have paid features? They offer some premium options for those who are really, really eager to determine if their childhood drawings might be hidden masterpieces by Rembrandt himself.
When it comes to usability, this app falls somewhere between being user-friendly for older individuals and requiring decent technological skills. The user interface design is not awful, but it may not be the epitome of user-friendliness either. The color palette opts for artistic tones of red and blue that are quite standard.
I highly recommend Google Lens as a top-notch app for identifying art. It’s a reliable tool to use when trying to determine the artist of various masterpieces.
Identify Anything Lens Camera
This app claims to identify everything, from famous artworks to everyday objects. So, it can become quite useful for people who are interested in art.
On a positive note, the app offers an impressive feature - art identification. If you’ve ever been curious about that mysterious painting in your grandma’s attic, this app can come to your rescue. Simply take a photo and it will make its best attempt to identify the artwork for you. By the way, it has a tendency to provide some rather imaginative guesses... just saying.
This remarkable app not only allows you to effortlessly convert various metrics but also handles an extensive range of measurements. From temperature and length to weight and volume, the app can skillfully manage them all. That is why when you become bored because of art identification, you can always try other options that this app provides.
Overall, this app is decent for identifying art. However, there are better apps available on this list.
