samla.ai 1.0 is on the App Store

Where we were before this

Everyone we talked to about collections owned more than they could account for, and nearly all of them had tried to write it down at some point. Spreadsheets, a notes app, one heroic weekend with a paper list. None of it survived contact with the fourth shelf.

The tools built for this had the same shape as the spreadsheet, only with better fields: an empty form, waiting. That is a fine design when you have twelve things and an unreasonable one when you have four hundred.

Why is the camera the first screen?

Because the typing was the barrier, and it was the one part of collecting nobody enjoyed. Photograph an object and samla.ai identifies it, categorizes it, and fills in the fields that matter for whatever it turns out to be. A record gets its pressing and label. A bottle gets its vintage.

The rule we set ourselves is that nothing may stand between the photo and the saved item. The camera stays open, the analysis runs behind you, and a shelf becomes an evening.

Why does the app tell you when it is unsure?

Because it is sometimes wrong, and hiding that would cost more than admitting it. Image recognition is accurate most of the time on clear photos, and the times it is not are exactly the times you need to know. An app that quietly files a confident guess produces a catalog you end up checking by hand, which is the situation you were trying to leave.

So confidence is shown rather than hidden, uncertain results get flagged for a look, and correcting anything takes a couple of taps. The collector stays in charge of what lands in the catalog.

Why is the free plan free forever?

Because nobody can tell in advance whether they want a collection app. You find out by cataloging a shelf and seeing how it feels to search it afterwards. Putting a trial clock on that means asking people to decide before they have the information.

So the free plan is a real plan: cataloging, collection rooms, storage locations, cloud sync across devices, and a monthly scan allowance. Pro and Ultra raise the limits and add the collector tools.

What 1.0 does not do

Quite a lot, on purpose. There is no selling, no way to share an item with somebody who does not have the app, and no export. Those are all real gaps and they are all on the way.

The reason for shipping without them is that the cataloging half has to be good first. Everything else in this product is downstream of the catalog being complete and trustworthy: you cannot list what you have not cataloged, and you should not share a record whose pressing the app guessed at.