ForPAWS App Review: A Pet-Friendly Platform With Scope For Improvement

Incidentally, I came across the forPAWS app recently while looking for a platform to find and trace lost pets. This community-based app taps into advanced AI facial recognition technology to find lost dogs and reunite them with their pet-parents. I've been using the forPAWS app for a while now, and here's what I think.

forPAWS App: How Does It Work?

Before diving into the details, let's take a look at how it functions. The forPAWS app is a new and tech-based way to find your lost dog. Gone are the days where you had to print out flyers and search for your lost pet. The new app makes use of artificial intelligence-based facial recognition technology to track pets.

"We developed a lightweight process with AI scans of dogs' faces and community activities to get the best out of two worlds, relieved owners and happy rescuers," explains MARS, the developer behind the forPAWS app. In a gist, you need to provide your dog's details, including its photo to build the database.

If your pet is lost, you can tap into the forPAWS app to seek help. Similarly, if you find any pet that's wandering in your area, you can look into the forPAWS' database to help rescue it. In this way, the app is helping to create a community of pets and pet-parents. Presently, forPAWS is available to track lost dogs but not cats.

forPAWS App Setup: Quick And Easy

The setting up of the forPAWS app is quick and easy. More importantly, it's a free app that's available on both Google Play and App Store. Once downloaded on your phone, you'll need to provide a few details about yourself and your pet. The most important part of this process is adding a clear picture of your dog.

The picture required has to be a front-facing picture of your dog for better AI facial recognition. The picture needs to be taken in good lighting and their face isn't hidden. However, taking portrait shots of your dog isn't always easy, especially when they're young and active.
In my experience, getting a clear, passport-like photo of my dog has never been easy and this was one of my concerns with the app. Additional features like editing the photo of my dog or just brightening the image would have been more helpful.

Once the picture is taken - the rest of the profile setup is almost finished. You will need to provide other details like your dog's name, age, gender, and so on. Overall, I found the initial process to be quick and easy.

forPAWS App Performance: Swift And Smooth

I've been using the forPAWS app for some time now and I've been seeing the database growing. Community apps like these mainly run based on the growing database. The greater the number of dogs, the better the database. Presently, the app is available only for Bangalore and is expected to expand to other cities gradually.

The experience on the app itself has been pleasant. One can tap on the Find menu to check the list of lost dogs. Based on this, you can keep updating if you've found a pet or lost one. The app also makes it easy to add another pet, in case you get another one home. Overall, the app's performance has been smooth for me.

forPAWS App Verdict: A Good One For Pet-Parents

We live in an era of ‘there's-an-app-for-that'. The tension and panic one faces when they lose their pet is nerve-racking. Here, the community-based forPAWS app aims to make it simple. While we have microchips and smart bands for our dogs today, an app still makes it better to find a lost pet. In this scenario, the forPAWS app is doing a pretty good job.