Questions about Catch

Yes. Catch is free to download and free to use, with ads on the free plan. Lists, aisle sorting, barcode scanning and food grades cost nothing. Catch Pro is an optional subscription that adds the pantry with its history, unlimited list scans and no ads. The price is shown in the app before anything is charged, and nothing is charged unless you choose it.

No. Catch has no account system and does not ask for your email. Your lists, your pantry and your progress live on your phone.

Your lists, pantry and progress do not. A few things do, each for a reason. A photo of a list you choose to scan goes to Anthropic (Claude) to be read, and only after you have agreed to it. The barcode or name of a food being graded goes to Open Food Facts to be looked up. If you ask for dish ideas, the names of the foods on your pantry shelf go to Anthropic. On the free plan, Google needs some data to show ads. If you subscribe, the purchase goes to RevenueCat. The privacy policy lists every one of these.

From Open Food Facts, a free, open food database built by volunteers, used under the Open Database Licence. Where it has nothing useful, Catch falls back on a small hand-checked table of about 120 common staples. Because the database is community-built, it is neither complete nor guaranteed accurate.

No. A grade is a summary of published data, meant to help you compare products on a shelf. It is not medical, dietary or nutritional advice. Ingredient data can be incomplete, out of date or wrong, and a recipe can change without the database noticing. If you have an allergy or an intolerance, the label on the pack is the only thing that counts.

Catch shows a blank rather than a guess. A blank means nobody has filled that number in yet.

Handwritten lists, printed lists, receipts and sticky notes. Before the first scan Catch asks whether it may send the photo away to be read, and nothing is sent until you say yes. You can withdraw that at any time in Settings. You get a review screen to fix anything before the items are added, and you can import a photo or add items by hand instead.

English, Italian, Japanese, Chinese, Korean and Arabic, including the food tables, not just the buttons. The Japanese, Chinese and Arabic are machine-translated and have not yet been checked by a native speaker.

Catch builds for Android and there is a closed test on Google Play. Play only lets in people who are on the list, so you apply by sending the Google account you use on your phone.

In your App Store or Google Play account, not in Catch. The store takes the payment, so only the store can cancel it. Refunds follow the store’s own policy.

Open Profile, tap the gear in the top corner, then Reset all progress. It clears your lists, pantry, level, streak and Pip’s feeding history, and keeps your settings and Catch Pro. There is no undo.

Alberto Clemente, one person in Italy. You can write to clemalb@gmail.com.