Bugsy
Give a voice to insects and build your collection
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Rayane Benhizia

Bugsy - Give a voice to insects and build your collection

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Bugsy
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Bugsy is an interactive "insect Pokedex" that uses AI to give a voice to the tiny creatures around us. 🐞 Collect : Complete your collection through daily quizzes, walking challenges, and trading duplicates with friends. Chat (Premium): Chat with insects, their personality is based on their behavior in nature. Dynamic infos (Premium): Real-time weather animations showing insect activity. Inclusive: Built for everyone with VoiceOver, reduced mobility mode, and species masking for phobias.

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Rayane Benhizia
Maker
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Hi Product Hunt! 👋 I'm Rayane, a designer and developer with a deep love for nature. I've always felt that insects are misunderstood, so I built Bugsy to help people discover their world. My goal was to create something beautiful and inclusive. I spent a lot of time on VoiceOver support and even added a "phobia mode" because I want everyone to explore without fear. You can also trade insects with friends to complete your collection together! The app is free to use for collecting, with a premium subscription for the AI Chat and dynamic weather cards. I’ve just released the app and I’m now looking for my very first users to get feedback and make it better. I'll be here all day to chat! 🐞✨
Keith Taylor

Such a wholesome left turn from the rest of today's launches. How did you pick which bugs to include, was it the ones kids already recognise or did you go for the weird ones on purpose? My gut says kids will gravitate toward the weird ones but curious what you saw in testing.

Rayane Benhizia
Maker

@keith_hiyamojo Thanks for noticing! I really wanted to stand out by staying true to nature.

For the selection, I actually did a mix of both. I started with the 'classics' that kids see in their gardens (to make the app immediately useful), but I quickly added some 'weird' ones with fascinating biological features that stimulates the curiosity.

You're 100% right: during testing, I saw that kids were definitely more curious about the 'weird' ones. They have this natural lack of prejudice that adults sometimes lose. They don't just see a 'gross bug', they see a tiny masterpiece or jewel. That’s exactly what I want to encourage with Bugsy !

Keith Taylor

@rayane_benhizia  "tiny masterpiece" framing is great. spot on about kids not carrying the adult prejudice yet. Somewhere along the way we learn what's "gross" and it colours how we see a huge chunk of the natural world. Feels like Bugsy is quietly reversing that. Good luck with the launch Rayane.

Rayane Benhizia
Maker

@keith_hiyamojo Spot on. It’s fascinating how those 'gross' filters we learn as kids stick with us as adults, even turning into deep-rooted fears sometimes. I built Bugsy with that in mind.

That’s why the biggest challenge was the UI/UX: keeping the design beautiful but simple enough to be used by anyone from a curious child to an adult or grandparent. Breaking those barriers through a clean interface was key.

Thanks again for the support! Feel free to give it a spin if you have a moment !

Melissa Rios
This is so extremely cute and wholesome. I love it so much! There are a lot of actively educating conservationists out there, who are always looking for new ways to educate their viewers in a digital and virtual way, and I’m sure would love their audiences to try this out. One piece of feedback as someone who was really excited to earn stars toward my next insect. I was a bit disappointed that I didn’t get any stars at all for trying the quiz, especially as a new user. I think there might be a missing behavioral loop here where you can help users reinforce the action of completing the quiz daily with at least a couple of stars vs rewarding them for getting it right with more stars (I’m not sure what the current value is since I failed my first question 😅). Looking forward to see you build a community on the app!
Rayane Benhizia
Maker

@melissarios94 Hi Melissa ! Thank you so much for this feedback, it really means a lot. You're totally right about the 'behavioral loop'. As a maker, I wanted the quiz to be a real challenge but also not that difficult, but I realize now that for a new user, starting with 0 stars can be frustrating.

I’m taking your suggestion very seriously and I’ll think about the best way to reward the effort of taking the quiz, even when the answer isn't right. Thanks for helping me make Bugsy more encouraging for everyone! 🙏🏼

Antonin Kus

Hey! Looks great! How does the AI identification work in the field? Does it need a good photo or can it handle blurry/partial shots too?

Rayane Benhizia
Maker

@antoninkus Hey Antonin ! Thanks for asking. Actually, Bugsy isn't for field identification—it's more like a digital Pokédex game!

I wanted to make learning about nature fun for everyone, even if you’re stuck at home or a bit scared of bugs (that's why there's a Phobia Mode!).

You earn stars by doing quizzes or walking, then you use them to unlock 'Bubbles' (loot boxes) to get random insects. And if you get a duplicate? You just trade it with your friends to finish your collection!

It’s really more about the gaming and collecting vibe than a lab tool. Hope you like the concept! 🙌

Jihwan Kim

Hello rayane! This app is super awesome, I have used it for 30 minutes, in my personal opinion, it will be really great for kids who are always curious about insects or animals. Nice design and chat option to talk, information detailed about the insects.

However, the price of bubble was little bit expensive for me. I am free user but I have to buy the app to plus option and then buying bubbles are two consecutive pricing. Lowering the price of bubbles can be good option to unlock the insects catalogue.

Also, if there are free ways to earn the stars to unlock bubbles can be great as well like a 1 day log in 5 stars for free or adding quest option for children to learn and then get free stars for a day can be great option as well.

Overall this 'Bugsy' app is great for children and also for like me who is curious about insects. Lot's of detailed information about insects!

Great works rayane!

Anant Gupta

This is such a refreshing product on PH. Congrats.

Rayane Benhizia
Maker
Rayane Benhizia
Maker

Thanks to everyone who upvoted and followed Bugsy today! 🐛 We finished #23 with 71 followers, not bad for a first launch here, I think! Special shoutout to everyone who commented with feedback. If you downloaded the app, I'd love to hear what you think. Drop a comment or DM me! Next up: I'm definitely taking your feedback into account!