NatureDose

I’ve been doing the 1000 hours outside challenge for 4-5 years now, so am always tracking outside time. I read about this app and figured I’d give it a go to see how accurate it was. I like the feature where it tells you the nature score of where you are… but as far as recording outside time, it’s very off. After using it for 4 days, averaging 4-5 hours outside per day, the app only recorded that I was outside for 1 hour/day. And only half of that time counted as “quality” time. I was in my (98.5 scored) yard most of the time - mostly gardening. So, I don’t know if it just scored poorly because I was too close to my house part of the time. But I will probably not continue to try to use this app to track time.

This is a cool app but after trying it out for a few weeks, I’m deleting because I don’t change locations frequently enough for my data to vary widely (plus it runs in the background, so I don’t want extra battery drain). I could see this having more useful long-term use for people with a lifestyle that involves more neighborhood/environment diversity. I wish the app itself had an interactive map. You can go to the website to look at map scores by street or address, but if you happen to be in a low-scoring area, there’s no indication of where to turn to get more green exposure unless you’re already familiar with the area.

I read about this app in Outside magazine and decided to give it a go. I have found it to be both inspirational and eye opening. I have realized how little time I actually spend outside even though I’m an avid runner and cyclist. It has made me look for ways to try to get outside and into nature more often. There are a few things I’d like to see added to the app to get more out of it like a daily summary and maybe a widget on my Apple Watch but overall I really enjoy this app.