The right app at the right moment on a safari can be a real win. Here are the best mobile apps for an African safari – the ones that help you get the most out of the experience.
While one of the great joys of an African safari is a digital detox, there are a handful of smartphone apps that can really enhance your experience.
I’m talking here of identifying the little antelope hidden in the bush, and learning the significance of its local name. Of learning what bird is behind the unusual croaking call that wakes you up each morning. Of identifying the constellation above you as you sit around a campfire. And of sending a postcard home that showcases your unique encounter with a monkey on your safari walk.
You want apps that don’t try to keep you on your phone when you should be relishing the real-world moment. Instead, we want ones that help us sink deeper into the safari experience, both in the moment and overall.
A further quick caveat. I focus in this blog post on apps relevant to guided safaris in Southern and East African, as that’s where African Overland Tours runs tours. I also focus only on widely useful apps, versus those with a narrow focus, like a Kruger-specific app.
The best mammal identification apps
While you have a wildlife expert with you on guided safaris who will identify the animals you see, there are two reasons to consider still downloading a wildlife identification app.
The first reason is so you have it for those moments when your guide isn’t with you. Most notably, you often spot wildlife at your campsite or lodge. The second reason is to learn more about the animals you see, perhaps in the evening when scrolling through your photos from the day and reflecting on the species you saw.
Stuarts’ SA Mammals
Stuarts’ SA Mammals isn’t a particularly stylish app, but it has solid information on 537 Southern African mammals, which is pretty much every species there is. So if you’re keen to learn about the animals you see on safari, this is a great app. That said, it works far better on Apple phones (where it has a 4.3-star rating) than on Android (where it has a 3.1-star rating).
Some of the key features of the Stuarts’ SA Mammals app are that it:
- Has calls and videos of mammals in their natural environments
- Has a smart search function to help you filter results by activity, habitat, track length, track shape, and droppings
- Has a location functionality for more accurate results
Seek by iNaturalist
If you’re like me, you’re also very interested in the trees, plants, butterflies, and more that you see on a safari. While your safari guide will likely be able to identify prolific trees and smaller creatures, they’re not entomologists, botanists, or similar, so a catch-all nature app can be very handy.
Seek by iNaturalist is an excellent app for identifying any organism you find in the wild. This includes amphibians, trees, fungi, flowers, and more. Simply take a photograph using the Seek Camera function and the app will identify it as best it can from the database for your location.
While the app certainly won’t manage to identify everything you throw at it, it’s overall a useful tool, especially as a first port of call. It currently has a 3.9-star rating for Android based on over 10,000 reviews. And it has a very impressive 4.8-star rating for iOS based on more than 31,000 reviews!
Note that there isn’t an East Africa-specific wildlife identification app that I would recommend. So for identifying mammals in this region, go with Seek by iNaturalist. Or you could consider using Stuarts’ SA Mammals app as there’s a decent degree of wildlife overlap.
The best bird identification apps
The bird identification apps for Southern African safaris are more numerous and developed than those for East Africa. So know that, for now, an old-fashioned index book might be better when heading on an East African safari. But for Southern Africa, I suggest downloading either of the following two apps …
Sasol eBirds of Southern Africa
The Sasol eBirds of Southern Africa app has images and descriptions of 1,001 birds!
When you spot a bird, use the smart search tool to input any of the 11 possible criteria, like beak shape, bird size, bird colour, and habitat. The app will then identify the bird and give you interesting information about it. The app also features 1,200 bird calls, distribution maps, and comparison plates of similar species.
This is a useful app as your safari guide won’t always be with you when you spot a bird. Like when you’re enjoying your morning coffee outside your tent or on your balcony. Also, not every safari guide is, understandably, super well-versed in bird species.
There’s a free “LITE” version of the Sasol app, but of course the paid version works better. The paid version currently has a 4.7-star rating on both iOS and Android.
Firefinch
Firefinch is another highly rated Southern African bird-identification app. It has a premium and inviting aesthetic. And the detailed illustrations make the learning journey easy.
As per the Firefinch app, you can “Explore illustrations, photos, sounds, maps, seasonal stats and helpful tips for almost 1000 bird species.” The app also has other great features like:
- Giving bird names in your chosen language
- Offering daily audio quizzes to help you learn different bird calls
- Allowing you to create lists of sightings on different trips
- Showing relevant news articles
Firefinch currently has a 4.7-star rating on both iOS and Android.
Other great apps for an African safari
Finally, here are two apps not designed specifically for African safaris but that are lovely to have on such experiences, as I explain below …
Star Walk 2 Plus Night Sky
You’re sitting around the campfire drinking red wine out of a tin mug, gazing up at the stars, and you have no idea what you’re looking at. Change that last part by downloading the Sky Walk 2 app.
This highly rated app lets you simply point your phone camera at the sky, and it will show you a map identifying constellations, stars, planets, and satellites. On a Southern or East African safari, these will include the Southern Cross constellation and its nearby Pointer stars of Alpha and Beta Centauri, the bright cluster of stars called the Pleiades, and the brilliant Canopus star.
Star Walk 2 has a 4.6-star rating on both iOS and Android.
Postagram: Photo Postcards
Instead of sending your loved ones standard safari postcards, you can create your own unique postcards using photos from your phone. The Postagram app allows you to create and write postcards that it will then print for you and mail to anywhere in the world. I love that this showcases your unique wildlife moments.
Postagram is an especially useful safari app, in my opinion, as some African countries, South Africa and Kenya among them, have broken postal systems. While private companies like PostNet can deliver mail for you, you likely won’t encounter one on your overlanding trip until you’re back at the airport. So if you want to send some snail mail, an app like this is what’s needed.
Postagram is free to download, but of course you pay when you send postcards. Note that it currently has a whopping 4.9-star rating on iOS but only a 3.6-star rating on Android.
A note on animal-tracking apps
You may have noticed that I haven’t included any apps that help you find wildlife through features like real-time sightings and updates. One reason for this is that I believe such apps encourage FOMO and rob you of the space and moment you’re already in. Another (key) reason is that on a guided safari, your driver-guide knows the best spots for finding wildlife and is also in comms with other guides and park authorities. This means they’ll know the locations of recent exciting finds, and also if it’s really worth dashing off to get there.
In this blog post, I want to give you apps that feel useful and necessary so you can use and enjoy them but also put away your phone as often as possible.
So there you have my pick of the best mobile apps for an African safari. Did I leave any off that you love? Please leave a comment if I did!
Note: This blog post was created in June 2015 by Sarah Duff. It was rewritten in July 2026 by Megan Abigail White.
