Low Tide Explorer: PNW Tide Pool Guide for Android

The short answer

Low Tide Explorer is a free Android field guide to 68 Pacific Northwest tide pool animals, with NOAA low tides for 18 stations from Olympia to Port Orford and alerts before the good ones. It works with no signal, needs no account and never asks where you are. It isn't on the App Store yet.

Watch it

Plays from YouTube once you press play.

Screenshots

Shore: the beach at Olympia with the tide going out, and a low of -1.7 ft in under two hours

What did I find? A red star in a pool, with the Pacific blood star as the best guess

A new stamp for the Pacific blood star, 26 of 68 collected

Best low tides: the next daylight lows rated, with low tide alerts on

About Low Tide Explorer: Tide Pools

Low Tide Explorer has three tabs. Shore draws a rocky beach from the splash zone down to the low zone, with the sea at the height the tide is at right now. Each band holds the animals that live there and says whether the water covers it at the moment, so scrolling down the screen is walking down the beach. Tap an animal for a drawing, a real photo, what to look for and one good fact.

Under the tide reading sits a short answer to the question you actually have: is now a good time to go? It says “Good time to go now”, gives a time later in the day, or says no good low is left today and when the next daylight one is, with the time to be off the rocks by.

Tides lists the daylight low tides worth a trip over the next month, rated fair, good, great or excellent, each with the day’s tide curve. From autumn to early spring the lowest tides around Puget Sound come after dark. Then it also shows the next good daylight low, months ahead, and the night lows for anyone with a headlamp. Low tide alerts are off until you turn them on. Then the phone tells you the evening before a good low, or that morning, and night lows can be included too. The predictions are NOAA’s, for 18 stations from Olympia to Port Orford, and they come inside the app.

Found something you can’t name? What did I find? asks three questions: its shape, its main color and where it was (on a rock, in a pool, under a rock, or on sand or eelgrass). Any of them can be skipped. You get the few animals it could be, best guess first, each with its drawing and photo.

Every animal you find gets a stamp. Tap I found one!, add a photo or a note if you like, and the stamp lands in the Logbook with the date and the beach. The Logbook is a stamp book with a page per family and empty outlines for the animals still out there, and the rank on top climbs from Puddle Peeker to Low Tide Legend. A stamp can be shared as a picture card with your photo on it. The card never says where you were.

The guide holds 68 animals of Puget Sound and the Washington and Oregon coast: sea stars, anemones, crabs, snails, chitons, urchins, sea slugs, fish and more. Each has a drawing made for the app and a photo from an iNaturalist observer, credited in the app. Pick an outer-coast station and the Puget Sound animals step aside until you ask to see them all. There are also eight tide pool manners for looking without hurting anything: one wet finger, rocks back the way you found them, and every animal left where it lives.

Low Tide Explorer pays you nothing. There are no coins in it and no cash-out, so it sits with the tools and not with the reward apps. It is free, with nothing to buy, and carries one small banner ad, at the foot of the Tides and Logbook tabs. There is none on the shore guide or on an animal’s page, and no full-screen ads. There is no account, it never asks for your location (you pick a station from a list), and your logbook and photos stay on the phone. The ad is the one thing that goes online; its own privacy policy sets out what it sends.

Everything else works with no signal, alerts included, which matters on a beach. It has been on Google Play since November 2026, for Android phones and tablets, in English. The iPhone and iPad version is not in the App Store yet. Tide predictions are not for navigation, so check the posted beach rules before you go.

How to plan a trip

Pick the tide station nearest your beach.
Open Tides and find a low rated good or better, in daylight.
Turn on low tide alerts if you want a reminder the evening before.
Get there about an hour before the low, and leave when the water turns.
Tap I found one! on each animal you see, and collect its stamp.

Features

68 Pacific Northwest tide pool animals, each drawn and photographed
The shore drawn zone by zone, with the sea at today’s height
A go signal: whether now is a good time to go, and until when
NOAA low tides for 18 stations, Olympia to Port Orford, rated
Low tide alerts the evening before or the morning of, night lows optional
What did I find? Three questions, any of them skippable
A stamp book logbook with your own photos and notes
Share a stamp as a picture card that never says where you were
Eight tide pool manners for looking without hurting anything
Works offline; no account, no location permission
One banner on Tides and Logbook only; nothing to buy

Frequently asked questions

Is it on iPhone?

Not yet. It is on Google Play for Android phones and tablets. The App Store button goes on this page once that listing is live.

Which beaches does it cover?

Puget Sound and the Washington and Oregon coast. The tide predictions are NOAA’s for 18 stations: Olympia, Tacoma, Union on Hood Canal, Seattle, Everett, Port Townsend, Friday Harbor, Bellingham, Port Angeles, Neah Bay, La Push, Westport, Toke Point, Astoria, Garibaldi, Newport, Charleston and Port Orford. You pick the one nearest your beach.

Does it work without a signal?

Yes. The animals, photos, drawings and tide table are all inside the app, and the alerts are scheduled on the phone. Only the banner ad needs a connection, and it stays away when there isn’t one.

Why are there no good daytime low tides in winter?

Around Puget Sound the lowest tides from autumn to early spring fall at night. When a month has no good daylight low, the Tides tab shows the next one, months ahead, and that month’s night lows for anyone going out with a headlamp.

Does it know where I am?

No. It never asks for your location. You choose a tide station from a list, and a shared stamp card leaves the station off.

Does this app pay me anything?

No. It has no coins, no balance and no cash-out. The apps we publish that pay are on our apps page.

Is it free?

Yes, with nothing to buy. It carries one small banner ad on the Tides and Logbook tabs, and none on the shore guide or an animal’s page.

Where are my finds and photos kept?

On your phone. There is no account and no sync, and erasing the logbook in the app removes every find and photo. More in the privacy policy.