Thousands of people throughout the world flood into museums and art galleries each day to discover and explore the only universal language, art.  

Recently, developers created an innovative app to enhance the museum experience.  This app, known as Smartify, re-frames the use of smartphones as an engagement instead of an interference within museums and art galleries.

Smartify uses image recognition technology in modern day devices to instantly scan artwork.  Along with identifying the image, Smartify provides and plethora of information on the work of art, eliminating the need to push through rowdy crowds to read minuscule labels.  The app provides information such as the date created, size, overview, and historical significance of the artwork.

The new startup, based in the UK, recently announced on September 21st its partnership with Royal Academy of Arts, the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, London’s National Gallery, and the Doge’s Palace in Venice.  Smartify is investing in partnerships and dedicating an immense amount of effort to guarantee that user-scanned artwork will be in the database with all the information promised.

The goal of Smartify is for museum visitors to not just view a work of art and move on, but to explore each masterpiece and learn the context and historical significance.  The image recognition used by Smartify accomplishes this goal by allowing users to have rapid access to this information to coincide with the captivating experience of touring a museum.

As Art Newspaper writer Hannah McGivern stated, “The iOS and Android app is designed to complement, not compete with, the physical experience of visiting a museum.”  Use of smartphones is generally frowned upon within museums and art galleries, but the mission of Smartify is to use phones as a tool to augment the exploration into the world of art.

Not only does Smartify offer an unimaginable amount of insight, but the app also allows for users to save scanned artwork into an album.  With this feature, users can save their favorite masterpieces into a collection in order to “build a playlist across museums,” said one of the four co-founders of Smartify, Anna Lowe.

The success of the app comes from the company’s persistence in sticking to their values.  The creators and maintainers of the app have never strayed away from their values of keeping the app simple, flexible, and filled with easily accessible and fascinating information.  With Smartify, phones no longer have to be a distraction in art galleries and museums.