Are plant identification apps useful for garden care advice?

[Loadsalies]

I'm moving to a house with a garden soon and haven't had a garden a while. I see the plant apps advertised where you scan a plant/shrub etc and it gives you care advice.
Are they a scam? I don't want to pay and download one if they are.

TIA

I don’t think you need one. You can just check on RHS website or do a general search and you’ll get lots of care advice on specific plants for free.
I’ve found AI really useful for planning advice. You can give details of your soil type, how much sun an area gets etc and upload a photo and ask for planting scheme ideas and it will do you a diagram with suggestions as to what to plant where and give care advice etc.

Google lens is pretty effective if you’ve got things already planted and don’t know what they are

I've used a few over the years - they aren't very accurate.

I also find Google lens much better, and it will provide the botanical name of the plant as well as the common name (which can vary regionally and between U.S. and here)

Thanks. I think i was lured by the one that shows you how to save dying plants.

The RHS app is useful as it identifies the plant and will say soil type, position to plant, expected growth etc, you can either use a photo or type a description.
It also has lots of good ideas, growing advice , plan your garden, also can order plants; very comprehensive.
Ive taken a screenshot to give you the jist, it’s £5pm

There are good free apps. iNaturalist for plant ID (though at species level, not cultivar), RHS website or app for anything else.

Thanks both of you. Can you stop the RHS after a while?

You don't need to pay for the RHS, no subscription needed for the app. Delete and download again whenever you fancy.

I had one about 4 years ago and found it was really inaccurate, it probably got it right about 60% of the time. They might be better now but I'd check reviews.

Google lens to identify, then you want 2 books "The Garden Expert" and "The Treee and Shrub Expert" both by Dr D G Hessayon and both still in print after more than 40 years.

How about asking a professional gardener for an hour's consultation? More accurate that apps.

Better idea - take a photo of it, go to a garden centre and look around until you find a specimen of it. Take a photo of the label, go home and look it up on the RHS website.
Whilst you are in the garden centre, you'll probably start recognising a few more of them as well. And you can have some tea/coffee/cake while you're there.

Alternatively as @Somersetbaker suggests, arm yourself with several of the 'Expert' books and read them. There's ones on flowers, lawns, veg, containers, water gardens, house plants, trees & shrubs, you name it. Each plant has its own section and all the common easy-to-grow ones are in there. The books all have general gardening how-to advice as well. I have about 10 of them and they have been my constant companion for decades.

Using apps is all very well but, as has been pointed out, they are not very accurate. Many of them are not UK based and the care instructions will not suit our climate.