Disneynature Explore app encourages kids to play in the outdoors

Most apps and games encourage kids to be sedentary. But the Disneynature Explore app encourages kids to play in nature and discover fun things via augmented reality.

The free app debuts on the Apple App Store today, coinciding with Earth month and the release of independent film label Disneynature’s latest movie, Bears. The app combines augmented reality experiences with an animal-behavior game that encourages kids to go on adventures. We’ll see if it makes kids more active.

The app makes 3D-animated animals appear in the live camera view of your iOS device. You can play with brown bears or catch salmon in your own backyard or neighborhood. You can follow the tracks to help a bear find her cub or hunt with a lion for a warthog. You can view the world through a butterfly’s eyes or explore the ocean on the back of a turtle.

The app has five animal adventures and challenges to go with them. Kids can shoot photos of each adventure and add them to a journal. Disneynature Explore has no in-app purchases or third-party advertising. It requires iOS 7 or higher and works with iPad Mini, iPad Air, iPod 5, iPad 2, and iPhone 4 and above.

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Disneynature Explore

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat at VentureBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.