Guide
About Trove, and how it works
Trove is published by Yaysoft LTD. It identifies an antique from photographs using a vision model, then runs a second, separate step that searches recent sold results to build a value range from real comparable sales. It is an informed opinion from images, not a professional appraisal, and it is built to say so when the evidence will not carry a conclusion.
What happens when you photograph something
The appraisal runs in two separate steps, and the separation is deliberate.
The first step reads the object. Your photographs go to a vision model, which works through the same sequence a dealer starts from: form, materials, decoration technique, construction, wear, and any mark you have captured. It returns an identification, a period, a condition assessment and an authenticity verdict — each with the reasoning attached, so you can see what it was reading rather than only what it concluded.
The second step prices it. This is a different request, and it searches. It looks for recent sold results for comparable pieces and builds the range from what it finds, keeping the sources so they can be shown to you. When that search finds real evidence the appraisal is marked as grounded; when it does not, you are told the figures are weaker rather than being handed the same confident number either way.
Splitting the two is not an implementation detail. A single request asked to both search and return a structured answer will quietly stop searching — measured, repeatedly — and produce invented comparables that look exactly like real ones. Two steps is what makes the sources real.
What it is built on
- Identification: Google’s Gemini model, running on our own servers rather than in the app.
- Valuation: a second model call with web search, over recent sold results from auction houses and marketplaces.
- Your collection: a database on your own phone. It is not uploaded, synced or shared, and clearing the app clears it.
- Your account: there isn’t one. Sign-in is anonymous — no name, no email, no password.
The full processor list, retention periods and legal bases are in the privacy policy, which is more specific than most because the answer to “where do my photographs go” should not require interpretation.
What it is allowed to claim
An informed opinion from photographs. Not a professional appraisal, not a certificate of authenticity, and not a basis for insurance, sale, probate, tax or anything legal. That line is in the app, in the store listing and in the terms, and it is not boilerplate — it is the actual boundary of what images can support. When you need a professional appraiser instead covers where the line falls.
Why it tells you when it does not know
The competing failure mode in this category is confident nonsense: an app that produces a maker and a price for anything you point it at, because a number feels like a better product than a shrug. It is the most common complaint in the reviews of apps like this, and it is the thing most likely to cost someone money.
So Trove is built to return “not enough evidence” as a real outcome — with the specific photograph that would settle it — rather than inventing a conclusion. That is a designed behaviour, not a failure, and it is the part of this product we would most like to be judged on.
Who publishes it
Yaysoft LTD. Support is here, and a person answers within two business days. If an appraisal looks wrong, sending the photographs with it is genuinely useful — it is the only way to see what the model saw.
Trove identifies antiques from photographs and gives an estimated value range, with the reasoning behind it. Every figure is an AI estimate, not a professional appraisal.
Last updated: 4 August 2026