Beat the Microbead

3.2.0

Plastic Soup Foundation

3.33

1,340 reviews

100,000+
Downloads

Free

With this app you can check if your cosmetics contain plastic ingredients.

Not recently updated — last update was on 2023-06-07. This app may no longer be actively maintained.

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About Beat the Microbead

Beat the Microbead is a health & fitness app developed by Plastic Soup Foundation.

Download Statistics

Beat the Microbead has been downloaded 340 thousand times. In the last 30 days, the app was downloaded 560 times.

User Ratings

Beat the Microbead is rated 3.33 out of 5 stars. The rating is based on 1.3 thousand ratings.

App Information

Beat the Microbead is FREE to download. The APK download size is 12.20 MB. The latest version available is 3.2.0. The last update was on June 7, 2023.

Technical Requirements

Beat the Microbead requires Android 5.0+ or higher. The app has a content rating of Everyone. The app has been available on Google Play October 2013.

Description

The Beat the Microbead app is the fastest way to learn if your cosmetics and personal care products contain plastic ingredients. This app uses state-of-the-art text recognition technology. Just scan the ingredients of your products and check them for microplastics. Not only that, but you can also get to know microplastic-free brands certified by us.

How does it work?

It’s straightforward: you can scan products with four easy steps:
- Find the ingredients list on your product.
- Position the full list within your camera frame.
- Make sure the ingredients are clear to read.
- Take a picture to scan!

A traffic light rating system

- RED: Products that contain microplastics.
- ORANGE: Products that contain what we call “sceptical” microplastics. With this, we mean synthetic polymers for which there is not enough information available.
- GREEN: Products that do not contain microplastics.

Help us enrich our database!

Every time you add a product to our database, you help us build a case against microplastics. With every product information, we can create evidence and convince authorities about the extensive use of plastic ingredients. A bit of extra effort on your side makes you a part of the fight against microplastics in cosmetics and care products. So, go ahead, scan the barcode of your product and help us get some more information!

By adding the products to our database, you can also discover our certified microplastic-free brands. These brands have their entire range of products free of all known microplastic ingredients.

Why is it important?

Plastic in cosmetics is a global problem! Microplastics are hardly visible ingredients that pollute our planet & may pose health risks. These microplastics, hardly visible to the naked eye, flow straight from the bathroom drain into the sewer system. Microplastics are not biodegradable, and once they enter the (marine) environment, they are almost impossible to remove.

Sea animals absorb or eat microplastics; these particles are passed along the marine food chain. Since humans are ultimately at the top of this food chain, it is likely that we also ingest microplastics.

Using body washes or cosmetics that contain microplastics can put the ocean, ourselves, and our children at risk! With this app, you can get aware of this issue and make environmentally friendly choices.

Who is behind this app?

The collaborators behind this app include the following partners:

Plastic Soup Foundation: NGO based in Amsterdam, initiators of the worldwide campaign “Beat the Microbead”. Their mission: No plastic in our water or our bodies!

PINCH: a renowned mobile development agency from Amsterdam that is proud of their work for the Plastic Soup Foundation.

Recent changes:
A small update for Android 13 users, who no longer had the option to use an existing photo for scanning ingredients. Your feedback about the app is welcome and we try to include as much as possible in next updates.

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More data about Beat the Microbead

Price	Free to download
Total downloads	340 thousand
Recent downloads	560
Rating	3.33 based on 1.3 thousand ratings
Ranking	Not ranked
Version	3.2.0
APK size	12.2 MB
Number of libraries	26
Designed for Android	5.0+
Suitable for	Everyone
Ads	NO ads

App Performance Report

Get a detailed PDF report for Beat the Microbead with download trends, rating history, and key performance statistics — useful for competitive research or tracking your own app. Learn more

Get PDF Report — $29

Google Play Rating history and histogram

530

180

120

180

300

Downloads over time

Beat the Microbead has been downloaded 340 thousand times. Over the past 30 days, it averaged 19 downloads per day.

Changelog of Beat the Microbead

Jun 7, 2023UpdateVersion 3.2.0
May 12, 2023UpdateVersion 3.1.0
Nov 24, 2020UpdateVersion 3.0.5
Aug 8, 2020UpdateVersion 3.0.4
Jun 2, 2020UpdateVersion 3.0.3
May 27, 2020UpdateVersion 3.0.1
Mar 28, 2018Installs100,000+ installs
Dec 19, 2017UpdateVersion 2.4
Jul 14, 2017UpdateVersion 2.3
Dec 22, 2016UpdateVersion 2.2
Nov 9, 2016UpdateVersion 2.1.6
Oct 21, 2016UpdateVersion 2.1.4
Jun 6, 2016UpdateVersion 2.1.0
May 8, 2016Installs50,000+ installs
Jan 27, 2016UpdateVersion 1.0.6
Dec 15, 2015UpdateVersion 1.0.5
Aug 23, 2015UpdateVersion 1.0.4
Jun 4, 2014Installs10,000+ installs
Mar 26, 2014Installs5,000+ installs
Mar 26, 2014UpdateVersion 1.0.3
Jan 22, 2014UpdateVersion 1.0.2
Oct 4, 2013New AppVersion 1.0.1 in Health & Fitness for Free

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Developer information for Plastic Soup Foundation

Plastic Soup Foundation

info@plasticsoupfoundation.org

Website

N/A

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Comments on Beat the Microbead for Android

★★★★★ Fionn Ferreira · Sep 10, 2020

The best microplastics' app out there. This app makes it very easy to spot plastic in products and uses a cool database of barcodes. Although I have worked with and engaged in microplastic research, I have learned new things from this app and was surprised at really how many things contain microplastic.

★★★★☆ Devanshi Gupta · Jul 14, 2020

Can't see the products already uploaded in the database by me or anyone else. Doesn't let you search the name too just the ingredients But great one to tell you which product has microplastics and which doesn't!

★★★★★ Dan Harris · Aug 4, 2022

This app is amazing at what it does! Absolutely useful for detecting microplastics. It almost always correctly scan the ingredients and identify the microplastics. A must-have for everyone in the skincare community!

★☆☆☆☆ Billy Joe Cain · Jul 29, 2024

Wanted to scan the UPC code. Instead, it scanned the ingredients, like they ever listed them.

★★☆☆☆ Bert Bosman · Oct 26, 2020

The only message I get is whoops something went wrong

★★☆☆☆ Mark van den Heuvel · Oct 27, 2021

I very much like the concept of the app, but it is not reliable. I scanned a screenshot of an ingredient list retrieved from a manufacturers' website, clearly stating ingredients such as acrylic copolymer, polyester polymer etc. which are listed as microplastics on the btmb website, but the app told me everything was fine. It did detect pvp in another product though.

Google Play Rankings for Beat the Microbead

This app is not ranked

Technologies used by Beat the Microbead

Beat the Microbead is requesting 9 permissions and is using 27 libraries.

Permissions

Network communication

view network connections, full network access, receive data from Internet

Hardware controls

take pictures and videos

System tools

prevent phone from sleeping

Extra

android.permission.POST_NOTIFICATIONS, com.google.android.finsky.permission.BIND_GET_INSTALL_REFERRER_SERVICE, com.google.android.gms.permission.AD_ID, org.plasticsoupfoundation.microbeads.DYNAMIC_RECEIVER_NOT_EXPORTED_PERMISSION

Ad network libraries

None found

Social libraries

None found

Development tools

Android Jetpack core

Android Architecture Components

Android Jetpack VersionedParcelable Android Jetpack Annotations Android Library Icon

Android Jetpack Annotations Firebase Android Library Icon

Firebase

Android Jetpack Widgets Android Jetpack AppCompat Android Library Icon

Android Jetpack AppCompat AndroidX Activity Android Library Icon

AndroidX Activity Android Activity Saved State Android Library Icon

Android Activity Saved State AndroidX Loader Android Library Icon

AndroidX Loader Android Jetpack Media Android Library Icon

Android Jetpack Media Google Cloud Messaging (GCM) Android Library Icon

Google Cloud Messaging (GCM) Kotlin Android Library Icon

Kotlin

Android Support VectorDrawable AndroidX App Startup Android Library Icon

AndroidX App Startup AndroidX Widget ViewPager2 Android Library Icon

AndroidX Widget ViewPager2 AndroidX Concurrent Futures Android Library Icon

AndroidX Concurrent Futures AndroidX Emoji / Emoji2 Android Library Icon

AndroidX Emoji / Emoji2 AndroidX ExifInterface Android Library Icon

AndroidX ExifInterface AndroidX ProfileInstaller Android Library Icon

AndroidX ProfileInstaller Jetpack DataStore Android Library Icon

Jetpack DataStore Jetpack Navigation Android Library Icon

Jetpack Navigation Lottie Android Library Icon

Lottie

Coil

CameraX

PageIndicatorView

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