An approach is provided for providing collaborative recognition using media segments. The recognition platform causes, at least in part, a generation of a request to determine recognition information for one or more media items associated with a device, one or more segments of the one or more media items, or a combination thereof. Next, the recognition platform determines to transmit the request to one or more other devices based, at least in part, on one or more device selection criteria. Then, the recognition platform receives the recognition information in response to the request. Further, the recognition platform processes and/or facilitates a processing of the recognition information to determine one or more identities of one or more users, one or more objects, or a combination thereof represented in the one or more media items.