Feature parity request: AI match percentage / confidence score for Android app

General
1

Hi everyone,

I would like to raise a feature request regarding the iNaturalist Android app.

In the iNaturalist iPhone app, the suggested identifications show a match percentage / confidence score for possible species. This is extremely helpful, especially for plant identification, where several visually similar species can appear in the suggestions. The percentage gives users a better feeling for which suggestion should be checked first and makes the identification process much easier.

On the Android app, however, this percentage-based information does not seem to be available in the same way. As an Android user, I find this quite limiting. Without the match percentage, it is much harder to compare suggestions and understand how confident the AI is about each option.

I am sure other Android users may have noticed the same difference. For me personally, this has even become a relevant point when choosing a new phone, because I do not want to feel forced to use an iPhone only to access this very useful identification feature.

Would it be possible to add the AI match percentage / confidence score to the Android app in a future update?

It would be great to know whether this is already planned, technically possible, or under discussion. I believe this would significantly improve the Android user experience and help create better feature parity between iOS and Android.

Thanks a lot to the iNaturalist team and community for all the work behind this platform.

Best regards,
Bora
iNaturalist username: bocelen

2

no need to raise a feature request; the current iteration of the iPhone app will be available for download for testing for Android soon [closed beta], and then later will be fully implemented on Android

3

I’m skeptical of the word ‘soon’ in this context given how many years ‘soon’ was the operating word for the release of the new iPhone app, and how bad that app was once released.

4

Why implement this feature in the app(s) only? Are there plans to cease work on, or phase out, the website?

5

As @thebeachcomber noted, the Android app will be replaced with the new app (which is in beta for Android).

6

I don’t know if this is the best thread to ask this on, but on the iPhone app, where do those numbers come from? For example, if I randomly select something with a 90% score 10 times, should I expect on average 9/10 of those will be correct? Or is it saying what percentage of the image being analyzed can be explained by training images of that species? Does Geoscore enter into the percentage, or does that model just determine what is and isn’t considered, as a binary, and then the percent is entirely based on image matching? I get that “big number means better”, but where are the numbers coming from?