I understand your frustration! I think you’re correct in that it would be helpful if the app pushed going to the website as it has MUCH more useful features than the app. That being said I do really love the app, I think it’s a great gateway for new people to get into inaturalist, and as someone who only has a phone for pictures it is what I use to upload photos. That being said I find the greatest success by using both the website and the app, taking photos and uploading them from the app then going on my computer to ID, compare, comment etc. It has it’s issues, but I adore the app a whole lot!
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Jurga, I think you haven’t used the app that much :). You can edit photos in the app (crop, rotate, brightness, etc, including in already uploaded obs within app) and you don’t need internet connection to use it, you can store observations in the app and upload them later. I’ve used it in the mountains with 1000 offline obs before auto-uploading them on returning home. I’m even often switching connection off when doing a lot of observations so phone would work faster and save the battery. I’m not saying that we don’t need the browser version, but they have different purposes: the app is mainly for doing observations with phone, the web version is for identifying and exploring.
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There’s been much discussion about the lack of features in the iOS app. Staff has advised they will not be making improvements to the iOS app. Instead, we have been told they will make an improved cross-platform mobile app.
However, there are currently only 8 staff members, so when it might come out is up in the air as far as I know. iNaturalist was seeking to hire 2 developers for a few months now. Your can follow the Progress and Updates.
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I use iNaturalist app to take quick snaps in the field and georeference the collection. The AI is not always perfect. But later I check or amend the ID in iNaturalist.org.
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I was introduced to iNaturalist through the Seek app, which I still use regularly. I haven’t interacted much with the iNaturalist app, but I suppose there’s a reason for that. From a non-expert perspective, Seek seems to be immensely more helpful, offering fairly accurate identifications directly within the app, and then the capabilities to upload directly to the site. I can’t tell how much Seek is promoted in relation to the iNat app, but I always recommend the Seek app to friends.
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I know I wouldn’t be able to use iNat if it were just the app. Crashes just trying to tell me how many observations I have.
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I upload exclusively on the iPhone app and I appreciate its simplicity when it comes to doing that. But I had no idea there was an entire site for a while. An embarrassingly long while. I don’t do anything else other than upload things on the app and it’s great for doing that. And the map is good on the app, too. But it was really shocking to see how intricate the site was in comparison. I remember being confused about how advanced the site was because it didn’t make sense for the app to be so simplistic comparatively. I was actually somewhat overwhelmed too because I felt like I had to have been doing things terribly wrong (I was) if I was missing out on so much that the site had but not the app.
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You are right - I am not using app much - like many elderly people, I find it difficult to do things on app/phone, because of eyesight. Making fields large enough for any action (e.g. quality cropping and editing or selecting best photos to upload) is awfully inconvenient. And I can’t imagine doing it in field.
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Website is faster for phone too though, making all the photos, not spending time on making observations on the app right in the field, then uploading everything via website, which allows checking how correct placement of each one is. Android app is getting better and better that is true, but uploading one observation at a time still is a major downside, other than that part, app is very useful for species info and recently added search filters.
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This discussion is very enlightening for me. I don’t have a smart phone so have never used the app. I have only used iNat with a desktop computer and a camera. It helps to know how the app works when trying to contact people and leaving comments that need a response.
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I have a similar experience. I rarely use my phone, though, I decided to download the iNat app to better understand how it works.
Still, I prefer a desktop, I feel I have more control.
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