Android 16 includes a beta version of desktop mode that can be enabled after enabling developer mode. It’s based on Samsung’s DeX, which has been around for many years now. So if your Android 16 phone has the necessary hardware, you can plug in a monitor, keyboard, mouse, etc., and get a desktop-like experience, assuming the apps you used are designed to fully utilize desktop mode. Android’s beta desktop mode doesn’t look nearly as polished as DeX, but it’s pretty good, and I assume that it’s on track to be released to the mases sooner than later – maybe within a year or two, and maybe coinciding with with a possible release timeline for iNat’s new Android app?
I just wanted to mention it, in case it’s not already on the radar of iNat development staff. I’m hoping that the new Android app will be built with desktop mode in mind so that users will be able to fully utilize it in desktop mode when the new app arrives. The current version of the app works in desktop mode, of course, but it’s definitely not optimized for use on a large desktop monitor. I’d hate for the app to be released with only small screens in mind and never get proper support for desktop (similar to how the iNat website was designed for desktops back in the day and never seems to have been modernized / optimized to support both smaller and larger screens).
As far as I can tell, it seems like there are perennial rumors of Apple working on a desktop mode for iOS, but it’s unclear whether there’s actually anything that will be released in Apple world any time soon. Still, maybe some of the design choices that could be made for Android would work for a possible future iOS desktop mode? Or at the very least, some of those design choices could be used to finally revamp the website…