I think it’s helpful to keep the discussions separate. The Android app is very different from the Apple app and would have different usability stats and anecdotes.
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Thank you! iNaturalist seems so powerful with so many different features but it can be a bit difficult to navigate them at times
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For those who are unaware, some background:
Our iOS/iPadOS app (ugh, why’d you have to split those, Apple? I’m going to stick with “iOS”) was developed first, and our Android app came out later. Unfortunately, because the iOS app is so old, it was based on pretty rickety old code and database software. So before a lot of new functionality (eg messages, a more complex Explore page) could be added, we wanted to strip out that underlying code because it had to be rewritten anyway.
However, its not easy to strip and replace fundamental underlying code and still keep an app functional, so it had to be done slowly and in a piecemeal fashion by Alex, who in addition to being our iOS developer, is also our lead Computer Vision developer. That underlying code replacement was finally finished in 2020, with version 3.0.
The Android app, on the other hand, did not need that underlying code replaced and it’s mainly been developed by Yaron, whose sole focus has been work on our Android app. Thus, the two apps got out of sync when it came to functionality.
IMO the biggest differences between the apps are the iOS app’s lack of message functionality and its rudimentary Explore page, as well as the limited ID functionality.
Since we’re moving to creating one unified app, we’ve stopped adding major new features to the existing native apps, which is why their development is pretty static, aside from bug fixes and small things.
Sort of separate from the issues I addressed above, the apps are also designed to mostly be simple recording and “exploring nearby” apps, not fully functional apps like, say, Facebook’s mobile app. So it’s unlikely they’ll ever have all of the features on the website, but I think there’s a happy medium to strike.
I believe this is the thread you’re referring to. I added a new post there today. Unfortunately it’s taking longer than we hoped for and we can’t provide an estimate as to when it will be available - it’s a pretty big project.
I agree.
Personally I mostly use the iOS app to check for updates on my observations and to import photos I take with my phone’s camera. Sometimes I’ll use Explore as well.
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I use it for uploading the few photos I take with my phone, but that’s about it.
I prefer the browser based interface.
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(Android person chiming in) I use the app for exactly one purpose: my phone camera is the only thing I have that can take pics through my microscope lens. So I use the app to add microscopy pics to existing observations. Even that is annoying, because it usually doesn’t save the images in the order I want and I have to go re-order them later.
It’s just slightly less annoying that transferring the photos by USB to my computer and uploading from there.
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Thank you for posting that link. That is helpful for people interested in this topic.
Mind you, I am not aware of an update in the last 10 months. anyone have an idea? Has anything further been indicated about this and when it may become part of our lives?
What Tony said above is the latest official news. I think he’s too polite to tell us to be patient and stop asking “are we there yet?”
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Well, I don’t disagree with what you say. But, lo those many years passed… I worked on a software development project. We had projected milestones and dates, which were updated regularly for the users. …different time, different place… in that time and place, we would have been considered remiss for not doing such. We truly would not have considered our users rude (far from it!) for wanting to know what to expect.
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I don’t use the app at all. I’ve been using iCloud to transfer my phone images to my computer.
I mostly use the app to check my Activity feed, when I’m away from my computer. I do everything else on the website on my computer, including uploading photos I’ve taken on my iPhone.
However, the app is my go-to tool when I’m recommending iNat to new users. It’s much simpler than the website at the photo-submit-ID process.
I’m quite happy for the app to remain a streamlined uploader and explore tool, and not try to do everything the website does.
However, in my dream world, I would like an iNat app for identifiers. I can imagine opening up that app on my phone in gaps in my day and identifying a few observations for people. At the moment the website’s Identify page is painful to use on my iPhone, and iPad, and I wait until I’m back on my Mac to identify things. That means that I identify less observations.
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how? the map?
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I love using the app to upload all of my photos(even though it crashes every 50-60 observations), check my activity feed, use the Explore feature to see coordinates of nearby plants when I don’t have it marked down, etc. Uploading on the website is a pain as there is no coordinates or date stamp attached to it.
Date and location absolutely show up in the web uploader if this information is recorded in a photo’s metadata. If this information doesn’t show up when you upload photos that come from your phone, check your phone’s camera settings or the method you use to transfer photos to a PC to make sure that the metadata isn’t being stripped from the photos somewhere along the way.
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Yes. Just explore. It’s not as easy or appealing as the app version, so I probably could’ve worded it as if I view it a little bit more highly than it seems, because I do like it quite a bit. I’m honestly pretty used to seeing the downsides of the app and not the benefits because I think that’s what stands out the most. But the explore feature on the app is definitely superior to the site’s.
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I use the iPhone app almost exclusively, as a data collection tool. Most of my >50,000 observations were made with the app. Personally, i don’t find that it fits well in my workview to take photos and add them later, for a variety of reasons. It takes longer, i sometimes forget what species i was looking at, and i find the GPS doesn’t work as well if you just take photos with the phone. I don’t have any other cameras and for me, i don’t see the need. So yeah i find the app very important for data collection.
For community interaction, adding IDs, checking IDs people gave to my observations, and pretty much anything else other than adding observations and seeing where others have observed things, i prefer the webpage.
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Thanks all for the feedback on my questions.
My understanding from something I read is that you can use the iOS app to observe and upload even when you’re out of cell phone range, that it completes the upload when you’re back in range. But how does it capture the coordinates? I have not tried this; when I’m out of cell range I never use the app.
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Sort of. You have to manually upload those observations, it’s not autotmatic. Otherwise the app would drain your battery by constantly searching for an internet connection and we decided that wasn’t great. :-)
See this tutorial:
https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/how-to-use-the-inaturalist-mobile-app-without-an-internet-connection/11620
Even when in airplane mode or without internet service, the phone’s GPS antenna(e?) still function. However, with no cell towers or wifi networks to triangulate from, it might take longer for you to get an accurate location.
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That’s the auto-sync feature: Auto-sync on app. The app can still be used in airplane mode, cell-service isn’t required.
yeah the auto sync feature has been a long standing problem because it doesn’t work very well. It halts use of the app until the observation is uploaded and it often bugs out in areas of poor cell reception. It makes app use very slow. I suspect this is a lot of why people don’t think the iPhone app works very well. It also publicly broadcasts your location real time which i am not a big fan of (versus uploading it later when at home). For all these reasons i strongly suggest you turn it off in app settings. This is what i tell everyone any time i do an app training. Unfortunately it defaults to on and likes to turn itself back on any time you log out or there is an update. With auto sync off the app works fine without cell service (except the ID suggestions do not work) and you just need to remember to press upload next time you are on wifi or have a reliable connection to phone data.
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