Mobile app - will it be developed in future?

Are there plans to develop iNat application for mobile phones? I mostly identify others’ observations, and while it is very convenient on the website (especially on the page dedicated for it), identifying on the phone is not as pleasant. What I miss most, is to move from one to another record without necessity to go back to results of search.
Funny thing, my acount on iNat was once banned because I was sending a comment from the app (it happened to have link to some publication or key) and it seemed not to send itself, so I tried again and again… and it turned out that it was added 3 or 4 times :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: But it seems it was simply some bug.

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There are at least three apps for mobile phones…

and someone developed an application dedicated for identifying observations… (klein)

For Android and iOS
https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/am-looking-for-some-test-users-of-an-identification-app/430/26
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.jtklein.inattoolcat

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HI @justyna_kierat, the iNaturalist apps are actively developed. If you’d like to vote for or contribute to the existing feature request discussion for improving the identify functions in the apps, head here: https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/expanded-identify-functionality-in-app/395

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Thanks @bouteloua , so I did poor search on the forum and this issue was discussed. I don’t have precise ideas what features would be useful (maybe besides this moving between records, but there are lots of useful features I can’t think at the moment) and I know nothing about apps making, so I’m rather poor helper. Anyway, if someone develops ID-frienly version, I’ll surely be dedicated user :)

No worries, there are thousands of topics here! I’d also love a more mobile friendly way to add IDs myself :)

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While I love iNaturalist, and spend a huge amount of time talking people into trying it, I’ve stopped using the apps entirely. I haven’t found any situation where it is more convenient or useful to use the app than not. If I want to use my Android phone to take photos for an observation, it is one fast click per photo in my camera app (roughly half a second), or four very slow clicks per photo in the app (at least 15 seconds). I don’t find the app useful for IDing. I’m curious what current features keep people using the app once they’ve learned other ways? I suspect I’m missing something, because obviously the apps are popular.

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Well, I was going to comment on being banned for a bug in the system, but with so many withdrawn posts, maybe that’s what they were about.

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Many people don’t have a desktop or laptop computer, they use a tablet or mobile phone.

I use my mobile phone for almost everything I do on the internet - banking, email, social media, research, photography, and inatting. The only time I use a computer is for word processing, spreadsheets or writing programs. The only time I use iNaturalist on a computer is to create places.

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That’s a good point. I would use the app if I didn’t have any computer except my phone. I still wouldn’t take the pictures in the app though.

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I don’t know ho about the others’ posts, but I withdrew mine simply because I didn’t read carefully one of the previous posts, and asked for links to other apps while they wee provided (unfortunately, they seem to be no more active, I find no app under the link provided by @optilete but I wrote a message to author of application). So please do comment :) Anyway, in the end it was funny although I spent a while thinkig what could I have done wrong ;)

It’s this very cause - I do have a computer but not always have it at hand, and I have mobile almost always. And sometimes I have a bit time eg in the travel when I could do something useful.

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An app with better support for IDing is also something I’ve thought about before. I think it would be nice if one could easily do IDing while relaxing on the couch. Also just earlier this week I was thinking “I wish the app showed the improving/supporting/disagreeing status of an ID”.

Forgive me for “self promoting”, but I believe it’s somewhat relevant to this discussion:
Just over a year ago I had some time available to me and decided that I’m not happy with the way the Android app handles projects (being extremely slow and lacking the features I wanted).
So I decided to write my own app called WildPlaces:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=za.co.mywild.wildplaces&hl=en_US&gl=US
(It’s available on Android’s Play Store but I’m not paying Apple $100+ per year just to put the app on their store.)

The main idea of my app is to view the observations from projects I’m interested in as a sort of basic “field guide”. For example I use my app if somebody asks me to help identify something (outside of iNat, in the real world) and I know I’ve added it under project X, then the app is an easy way for me to find it again. There is also a “share” icon that will open the observation in the official app for editing (if you have it installed), otherwise it opens the website.

The main reason I still use the official app is for creating observations of things I photographed earlier from my phone (I never create “real-time” observations, I always share photo at a later stage from my album app to the iNat app and create observations that way). I also like to check the “activity” on my account/observations using the iNat app. However I’ve been tempted for a while to one day make a custom app just for checking activity and updates on my observations, but unfortunately don’t think I’ll get to it anytime soon.

PS. I work on my app in my spare time and only add new things / fixes when I find the time (and especially the energy) to do so. Also there are still some open questions regarding the actual legality of it all (am I allowed to show photos from iNat on my own app?, can I use the iNat name or logo in my app, etc.).

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