Hi, I see some older questions about how to take a photo we’ve just taken on an iPhone, hit the arrow icon that is right on that screen to export it, and select iNaturalist as the app to export it to. There is no way currently. Is there a development path for enabling iPhone users to do this?
The lack of this feature is why I usually use Google Lens to ID flora and fauna, instead of iNaturalist even though I know it’s more accurate. To use iNat, I have to leave the camera app, find iNat among my phone’s apps, click on it, and then from within it, reopen photos and locate and click on the photo. Takes more time and clicks. It would feel quicker if I could use that one-click function to send the photo to iNat, and then complete the process in iNat by entering the date and location.
I go on hikes taking photos about two to three times per week, and would love this feature.
Thank you! I downloaded it and got it to work. Not that you asked, but I do have a few comments.
The iPhone has that function hidden … had to scroll over, select “More,” and then scroll to the bottom of the list. I used it on three photos and it was the same for each - hope Apple will see fit to move it to where I can see it.
It was challenging to find the location where I photographed a crabapple tree. It was on Skyline Drive in Virginia, but I couldn’t search that as a location in iNat, nor did its named overlooks (which are in eBird and on Google Maps) come up when I searched them by name. I ended up searching for a town and then moved the map all over and took a stab at where I think Skyline Drive (a highly touristed, long road along a mountain ridge) is on the map.
I don’t see any way to change or fix the location if someone helps me get it closer to where it should be.
4.Unrelated, but slowed everything down: whenever I switched from my computer to my iPhone in order to get the photos etc, I can’t seem to log in without resetting my password - it’s not recognizing the last password I set on the other device.
Nevertheless, I’m excited that you are closer to providing iOS observers a way to export directly from our camera rolls. Hope these little bumps get ironed out. Kudos to the developers!
Glad you got it to work! A few responses that might help (noting that I’m just an ordinary iNaturalist user, not staff or developer):
Once you start to use this function, it should start to appear where you can see it.
For location, check your settings. The location should be obtained automatically from the phone’s GPS when you take a photo. You shouldn’t need to adjust this manually.
For now I’m not sure this is available in iNat Next, but you can edit the location on the website.
The same password should work wherever you log in, so if you can replicate this, you could file a bug report.
It does look like it is climbing up the list; great. Solved.
I don’t use iNat while in a park. I take photos, go home and download those that I want to keep, and then run a few of those through an ID program - ideally, iNat. (And then sometimes report known and carefully verified species on eBird.) So I’m not in the location where I hiked, at the time when I am identifying wildlife. So good maps are helpful.
Turns out it was an Apple issue - they wanted me to update my Mac’s OS. Solved.
In a park or nature preserve, I’m taking photos using a Nikon Z8 with 180-600mm lens. I take them home, cull them on my MacBook Air, and process the ones I like. In the meantime I also try to ID all the birds and do an eBird report, especially if anything might interest others.
The way I ID them is at home, I use my cell phone to take a photo of my photo that I’m trying to ID, on my computer screen, and then I click on the photo on my iPhone and export it from its camera roll to whatever app I’m using to ID the bird or animal or plant.
So for example, back in May, I had to ID this night heron - this new iNat update would have been useful then. I’m glad it’s being developed.
Or - here’s a red-eyed vireo from 9/11 - I had to ID it, and must admit I used a different function that is just two clicks to get an ID. I’d rather use iNat if I can easily enter location, because that will be more accurate.
Is there a reason you prefer to take cell phone photos of your screen and upload them on the app rather than uploading the photos directly from your computer to the website?
If you use the original files the detail will be much better and iNat can use the metadata of the photo to determine the time (and location, if your photos are geotagged). It may not matter so much for birds, but trying to ID small arthropods from photos of computer/camera screens is extremely impractical.
