I have to make a lesson on the use of iNaturalist. I expect that those who will attend this lesson will be mostly totally new to iNat. This lesson is meant to be preparatory for an excursion in which participants will use the app.
I know the app version available in 2024 for Android.
I wonder if there have been important changes in the latest version(s) of the app for Android. I am afraid that I could show some features that could be obsolete.
By the way, which are also the main differences between the IOS and the Android apps?
I am also an educator, and created a whole sideshow as an introduction to iNaturalist for a public lesson gearing up for CNC…. and then the app changed haha! So I had to edit the large portion of the presentation - to my recollection, the most drastic differences were layout and placement of routes. The new app is, in my opinion, more intuitive, and not only works more efficiently but makes certain parts of iNat that were previously only really accessible on the website more accessible on the app (barring the identification side of things, which is difficult on the app). I am an iOS user so I can’t speak for Android, but my friend has iNat for Android and the layout does look quite different. Screenshots below.
As you can see, they look quite different, but the general basis of the functionality is the same. If you are formatting your presentation with a visual aide, I’d recommend adding the little icons (like the camera, microphone, etc.) and going through each one to explain to your audience! Of course, it also depends on the level - I was teaching this class to beginners and casual naturalists. Good luck! :)
If you go on a daytrip in an area without constant internet access, you better go for iNat classic. The new app is barely usable for longer trips in remote areas (without internet access), let alone for a day / week long excusion. Users from remote areas, and those that make trips e.g. to remote National Parks in developing countries, will have to stop inatting, when iNat classic is discontinued, without being replaced by a light-version that is light on battery, functions, storage and data use and able to hold at least 120-180 observations offline (that’s imho just enough for a day trip, so 8 times that, enough for a week, would still be better).
All such a light version really needs to do, is collecting, storing (both offline) hundreds of observations for later upload. While uploading the app needs to keep together the parts of each observation, which should be:
An id suggestion (iconic taxa and life only) working offline with a single click,
A comment line,
A captive/cultivated checkbox
And the picture(s) that include the location and time data.
Everything else can be done later with a fancy app that needs constant internet, or from the computer.
@mreith This sounds like it’s better to be handled as a series of feature requests. Keep in mind that there are some limits as to what can be requested. If you know anything about programming in languages used in the codebase for the new apps, you might also be able to contribute to them.
But yes, as a friend of several newer iNat users I always recommend the classic apps when available. iNat Next takes up to a minute to triangulate a location with a fixed “positional accuracy” (I never had this problem on the classic app from what I remember), so even with only positioning system access (no cellular data/ WiFi) it’s better to just use iNat classic. That minute is enough time for multiple animals to see me and get spooked, a wave to crash and displace a shell I wanted to observe next, etc. The classic app available to iOS, not even discussing Seek, tends to be better optimized in my experience for my aging phone and also allows more attributes of an observation to be applied to it before uploading like projects.
That’s the good part; at least both versions have basically most things the same with iNat Next having less features. When making an Introduction to iNaturalist slideshow fork of the original used as an example for iNaturalist Ambassadors, telling people what all the apps do and how they work might be helpful for people who don’t just want to use one version. You’re definitely going to be biased one way or another if you used multiple versions, but leave all options open for people you want to help use iNat.
I like this position a lot, and usually phrase it as such in my lessons too! The nice thing about iNat is that there’s multiple options and ways to use it, as well of course what to use it for, as we know. When teaching, I usually bring up the desktop version, the two app versions, and even going through Seek as a potential route depending on what the person wants to get out of it/what works best for them.
