With SoundCloud connection broken, what is best workflow for Audio observations from iphone?

General
1

I have been using SoundCloud to aid in audio observations for years now, but the connection seems to have been broken in the last week, with possibly no solution available. I need to figure out a new workflow for doing sound observations, but the only way I immediately know of is cumbersome:

  1. Record a sound in the AudioCopy app. In the inaturalist app add an empty observation with a note of the name of the sound recording.
  2. In AudioCopy, select “OpenIn”, then select mail, then select an email address from a list, then send.
  3. On the computer Open gmail, open the mail and save the attached sound file to disk.
  4. In inaturalist go the observation and select edit and attach the sound file from disk.

This flow is cumbersome. I guess the main issue is getting the sound file from my iPhone to the PC more easily. Any thoughts on how I could do this?

2

The next update to the iOS app will include a built-in sound recorder so you can make a new observation and record a sound all in the app. Unfortunately you won’t be able to import sounds that are already on your device into the iNat app.

My current workflow is similar to yours but:

  • I use the built in voice memos app to record sounds then use airdrop to send them to my mac (won’t work if you use a PC, alas), so that removes email from the process.

  • you don’t need to click on “Edit” to add a sound via the web, just click on the “add image” icon on the observation as shown in this video: https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/video+tutorials#addmedia

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When is this update expected?

4

Can’t say for sure, unfortunately, it’s currently in beta testing.

5

I use Birdnet to do most of my audio recording, even if it is not a bird. My workflow is:

  1. Record and save an observation on Birdnet.
  2. Save the recording to a folder on my phone’s files.
  3. Create an observation without photo in the iNaturalist app.
    4.Open iNat in Safari and add the audio to the observation from the web.

It used to be a lot easier when I had an Android, but this workflow is the best I can find on iPhone. For a while none of my Birdnet files would save properly and it was an issue but it works fine now.

6

On android, i share audio observations by simply selecting the audio i record from the pre-existing sound recording app, tap on the “share” option and then select iNaturalist. Would this work on iOS too?

7

It does not work on iOS. As far as I know the iOS iNaturalist app cannot handle audio files. I also have not been able to share directly from my files or photos to iNat…I have to go into the app and select a photo from there.

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8

I only recently started using iOS to make sound observations, so I do not know if this is the best workflow. But, it does work (e.g., https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/72231650).

I use Voice Memo to make a Recording with the iPhone. After any file editing, I Save to Files and upload to iNat as follows (more or less):

In Voice Memo

  • Click the horizontal 3-dot menu in the lower left
  • Click Save to Files

In iNaturalist website ~ Add Observation
(AFAIK, the iOS app cannot handle audio files)

  • Click Choose Files
  • Click Browse from the pop up menu
    ( iNat may open to Folder files, or open to the last Folder used)
  • Select the audio file to upload and complete the observation fields.

Let me know if screenshots of this process would help.

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