EarthCape · Android (iOS in preparation)
Documentation
Every feature in the app, described in detail, with the screens involved at each step. Written against the shipping Android build; the iOS build, in preparation, follows the same design.
If you are opening the app for the first time, start with Your first survey. It walks through the whole loop once: download a map area, set the protocol, record, and export.
Map and terrain
Map and tile server
Why the basemap covers the whole planet, needs no API key and costs nothing. Basemap styles, terrain, contours, hillshade and 3D.
Offline maps
Downloading a working area and the world overview, what the sizes mean, offline mode, and managing downloaded regions.
Map tools
Measuring distance, elevation profiles, trail snapping, the feature legend, data layers, brightness and marker styling.
Tablet layout
How the layout opens out on a landscape tablet: split panes, the inline map toolbar and the wider map.
Recording
Recording observations
GPS status, track recording, observations, visits, localities, photos and the on-device taxonomy.
Forms and custom fields
Laying out a detail form, adding your own fields, and moving the configuration to other devices.
Survey protocols
The seven included protocols, how a protocol drives the form, and writing your own in the Protocols Studio.
Languages
Nineteen interface locales, how to switch, what is translated and what stays in the language you typed it in.
Getting data out
Export formats
All twelve formats, what each one contains, which tool to open it with, and where the files go.
Google Drive collaboration
Running a multi-person survey through a shared Drive folder, with no server and no EarthCape account.
Browsing your data
Lists, columns, filters, the Files gallery and the project taxa list.
iNaturalist
Connecting your account, reading your activity, and importing your observations into a project.
GBIF nearby species
Querying the published occurrence record around your position and downloading the taxa you need.
What these pages cover
Everything documented here is in the app as released. It has no advertising and no account requirement.