Frequently Asked Questions

Everything we have been asked enough times to write down.

Last updated: 03/10/2026.

Getting started

How do I install the app on my phone?

COM is a Progressive Web App (PWA), not a native app — there's nothing to install from an app store.

• Android (Chrome / Edge / Brave): open our website; an "Install" button appears in the bottom-right corner. Tap it. The icon lands on your home screen and behaves like any other app.
• iOS (Safari): Apple does not show an automatic install prompt. Open our website, tap the Share icon, then Add to Home Screen. The icon shows up alongside other apps.
• Desktop: the same install button shows in Chrome/Edge/Brave on the right of the address bar.

Do I need an account?

No. COM has a guest mode: open the site, hit the camera button, log an observation. It stays on your device until you sign in.

Signing in (magic link, Google, or 6-digit OTP code) gives you:

• Cloud sync — observations live in your account and survive a phone reset.
• Sharing — others can see and comment on your observations.
• Activity feed and badges.
• API tokens for programmatic access.

A "convert guest to account" flow runs the first time you sign in: any local observations get attached to your new account.

Is it free?

Yes. There are no subscription fees, no ads, no upsells. The data you contribute is published under a per-record Creative Commons license you choose (BY 4.0 by default).

Identification

Why don't I see identification suggestions?

The most common reasons:

• No PlantNet key configured. Sign in, go to Profile → Edit, and add a free PlantNet key (my.plantnet.org/account). Without a key, the cascade skips PlantNet and falls through to slower / opt-in plugins.
• Offline-only cascade. If you're offline and don't have any on-device models downloaded, the cascade has nothing to run. You can still log the observation without an ID; the cascade re-runs when you sync.
• Photo too dark / blurry / cropped. Identifiers like PlantNet fail silently on photos with no recognisable subject. Retake closer or with better light.

How accurate is identification?

It depends on the taxon and the photo:

• Butterflies — Gemini Flash identifies images with high accuracy using high-resolution photos and geographic location context.
• Plants — using PlantNet in the cascade, it is correct 70–90% of the time on clear photos of a flower or leaf (less accurate for habit shots or fruits out of season).
• Birds — recognises photos via vision and calls via BirdNET-Lite, very effective on its 6,000+ global species when the audio is clean and the bird is in range.
• Other groups (caterpillars, other insects, fungi) — Gemini Flash identifies images aided by the date and coordinates of the sighting.

The cascade reports a confidence score with every ID. Below 0.4 we flag it as "low confidence" and don't promote the observation to research-grade. Above 0.4 it's still your job to look at the photo and decide whether the guess matches what you saw.

Can I correct an identification?

Yes. On the observation form (or after the fact, on the observation detail page), edit the scientific name field and save. Your manual entry overrides the AI's guess; the original AI suggestion is kept in the identification history for transparency.

Audio

Why does BirdNET ask me to download something?

BirdNET-Lite is the on-device audio identifier (Cornell Lab of Ornithology; CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). The model file is ~50 MB. We download it once, the first time you record audio, and cache it locally. After that:

• Identification runs entirely on your phone.
• No audio leaves your device.
• It works offline.

Privacy and data

Where do my photos go?

It depends on whether you're signed in and whether you've triggered an identification:

• Signed in: photos upload to secure cloud storage and are linked to your observation row in Supabase. Default visibility is public; you can mark an observation as obscured for sensitive species.
• Guest / offline: photos stay in your phone's IndexedDB outbox until you're online and signed in.

Can I delete my account?

Yes. Sign in → /profile/edit/ → Delete account.

Offline and sync

What happens if I observe without signal?

• The observation, photos, and audio are saved to your phone's IndexedDB outbox immediately.
• A small "pending sync" indicator appears in the avatar dropdown.
• When the next network request succeeds, the outbox flushes.

Can I use the API?

Yes. COM exposes a REST API and a Model Context Protocol server for tools and agents.

Last updated: 03/10/2026.