Mobile App Guide

The mobile app is where you spend your day. This page walks through the layout — what's on the home screen, how to move between sections, what lives in settings, and how the app behaves on iOS vs Android.

Quick Start

• Recent customers and addresses sit at the top of the home screen.
• Search bar finds any customer, address, or tree.
• The green + button (bottom-right) is always the capture entry point.
• Settings (gear icon, top-right) handles your account, org switching, sign-out, and the app version.
• Offline capture is not supported yet — you need a connection to take photos and run AI analysis.

Home screen

When you open the app, the home screen shows three things:

• Search bar at the top — type a customer name, address, or tree pin number to jump directly to it.
• Recent customers — the customers you've worked with most recently. Tap one to see their addresses.
• Recent addresses — properties you've recently captured at. Tap to land on the tree list for that property.

The bottom-right + button is the universal capture entry point. From the home screen it prompts you to pick (or create) a customer + address before opening the camera. From an address screen, it goes straight to the camera.

Navigation

The app is intentionally shallow — most flows are one or two taps deep.

1. Home → Customer

   Tap a customer card. You see their addresses (one per property they own).

2. Customer → Address

   Tap an address. You land on the tree list for that property — every tree you've captured there, sorted by pin number, with thumbnails.

3. Address → Tree detail

   Tap a tree row. The detail screen shows the photo carousel, AI-inferred fields, voice notes, and the markup tools.

4. Back navigation

   Use the back arrow at the top-left of any screen. On Android, the system back gesture (swipe from edge) also works.

The Reports tab (bottom navigation, where available) lists every PDF you've generated, organized by address. From here you can re-download, re-share, or regenerate a report with updated data.

Settings menu

Tap the gear icon in the top-right of the home screen.

• Account — your name, email, and password reset.
• Organization — the org you're currently signed into. If you belong to more than one, tap to switch.
• Notifications — toggle push notifications for report-ready alerts and team activity.
• Photo cache — clear the local photo cache. Use this if the app is taking up a lot of storage or photos are loading slowly.
• About — app version, build number, links to Terms and Privacy. The version string here is what to include if you contact support.
• Sign out — drops your session. You'll need to sign back in (password or biometric) to use the app.

Switching organizations

If you're a contractor working across multiple companies, you may belong to more than one organization. The org switcher in Settings shows every org you're a member of. Tap one to switch — the app reloads, and from then on all customers, addresses, and trees you see belong to that org.

You can only be active in one org at a time. There is no cross-org view (intentional — keeps customer data isolated).

Platform-specific notes

iOS

• Biometric auth — after the first sign-in, the app offers Face ID or Touch ID for subsequent unlocks. Enable it from Settings → Account → Biometric sign-in.
• Camera permission — required for capture. If you tapped "Don't allow" by mistake, fix it in iOS Settings → Tree Inventory AI → Camera.
• Location permission — set to While Using at minimum. Background location is not used.
• Photo library — the app does not write to your camera roll by default. Captures are stored in-app and synced to the cloud.

Android

• System back button / gesture — works as expected; takes you back one screen. From the home screen, it backgrounds the app rather than closing it.
• Storage permission — Android 13+ uses scoped permissions; the app requests only what it needs (camera + location).
• Battery optimization — for long capture sessions, disable battery optimization for Tree Inventory AI in system Settings → Apps → Tree Inventory AI → Battery → Unrestricted. This prevents Android from killing the camera mid-session.
• Notch / cutout handling — the app respects display cutouts and gesture-nav insets. If you see content clipped under a notch, file feedback with your device model.

Push notifications

Push notifications are opt-in. The first time the app needs to notify you (e.g. a long-running PDF report finishes), it prompts for permission. Toggle later from Settings → Notifications.

Notifications cover:

• Report ready — when a long PDF finishes generating in the background.
• Team activity — when a teammate captures or edits a tree at one of your shared addresses (org admins can disable this org-wide).

Offline behavior

The MVP is cloud-first. You need a working connection to:

• Capture a tree (the AI analysis runs in the cloud).
• Generate a report.
• Sync voice notes (Whisper transcription is cloud-based).

If you take a photo with no connection, the capture fails and the photo is discarded. There's no local queue yet.

In practice, modern LTE coverage handles most properties. Issues are most common in: rural acreage, dense suburban tree canopy (signal blockage), basements/parking garages, and Wi-Fi-only mode without a SIM.

Performance tips

• Clear photo cache periodically. Settings → Photo cache → Clear. Frees storage and speeds up scrolling through the address tree list.
• Force-quit if AI analysis stalls. If a tree has been "analyzing" for more than 30 seconds, swipe the app away and reopen. Pull-to-refresh on the tree detail screen re-runs analysis.
• Close other apps before long capture sessions. A property with 100+ trees is a lot of camera + GPS + network activity. Other apps competing for resources slow things down.
• Charge or carry a battery pack. Continuous camera + GPS use will drain a phone battery in 3-5 hours.

App updates

The app updates through the App Store (iOS) and Play Store (Android) like any other app.

• iOS: enable auto-updates in App Store settings, or update manually from the App Store updates tab.
• Android: enable auto-updates in Play Store settings, or update manually from My Apps & Games.
• The current installed version is shown in Settings → About. Compare against the latest in the store if you're troubleshooting.

We ship updates roughly every 1-2 weeks during the beta. Critical bug fixes go out faster. The app does not force updates — but if a server-side change requires a newer client, you'll see a one-time prompt.

Common Questions

Why doesn't capture work without a connection? The AI species + condition inference runs in the cloud (it's a vision model too large to run on-device). Until on-device models are good enough, capture requires a connection. Offline queueing is on the roadmap.

Can I use a tablet? Yes — the app runs on iPads and Android tablets. The layout adapts. Some arborists prefer a tablet for the larger screen during markup; most use a phone in the field.

How do I sign out of all my devices at once? Sign out from each device individually, or change your password — that invalidates all existing sessions.

Where do my photos go when I delete the app? Nowhere — the photos live in the cloud. Reinstall, sign back in, and your full inventory is there.

Related

• Getting Started — first install and your first tree
• Capturing Trees — the full capture flow
• Web Dashboard Guide — what the browser version is for
• Troubleshooting — fixes for common problems