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Life Observer

Put Life Observer on your phone

Log a sighting where you saw it — from the trail, with the camera already in your hand.

Life Observer

Free · no app store · works on any phone or computer

iPhone and iPad

  1. Open lifeobserver.com in Safari.
  2. Tap Share — the square with an arrow.
  3. Tap Add to Home Screen, then Add.

Safari is the only browser on iOS that can do this. Chrome on an iPhone cannot.

Android

  1. Open lifeobserver.com in Chrome.
  2. Tap Install now above, or the menu › Install app.
  3. Confirm with Install.

Computer

  1. Chrome or Edge: click Install now, or the install icon at the right of the address bar.
  2. Safari on a Mac: File › Add to Dock.

What you get

  • Opens full screen from the home screen, straight to your sightings.
  • Share a photo into it. From your camera roll, tap Share and pick Life Observer — the sighting form opens with the photo already attached, ready to identify.
  • Long-press the icon for Add a sighting, My sightings and Life list.
  • Pages you have already opened still load without a signal.

What it still needs a signal for

  • Saving a sighting.
  • Identifying a photo.
  • Opening a sighting you have not looked at before.

Sightings are not queued up on the phone for later. Out of range, the honest move is a note on paper and five minutes at the car park.

Photos are never stored on the device. They are fetched fresh every time. A cached copy would outlive a share you revoked, and would be readable by anyone else holding the phone — being offline is worth less than that.

Removing it

It is a normal home-screen icon: press and hold, then delete, exactly like any app. Nothing is left behind on the phone, and your sightings stay on your account.