Join the Earth Swarm test
Earth Swarm is an iPhone app, open to testers now. Take it on a walk, record the wildlife you find, and earn tokens for the jobs you do.
Free. iPhone only for now. TestFlight is Apple's own app for trying apps before they reach the App Store.
Three steps
- Install TestFlight from the App Store on your iPhone, if you do not have it already.
- Open the invitation on your iPhone, with the button above or the code, and tap Accept, then Install.
- Open Earth Swarm, read and accept the licence, and go for a walk. The app shows today's jobs near you.
The first time you open it, the app downloads its species model: a one-off 170 MB that lets your phone suggest what you have found, even with no signal. It waits until you are on Wi-Fi, so open the app at home first.
Got a code from a friend?
Open Earth Swarm, go to Profile, and enter it under Got a friend's code? When your first find is confirmed, you both get 200 tokens. Enter it before then: codes are for people whose first find has not been confirmed yet.
What testing means
New builds arrive often
We are improving the app every few days. TestFlight installs updates for you, or tells you one is waiting. Your finds, life list and tokens carry over.
Tell us what breaks
Take a screenshot in the app and TestFlight offers to send it to us as feedback, with a note. You can also send feedback from the Earth Swarm page in TestFlight.
Your data
The privacy notice says what the app collects and why. This site never shows where anyone is now, and every published find is placed on a grid, never as an exact point.
Places in a public test are limited. If TestFlight says the test is full, try again in a few days.
Travelling?
You can record anywhere, with or without signal: finds wait on your phone and send when you are back online. Outside the UK, finds are checked against records from GBIF, the worldwide biodiversity hub. Places, patches and district leaderboards cover the UK only for now.
Not on an iPhone?
Earth Swarm is iPhone only for now. Leave your email and we will tell you once, when it reaches your phone. We will not use it for anything else; see the privacy notice.
What you will be doing
Every confirmed find you make helps map the ecology of the places you walk, season by season, and the first record of a species in a place is yours on the map. How it works explains how a find goes from your phone to the map, and how it is checked on the way.