Life List by NatureGuides User Reviews

Top reviews

Exporting lists does not work

Okay in terms of recording lists, however the export function does not work, impossible therefore to back up your list which is vitally important.

Ordering

I think the bird ordering in Taxonomic should mirror the Collins Bird Guide.

Lots Of Stuff Missing

What's there is OK; trouble is there isn't much there. Very basic. Needs a lot more (eg maps of filtered sightings, better/more flexible location handling, long long list of missing features.

Development seems to have stopped, which is a real shame as database structure is good, UI hood, it's just like it was rushed out long before it was finished and bean counters said "can't afford more work on it". It' shortcomings reflect badly on the other apps from same developer, as this app is meant be be closely linked to Collins Bird Guide (sort of in in a crude way) and BWP (they say it is but it isn't and development stalled on that app as well!)

One excellent feature (only reason for 2 stars) is you can export and import your lists - excellent feature as bird recording is lifelong and apps are not normally and change so moving historical daya is crucial.
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Update photos

Good app , simple and easy to use . Please add photos to all the birds .

Clunky, slow and ‘buggy’

This app needs a lot more development and testing. Delete a sighting, you get dumped out of the app. Want sightings on one list to automatically update to another (eg your Hond list to your year list)? Nope - either edit every individual entry and add to a second list, or export to CSV and import to the other (which as others have noted is a bit buggy).
Nice features, like maintaining an automatic life list, overshadowed by the clunky manual handling of each data entry, making it pretty much like an iPhone version of a paper notebook. Opportunities missed to make this smart. .
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Needs changes

Most American Bird pictures on the app

Doesn’t work on iPhone 15 pro

Downloaded this App along with Collins App update but unfortunately it’s currently useless as only a white screen appears! This has been reported to Natureguides and hopefully a fix is on the way.

This bug has now been resolved

Response from developer

Thanks for being in touch with us to report the issues with the newest iPhones. This issue was fixed in the last update and we hope you're now happy with the app. Do get in touch with us again with any more feedback. Thanks

Why login?

I lost my notes when updating the Collins British Bird Guide app. The only way to get them back it to use this app, seemingly. But now I have to link my Apple ID to use it, both apps on the same phone. I’m not syncing this with other devices. I don’t use my Apple account to log into non-Apple apps. So now I’ve lost a function of the app.

Second point: my Bird app main language is set to English (Collins) but this isn’t available in this new app. There are differences in names between the English languages.
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Very disappointing

Long time Collins Bird Guide user. Extremely poor design - no simple way to view a species and see which lists it’s in or to compare lists. Contradictory list contents following import from the old app . Appears to have been designed to record sightings, of little use as a list keeping app. All we want is to view a list of species (as in the original app) and choose which lists to add them to, with perhaps the option to record date & location. Deleting it (and also hesitating to pay for the new Collins edition as this experience has been so disappointing/frustrating).
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Response from developer

We’re sorry to hear about the issues you’ve been having with the app. You can still use the Collins app to find species and add sightings. Each species has a (…) button where you can add a sighting or see your existing sightings. Lists are also still supporting in the filtering feature. Do feel free to get in touch using the email buttons in either app for help with migrating your old lists, or if you have any other feedback. Thanks

In need of improvement

I kept lists of bird sightings on the Collins App, creating a new list every time I went out and the lists were in date order. Now the lists have been imported to Life Lists they are in a completely random order, with no obvious way to order them either alphabetically or by date. The ability to order lists would be a huge improvement to what looks as if it could be a useful app.
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Response from developer

Thanks for your feedback. You can now order the lists using the (…) button on the Home Screen. Inside the lists the same button can order sightings alphabetically, chronologically and so on.

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