Atmosphere vs Bat Detector
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Atmosphere
Identify cloud types in real-time using your device's camera with AI. Analyze photos, import images, or classify clouds manually. This app processes data locally for privacy and does not require an internet connection.
- Live AI cloud classification
- Snap, import, or auto-classify clouds
- Offline processing for privacy
- Manual classification option
- No user tracking
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Live, AI Cloudspotter. NOTE: Newer devices are recommended for better performance in using this app. Recently got into the hobby of cloud-spotting? Ever wondered why different clouds have different looks? Atmosphere is the app for you. Leveraging on the latest machine learning and artificial intelligence technologies, Atmosphere classifies and tells you what kind of a cloud you are currently looking at, via your device’s cameras. Atmosphere includes the following features: ◆ LIVE CLASSIFICATION ◆ - Atmosphere processes each image frame from your camera using Artificial Intelligence, providing you with live classification results and confidence levels, of what it believes it is seeing. ◆ SNAP*, IMPORT* OR AUTO CLASSIFY ◆ - Take a picture of a cloud and that picture will be automatically classified according to the type of cloud it belongs to. - You can also import an image from your Photo Library for analysis by the AI. ◆ NO INTERNET CONNECTION NEEDED ◆ - This app processes everything on device, ensuring you all the privacy you deserve, while you spot the clouds. ◆ CLASSIFY IT THE WAY YOU LIKE IT ◆ - Artificial Intelligence can have its flaws at times, and when that happens, you can still take a picture of the cloud, and classify it yourself. ◆ NO TRACKING PRIVACY POLICY ◆ - Atmosphere does not, and will not track you. It’s that simple. Proudly Made in Singapore. Atmosphere is created by me, Vincent Neo, an individual developer. I believe that being curious about nature is amazing, and that this app would be able to tell individuals what cloud they are looking at, in an easy to use manner. Get Atmosphere Today! *In App Purchase is required for the picture taking feature. Prolonged use of app may decrease battery life more than usual, due to the heighten CPU usage when the camera is on, with live AI processing.
Bat Detector
Listen to and record the ultrasonic sounds of bats using your iPhone or iPad. This app reveals bat acoustics through heterodyne detection and 16x time expansion, making their calls audible and musical. It also offers full-spectrum recordings triggered by bat sounds.
- Heterodyne bat detection without manual tuning
- 16x time expansion for audible bat sounds
- Full-spectrum recordings triggered by bat sounds
- Real-time sound demodulation
- Preserves harmonic relationships in bat calls
- Supports European and global microbats
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Simply connect an inexpensive ultrasonic USB microphone to your iPhone or iPad and open your ears up to the extraordinary world of bat acoustics. Build a dedicated USB microphone for under £10 : https://shorturl.at/e2A3U - : or buy one pre-assembled and tested for about £65 that also operates as a standalone bat detector https://www.apodemus.eu/nl/Apodemus-Pipistrelle-Mini/00126 All European bats and most of the world's "microbats" navigate, hunt and communicate using ultrasonic sounds, too high-pitched for human hearing. Bat Detector reveals those sounds to human ears, and has two different methods to make ultrasonic bat sounds audible. HETERODYNE BAT DETECTION WITHOUT MANUAL TUNING Firstly, Bat Detector supports the classic technique of heterodyne bat detection. Heterodyning is a simple process that operates in true real-time, demodulating the bat sounds with a carrier signal just like an old transistor radio. Most heterodyne bat detectors require you to manually tune into different species, but Bat Detector operates without any manual tuning, instead it tunes into the strongest bat signal it can hear. The heterodyne process then turns any bats sounds it hears into percussive cracks, pops and slaps, or in the specific case of leaf-nosed bats such as Horseshoe species, strange alien warbles. These are often thought of as "bat sounds" - they are not. They are sounds synthesised by bat detectors using bat sounds as a source - rhe harmonic content of heterodyned sounds is distorted and mangled, and these sounds bear literally no relationship to the sounds the bats actually made. However, operating in true real-time means that the rhythm of the bats calls is preserved, and heterodyned bat sounds - despite sounding nothing like bats - are diagnostic and distinctive, so heterodyning remains an invaluable tool for all bat workers and enthusiasts. EXPERIENCE TRUE BAT SOUNDS FOR THE FIRST TIME WITH 16x TIME EXPANSION Time Expansion was previously a very high-end, expensive option. Time Expansion in Bat Detector operates in quasi real-time, capturing small snippets of bat sound and playing them back at 1/16 speed. 16 is a number chosen for two good reasons. Firstly it brings the bat sounds down to an easy range for human hearing, the sounds generated by Bat Detector range from between 1kHz to just under 7kHz. 16x Time Expansion preserves the harmonic relationships between the bat sounds, so it is a MUSICAL transformation. The bat sounds are not only slowed down but are transposed down by exactly 4 octaves. This means if a bat calls a C#, you will hear a C#, but 4 octaves lower. You will be surprised how beautiful and musical bat sounds are when time-expanded. When used in conjunction with heterodyning, and with the accurate frequency read out on the display, bat species identification is made much easier and more reliable. FULL-SPECTRUM 384kHz RECORDINGS TRIGGERED BY BAT SOUNDS When "RECORD" is engaged Bat Detector will trigger a 5 second full-spectrum recording at 384kHz whenever it hears a bat, or at least something that it *thinks* sounds like a bat. These are not the recordings of the sounds you hear coming from the detector, but are the sounds going INTO the detector - the true ultrasonic sounds that the bats made, too high for humans to hear. You will need specialist software to examine these files after you export them from your device to a computer. DEMO MODE FOR EDUCATION AND TRAINING If you want to experience bat sounds during the daytime, in a classroom environment, or when there aren't any bats around, just turn on Demo Mode in the Bat Detector section of the settings App, and Bat Detector will loop through a collection of bat recordings from Wiltshire, England. Alternatively, if you have recordings of your own that you wish to use, create a folder called Demo in Files->Bat Detector and Bat Detector will use these in Demo mode rather than its built-in recordings.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Bat Detector at 5.0 against Atmosphere's 4.1. Bat Detector also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 1) and update cadence (monthly vs every 3 months). Atmosphere's advantage is review sentiment (67% vs 40%) and ratings volume (72 vs 2). On price, ads, device support and iOS requirement there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Atmosphere sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Bat Detector asks for nothing beyond the download.
Bat Detector holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.1. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Atmosphere has 72 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 67% of Atmosphere's written reviews are positive against 40% of Bat Detector's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Atmosphere ships an update every 3 months, Bat Detector monthly. The most recent releases landed on September 5, 2026 and September 2, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Atmosphere | Bat Detector |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.1 (72 ratings) | 5.0 (2 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 66.7% of reviews — better | 40.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 72 — better | 2 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 months | Monthly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 14.1 — better | 15 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 42 MB | 136 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 9+ |
| Developer | Vincent Neo | Phil Atkin |
Customer experience
Atmosphere
Bat Detector
In-app purchases
Atmosphere
- Full App$1.99
Bat Detector
No in-app purchases









