Guides & videos
Getting started with Forest Assist
Forest Assist turns your iPhone into a forestry field notebook. It uses the phone's sensors — GPS, compass, camera, microphone, and LiDAR on Pro models — to record what you observe, where you observe it, and with no network.
This guide covers the first steps. Each module then has its own detailed guide. The app also guides you itself, with an eleven-step tour and "?" help in each module: see Getting started and help.
1. Three things to know before heading into the forest
Everything works offline
None of your field actions needs a network. Your data is saved on your iPhone as you go. You can work a whole day deep inside a parcel without a single bar of coverage.
Nothing leaves your phone without you
Forest Assist collects nothing, does not track you and sends nothing over the Internet. Your positions, photographs and voice notes stay with you. The only data that leaves the phone is the data you export yourself, when you decide, to the destination you choose.
Everything belongs to a domain
A domain is a forest property or woodland. It is the binder in which everything is filed: your parcels, your paths, your observations, your usual species.
2. The home screen
At the top right, a GPS badge permanently shows your latitude, your longitude and the signal accuracy in metres. Three dashes mean the GPS is still searching: wait a few seconds in the open.
Seven tiles lead to the modules, plus Settings at the bottom and, for the duration of the guided tour, the Getting started tile:
Each tile opens a module; the ↩ arrow always brings you back here.
| Tile | What it is for |
|---|---|
| Domains | Describe your properties and their contacts, place them on the map |
| Mapping | Survey your parcels and paths, by GPS or by hand |
| Observations | Photograph, dictate, measure a tree, survey a plot |
| Compass | Reach a grid point or a tracked tree, hold a bearing |
| Analysis | The statistical diagnostic of your plots, and its Word report |
| Tools | Measure distance, diameter and height with LiDAR |
| Export/Import | Get your data out (mapping, spreadsheet, backup) and correct it from Excel |
| Settings | Language, units, preferences, credits, hardware |
| Getting started | The guided tour, with your progress; the tile disappears when it is finished or hidden |
The detailed guide for each module is listed at the bottom of this page.
In every module, the ↩ arrow at the top right brings you back to this screen. Just to its left, the ? button opens the module's help.
3. The "Domain" banner: your working context
Below the title of most screens, a banner shows:
Domain: ⟨name⟩ ⌄
This is the active domain: the one you are working in right now. It determines what each screen shows you and where your entries are filed.
- Tap the banner to change domain.
- The Clear active domain entry resets it.
- Your choice is kept from one session to the next.
4. Your first half-day, step by step
- Create your domain. Name, city, postal code. Place the marker on the map — this is the point that will let the app recognise the domain when you are there.
- Set language and units in Settings if the values inherited from your iPhone do not suit you. Foresters often work in hectares and gradians.
- Draw at least one parcel in Mapping. This is the step that changes everything: Tree and Plot can only be recorded inside a parcel, and each measurement is filed there on its own, from its position.
- Record an observation: go to the spot, tap New observation, then enrich it — Photography, Voice note, Tree, Plot…
- Export at the end of the day. At the very least, make a full backup and store it safely off the phone.
5. Automatic filing of your observations
This is the most useful mechanism in the app, and it works without you having to do anything. It works at two levels.
The observation and its domain. When you tap New observation, Forest Assist looks for the domain you are in, in this order:
- Are you inside a drawn parcel? If so, it is the domain of that parcel.
- If not, is a domain close enough? The app picks the nearest domain, within the limit of the Indexing precision set in Settings.
This domain must be the one in the banner. Otherwise — no domain recognised, or one other than the active domain — the New observation button stays greyed out: change domain in the banner, or move closer.
The measurement and its parcel. A Tree or a Plot takes the parcel you are in at the moment of the measurement. A single observation — a round, a day — can therefore cross several parcels: each measurement keeps its own. Outside a parcel, the app tells you so and does not offer the measurement.
The observation's title is filled in for you: domain name, date, time. You can replace it with your own, and add a Description (optional).
6. Your credits
Forest Assist gives you 50 credits the first time you open it. One credit is used per recording action, and only for two of them:
| Action | Cost |
|---|---|
| Tree — a new tree or a remeasurement (new visit) | 1 credit |
| Plot | 1 credit per survey |
| Photography (or video) | free |
| Creating an observation | free |
| Voice note and its transcription | free |
| Viewing, correcting, exporting | free, always |
Your balance is shown in Settings ▸ General ▸ Number of observations, as remaining / total, with the breakdown by type of action just below.
Topping up: credits are bought in the app, through the App Store. Open Settings ▸ General ▸ Buy credits, choose a pack and confirm with Apple. Received a code? It is used in the App Store, through the link sent with it. Packs and prices: Credits.
Three useful points:
- Buying requires a connection; using credits works offline.
- Credits add up and never expire.
- They are linked to your iCloud account: your balance follows you from one device to another.
7. Permissions requested by the iPhone
The app asks for each permission at the moment it needs it, and explains why. None is used for any other purpose.
| Permission | Without it |
|---|---|
| Location | no geolocated entries, no track recording |
| Camera | no photography, no tree, no sighting |
| Microphone | no voice notes |
| Speech recognition | voice notes recorded, but not transcribed |
| Photos | photographs cannot be saved or deleted |
| Motion | no heading, no inclination, no vertical sighting |
| Contacts | a domain's contacts entered by hand (instead of imported) |
You can review them at any time in the iPhone Settings app ▸ Forest Assist. The Settings ▸ Device Configuration ▸ Hardware Features screen tells you, capability by capability, what is active, inactive (to be authorised) or unavailable on your model.
8. Where is my data?
| Data | Where it lives |
|---|---|
| Domains, parcels, observations, tracked trees, plots, notes | in the app, on your iPhone |
| Voice notes | in the app, on your iPhone |
| Photographs and videos | in your iOS photo library, album FA-⟨domain name⟩ |
An iCloud or iTunes backup of your iPhone includes the app and its data. For a copy you control, use Export/Import ▸ Export data (full backup) (Export/Import guide).
9. Frequently asked questions
Does the app work without a subscription? Yes. There is no subscription and no account to create, and field work is done offline (only buying credits requires a connection). You buy credits in the app when you need them, and they never expire.
Can I use it on several iPhones? Your credits follow you (they are linked to your iCloud account, not to the device). Your data, on the other hand, lives on the device: it does not sync from one iPhone to another.
What happens if I change iPhone? Restore your new device from your usual iOS backup: the app and its data come back. Your credits follow you through your iCloud account.
Is the GPS accurate enough under canopy? The accuracy shown in the badge tells you at all times. Under dense canopy, it degrades. For tracks, the app automatically discards outlier points and merges redundant points (Mapping guide).
In which languages? Ten: Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish, Swedish. The app adopts your iPhone's language, and you can change it in Settings.
Detailed guides
- Getting started and help — the guided tour and the ? button
- Domains — organising your properties
- Mapping — surveying parcels and paths
- Observations — photograph, dictate, measure trees and plots
- Compass — reaching a point or a tree, holding a bearing
- Analysis — the diagnostic of your plots
- Tools — measuring with LiDAR
- Export/Import — getting your data out, backing it up and correcting it
- Settings — configuring the app