iBird Pro Guide to Birds 4+

New rating after developer explained issues

I’ve left my original review below for context. There were two things going on that relate more to Apple than iBird. First, in-app purchase are not part of family sharing. Thus, you have to repurchase on different devices. Second, any device using a family shared app but not using the purchaser’s Apple ID has to purchase the original app and the in-app items on its own. Thus, family sharing only works for the original app. In effect, it provides marketing for the developer to extend its sales.

To the substance of iBird Pro. It’s the best birding app available. Buy it and put up with the App Store hoops.

I had to buy in-app purchases a second time for my iPad after buying them for my iPhone. None of the in-app purchases are recognized on my wife’s iPhone and restoring purchases fails. Instead the app says she has to purchase the original iBird Pro on her phone (i.e., not really family shared)so she can purchase the in-app items — Again! The developer has not responded to my support email or to my post n the support forum. Neither did they respond to my original review. I appreciate the need to make money and how offering in-app purchases for enhancements to components that were once standard or for new components is a way to increase revenue but they need to be honest about family sharing and in-app purchases. It’s a good app and one I’ve used for years but the new version is buyer beware.

Developer Response ,

The family sharing of in-app purchases is not something we control--its based on Apple's policy which is explained in detail here: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203046. In part it says:

What you can't share
-Individual or student Apple Music subscriptions and other subscriptions.
-In-App purchases.
-Items that are no longer available on the App Store and iTunes Store.

Not having problems, plus an interesting story

We really like iBird Pro and have not had any problems with version 11.0 on iPhone 8 or iPad Air 2. The illustrations with field marks and photos help a lot with identifications. The bird sounds are also very helpful. My wife and I have enjoyed using it for several years, especially last spring when a Cooper's Hawk built a nest and raised a family in our neighbor's tree. A few months after the hawk family had moved on, my wife was in a nearby town doing some shopping. She came out of a store to find a large crowd gathered around her car. Thinking somebody had hit her car, she started walking toward the car until somebody warned her not to get too close. On top of the car was a Cooper's Hawk with a dead rabbit. Whenever anybody tried to 'shoo' it away the bird threatened them with loud calls and thrashing wings. My wife took out her phone, launched iBird Pro, turned the volume up loud and played the Cooper's Hawk alarm call. The hawk on the car looked surprised and puzzled, looked around for another bird, then took off carrying it's prey. Everybody was astonished and my wife was pleased and proud of her quick thinking. One of the women in the crowd asked loudly, "What app is that? I want to buy it!" You probably got several new iBird Pro customers as a result.

Pop ups

I like the app a lot. But recently I have been getting frequent pop-ups that I have to click on, otherwise I cannot continue with the app. The pop ups sometimes occur about once a minute. I don’t know if these are virus portals or actual pop-ups by iBird. In any case, I have to delete the app and reinstall to get rid of the pop-ups. It is almost near impossible to submit a request through the contact form. It requires information at the end that a person would not have at their fingertips, so then you have to close down the contact form, get the information and re-open the contact form. I had to do this five times. I have a feeling they make the form so complex you cannot submit it.

UPDATE: The pop-up issue has been resolved. The only glitch is that I cannot delete the last bird I searched for using the “X” in the search line. I have to backspace to remove it. Fortunately, I am now entering band codes. Is there a way to fix this? I don’t have this problem on other apps.

Developer Response ,

You can disable the only popup ad in the app by going to Settings and turn off "Show Ads". The single popup should only show once so this is not a typical behavior and I'd like to help you fix it. The form for submitting a ticket is a standard Zendesk format and the only way we can help you with your issue is to know what device you are using, the OS version, etc. You can try going to the help.ibird.com on your desktop if you are having trouble filling it out on your phone or ipad.