iOS capture with mobile phone

To enter capturing mode, tap the Camera icon at the bottom of the app screen. The default startup is to capture with your phone camera. If you want to use external cameras, refer to this section for instructions. 

To start capturing, tap the Start button and just start moving. The camera will start capturing images automatically for you.

When capturing with the phone, hold the device horizontally—Mapillary uses landscape format. The bar in the middle of the screen will help you keep the phone level with the horizon. Hold the phone steady in front of you. It’s you that is supposed to move, not the phone. If you'd like, you can tap on the map icon to call up a map that shows you where you are capturing (note that this might use mobile data like any navigation app).

When you feel like you’ve captured enough images, tap the round button again to stop. The images you gathered will now form one sequence. You can take as many sequences as you like without exiting the capture screen, just use the same button again.

As you capture, you may also see an indicator of the phone’s GPS status. When the fix is good, the status indicator fades away after a while, so don't worry if you don't see it. If you have trouble finding a GPS signal and are therefore not able to take images, try to move a bit and get away from tall buildings and trees. If that doesn’t work, restart your phone and see if that helps.

When you feel like you’re done with capturing, just tap the Exit camera button at the bottom right. You will be taken to the Upload screen where you can review and upload your sequences.

Note that you cannot run the camera in the background for privacy reasons. So if you want to use a navigation app simultaneously with Mapillary, you can start the navigation app first and then start Mapillary. You will get notifications and audio from the navigation app while capturing.

Advanced capture

At the top right of the screen, you can tap on Advanced and access some advanced stats and options for the capture session (you can also just swipe to the left to get to that screen). You can see how many images you've taken and how much space and battery you have left. You can also switch between automatic and manual capture modes as well as see which cameras you have connected (and add more—see this article for more details).

The icons on the camera list show whether the phone's compass or a fixed direction is used (and in the latter case, which way the camera is facing). If you want to change that, tap the icon. We suggest that you use a locked direction, not the phone compass, since it normally results in more precise compass angles once you upload—provided that you keep the camera steady in one direction throughout capturing.

The default capturing mode is the distance-based automatic mode, which means that the app will take images for you automatically after you’ve moved a certain distance (based on your phone’s GPS) or rotated yourself a to a certain degree (based on your phone’s compass). You can alternatively choose the time-based automatic mode (go to settings for that) which will take images after constant time intervals. The automatic mode is great for walking, cycling, and driving.

If you switch to manual mode, you have to tap the round button for every image you take. In that mode, you will see an extra button under the round button, which you can use to mark the beginning of a new sequence. This mode might help you capture panoramas, objects, facades, and intersections.