Android capture with mobile phone

To enter capturing mode, tap Capture at the bottom of the app screen. Hold the phone horizontally—Mapillary uses landscape format. The bar in the middle of the screen will help you keep the phone level with the horizon. Tap the red Start button to the right and start moving. The app will start taking photos automatically. PS! Hold the phone steady in front of you. It’s you that is supposed to move, not the phone.

GPS fix is good, ready to start capture

The square icon at the top right shows whether the phone's compass or a fixed direction (indicated by an arrow) is used for recording the compass angle. 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.

You can see information about your phone’s GPS fix (top center) and the capturing mode (slider at the top right) on the screen. At the time of capturing, you can't switch capture mode so the slider disappears. You will see another round, white button appear at the bottom right. By tapping this, you can take an extra photo in addition to the ones that get captured automatically. When you feel like you’ve captured enough images, tap the red Stop button at the right.

Capturing in automatic mode with the best GPS fix (this message will disappear after a while)

The images you gathered in a go will form one sequence. You can take as many sequences as you like without exiting the camera screen.

The default capturing mode is 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 set the automatic mode to be based on time instead (in the settings that you access from the cog wheel at the left), which will take images after constant time intervals.

You can also use the slider at the top right of the screen and choose the manual mode, where you have to tap the round white button for every image you take. In that mode, there is an extra button under the capture button that you can use to mark the beginning of a new sequence.

Capturing in manual mode

When you feel like you’re done with capturing, tap the exit button at the bottom right (the rectangular one with an arrow). You will automatically be taken to the Upload screen which you will use to review and upload your sequences. You can begin your uploads and minimize the app. 

Note that Mapillary for Android does support background (picture-in-picture) capture. So if you want to use, for example, a navigation app simultaneously with Mapillary, you can minimize Mapillary and do so.