Step 6 of 15 · iPhone app
Run the day from an iPhone
A construction app for the iPhone earns its place by working in a plant room, so Estimark for iPhone is written in Swift rather than being this website in a wrapper, and it keeps its own database on the handset. Every screen reads from the phone, and every save is written there first and sent afterwards, so pressing save never waits on a bar of signal. Raising a snag opens the camera before it asks for a word. It is on the App Store, and the link is in the footer of this site.
- 01
Is this the website in a wrapper?
No. It is Swift and SwiftUI with no third-party code in it at all, and nothing on screen is a web page. It matters on site: a wrapper shows a spinner when the signal goes, because there is nothing behind it to draw. Here the screens are drawn from a database on the phone, so a job, its snags and the sheets already downloaded are all readable in a basement.
- 02
What happens when you raise a snag?
The camera opens first. You photograph or film the defect, up to ninety seconds of video, and the form comes afterwards. A description is drafted from the media and shown in a box of its own, and it is never put into your note: the operative’s words and the machine’s stay apart, so anybody reading the snag in a year can tell which is which. The snag exists on the phone before the server has heard of it, and its photos wait for it rather than being lost.
- 03
Can you talk instead of typing?
Yes, while you are photographing. Hold the phone up to the defect, say what is wrong, and it is transcribed as you speak, on the handset itself wherever the phone can do it rather than by sending the audio anywhere. The words sit there until you tap them into the note or into what-is-wrong; nothing is filled in for you. It is offered on photos and not on video, because a video recording already holds the microphone and two things cannot have it at once.
- 04
What happens to a save with no signal?
It goes into a queue on the phone and sends itself later. Nothing is sent straight from a button, so there is no request to lose when the signal drops mid-tap. The queue retries with a widening gap between attempts and holds what it cannot send rather than discarding it, and Settings shows how many items are waiting, when the last sync ran, and any item that failed with the reason it gave.
- 05
How does somebody get into it on a site?
Face ID, with a PIN that is set up whether or not biometry is. Wet hands, gloves, a dust mask and a repaired handset all beat a face, and an app whose only key is a fingerprint locks an operative out on a site with no way back in. Checking on to site is a QR scan at the gate, and that one needs a signal on purpose, because a check-in says you are there now.
- Built with
- Swift and SwiftUI, no third-party code
- Offline
- Its own database on the phone, with a send queue
- App Store
- Listed, install on an iPhone
What this step does not do
- Everything on this page is the iPhone app, which you install from the App Store. Two of these screens are narrower on the Android app: nothing drafts a description from the photo or the video there, so the operative writes the note themselves, and transcribing with no signal needs a language pack installed on the handset.
- Drawing markup is not built. The app can pin a snag to a sheet and cannot draw on one.
- The drafted description needs a signal, because it is written from media the server has to have received. It is a draft nobody is waiting on, so it is not queued for later.
Questions
iPhone app, frequently asked
Is the Estimark iPhone app on the App Store?
Yes. It is on the App Store, and you install it on an iPhone the same way as any other app. The web app still installs to the home screen if you would rather use that.
Are these screens on the Android app as well?
Most of them. The Android app is on Google Play, written in Kotlin and Jetpack Compose rather than Swift, and it is a native app with its own database on the handset: the camera opens first when you raise a snag, the queue holds what has no signal, and a PIN with fingerprint or face unlock gets you in. Two things on this page are narrower. Nothing drafts a description from the photo or the video, so the operative writes the note. And transcribing with no signal needs a language pack installed on the handset.
Does the drafted description overwrite what the operative typed?
No. The draft written from the photo or the video lands in a box of its own and is never put into the note. The operative’s words and the machine’s are kept apart, so anybody reading the snag later can tell which is which.
Approving site work from a phone usually means opening a job, then another job, then a third to find out whether anything is sitting on you, so the iPhone app has one list called Waiting on you that holds every decision across every site.
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