Review Insights · App Store
Merlin Bird ID by Cornell Lab
Cornell University · 108,455 ratings · ★ 4.9
4.9
★★★★★
108,455 ratings
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Top complaints - extracted from 14 negative reviews
Recurring phrases mined from 1-2★ reviews. The bigger the percentage, the more users have the same problem. Fix the top 2-3 in your version and you have product-market fit on day one.
1
"birds"
8 negative reviews mention this · 57% of all complaints
★★★★★ "What happened?. There's definitely been a downgrade at some point in the past several months. The app can no longer consistently pick up or identify birds that are calling loudly nearby, even with minimal background noise. Very hit or miss. By contrast, la…" - listopad516
2
"bird"
5 negative reviews mention this · 36% of all complaints
★★★★★ "What happened?. There's definitely been a downgrade at some point in the past several months. The app can no longer consistently pick up or identify birds that are calling loudly nearby, even with minimal background noise. Very hit or miss. By contrast, la…" - listopad516
3
"save"
4 negative reviews mention this · 29% of all complaints
★★★★★ "New Save is bad. I’ve used Merlin since the very early days and have loved it since the start but the change from automated Save to manual Save is really annoying. I’m running Merlin recording watching for it to recognize birds I am interested in. It recogn…" - Kb7689212
4
"loved"
4 negative reviews mention this · 29% of all complaints
★★★★★ "New Save is bad. I’ve used Merlin since the very early days and have loved it since the start but the change from automated Save to manual Save is really annoying. I’m running Merlin recording watching for it to recognize birds I am interested in. It recogn…" - Kb7689212
5
"been"
3 negative reviews mention this · 21% of all complaints
★★★★★ "What happened?. There's definitely been a downgrade at some point in the past several months. The app can no longer consistently pick up or identify birds that are calling loudly nearby, even with minimal background noise. Very hit or miss. By contrast, la…" - listopad516
6
"pick"
3 negative reviews mention this · 21% of all complaints
★★★★★ "What happened?. There's definitely been a downgrade at some point in the past several months. The app can no longer consistently pick up or identify birds that are calling loudly nearby, even with minimal background noise. Very hit or miss. By contrast, la…" - listopad516
7
"identify"
3 negative reviews mention this · 21% of all complaints
★★★★★ "What happened?. There's definitely been a downgrade at some point in the past several months. The app can no longer consistently pick up or identify birds that are calling loudly nearby, even with minimal background noise. Very hit or miss. By contrast, la…" - listopad516
8
"through"
3 negative reviews mention this · 21% of all complaints
★★★★★ "What happened?. There's definitely been a downgrade at some point in the past several months. The app can no longer consistently pick up or identify birds that are calling loudly nearby, even with minimal background noise. Very hit or miss. By contrast, la…" - listopad516
9
"love"
3 negative reviews mention this · 21% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Locked behind registration suddenly. Ah yes, nothing I love more than taking a hike in nature and hearing a rare bird, and then I pull out my phone and this stupid app hits me with an unskippable “register with your email to use the app” page. Nope. Bye." - Geralddddddt
10
"email"
3 negative reviews mention this · 21% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Locked behind registration suddenly. Ah yes, nothing I love more than taking a hike in nature and hearing a rare bird, and then I pull out my phone and this stupid app hits me with an unskippable “register with your email to use the app” page. Nope. Bye." - Geralddddddt
11
"works"
3 negative reviews mention this · 21% of all complaints
★★★★★ "New Save is bad. I’ve used Merlin since the very early days and have loved it since the start but the change from automated Save to manual Save is really annoying. I’m running Merlin recording watching for it to recognize birds I am interested in. It recogn…" - Kb7689212
12
"times"
3 negative reviews mention this · 21% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Stops working. The app only works a couple of times and then tells me to make sure microphone is on. Every time I check and every time it is. I’ve uninstalled and reinstalled. Still doesn’t work. I have tried this app 3 times in the last couple of years …" - Lgp6792
📋 All 14 negative reviews
Every 1-2★ review we fetched. Use the copy button to grab them all for your own analysis (paste into ChatGPT/Claude with a prompt like "summarize core user problems, group by theme, ignore bugs, focus on missing features").
Very incorrect ID
App repeatedly identified American Goldfinch as a a peacock
Locked behind registration suddenly
Ah yes, nothing I love more than taking a hike in nature and hearing a rare bird, and then I pull out my phone and this stupid app hits me with an unskippable “register with your email to use the app” page. Nope. Bye.
Stops working
The app only works a couple of times and then tells me to make sure microphone is on. Every time I check and every time it is. I’ve uninstalled and reinstalled. Still doesn’t work.
I have tried this app 3 times in the last couple of years and it’s always the the same thing, it tells me to turn the microphone on and it’s already on. Loved it when it worked.
I have tried this app 3 times in the last couple of years and it’s always the the same thing, it tells me to turn the microphone on and it’s already on. Loved it when it worked.
Used to be a useful tool but anymore it fails to ID rare for location birds. SO DISAPPOINTING!
The last 5 rare “for location” birds, the app failed to ID the birds. In each scenario, the birds called and sang for extended periods of time but the app never once gave an ID despite being able to see the tracing on the sound graph. During migration, we have rare sightings but unfortunately the Merlin App won’t be a tool we will be able to utilize anymore. I’ve even changed my setting to include all of North America to try to pick up those vagrant rarities and have removed the app, reloaded the app, updated the app and it still fails. SO DISAPPOINTING!!
Not user friendly and they spam you.
They make you go through a bunch of steps just to save one bird. By the time you get all of the mandatory “name this location” BS and finally hit save the other birds you want to identify will already have left. Half the time it WONT save your bird when you tell it to. They also force you to provide an email to save any birds and then add you to all of their spammy nonsense. The fact they make you name every location is just ridiculous, they already pinpoint the location (because you have to share that for them to even let you use the app) so why make us type a name for the place.
Can’t get past the email
I would like to say I love this app, because when it did work, it was great. However now I can’t get past the “enter your email” interstitial because someone involved doesn’t know how to properly validate email addresses in a mobile app, apparently. I have tried several email addresses of different sorts and none of them work, so now I’m locked out of the app. Very stupid.
What happened?
There's definitely been a downgrade at some point in the past several months. The app can no longer consistently pick up or identify birds that are calling loudly nearby, even with minimal background noise. Very hit or miss. By contrast, last summer it was able to identify two barred owls deep in the woods through the calls of thousands of katydids.
New Save is bad
I’ve used Merlin since the very early days and have loved it since the start but the change from automated Save to manual Save is really annoying. I’m running Merlin recording watching for it to recognize birds I am interested in. It recognizes a bird and then I do my best to see it and ID it. At the same time I’m trying to take a photo. I want to get a new recording too since the original one has been running for 15 minutes maybe. I stop the recording and press Save but too quickly nothing happens. Try again but nothing happens again, did I press the icon correctly? Try again and this time it works but the save isn’t quick because a lot to save. Start new recording. Bird has gone. Half the time I forget the save.
The old process was so much cleaner and seamless. I liked having all my recordings. Space on my phone is not an issue. This is a huge step backwards.
The old process was so much cleaner and seamless. I liked having all my recordings. Space on my phone is not an issue. This is a huge step backwards.
Eavesdropping app
Records all conversations while listening to birds. Impossible to delete prior to uploading.. assuming that personal conversational data is being sold or studied
Has bugs
I love the app but only 10% does it save the birds I identify. It’s a bummer
Used to be much better
This app used to work very well. Now it’s very slow in identifying birds that are pretty unmistakable. Sometimes, despite bird calls all around, it identifies no birds at all. Also, saving a bird takes too long. It often freezes or takes a few minutes and I lose interest. Right now I feel I’m more accurate than the app. I’m not sure what happened but it has gotten increasingly worse in recent weeks.And there are constant emails and “rate us” pop ups at annoying times, so I’m rating the app now!
Have loved rhis app but new update not working-so sad!
It’s stuck on finding bird of the day and won’t record. Please help!
Makes stuff up
The app was great when it came out but as time has gone on it has been frustrating to use as it is constantly identifying birds that just are there. I have friends who have noticed the same thing, not just me. It also won't pick up the sounds of birds that are clear as a bell.
Recordings don’t record
I loved this app and it still works well but I’m so disappointed by some of the updates. There is no longer a tab for your recordings (the main purpose of the app for me). And the recordings no longer automatically save. I didn’t know about this update and recorded multiple times in different intervals throughout my walk, only to realize none of them saved. I shouldn’t have to click through multiple buttons for a noise that happens in an instant. Very sad I lost some of my recordings from today
Sentiment summary
97%
Positive (4-5★)
1%
Neutral (3★)
1%
Negative (1-2★)