OpenBat
Niall Bell Education iPhoneiPadiPod touch
OpenBat is a free Education app for iPhone and iPad by Niall Bell. Requires iOS 18.0. Updated September 22, 2026.
- Price
- Free
- on the App Store
- Size
- 52 MB
- Age 17+
- Updated
- Sep 22
- 2026 · v0.9.8
Screenshots
About OpenBat
OpenBat is a free iOS app that turns a compatible ultrasonic USB microphone into a live bat detector. It captures audio at up to 384 kHz, shows a real-time spectrogram, detects individual echolocation pulses, and, where an open-source model exists for your region, suggests species IDs on-device. Currently covers the US and Canada, with UK/Europe in beta. ** Bat detection requires an external ultrasonic microphone. Visit OpenBat.app to learn more. ** Hear bats in real time OpenBat uses two ways to turn ultrasonic bat calls into sound you can actually hear: - Heterodyne: tunes into a band of frequencies and scales it down. Preserves rhythm and loudness, but can sound clicky. - Time expansion: records a call, then plays it back at a fraction of the speed. Preserves the character of the call, but not the rhythm. - Het + TE hybrid: both running at once. Analyse your recordings Record what you hear, then break down the calls in Playback. Extract the parameters used to identify species, save them for later, or post recordings straight to iNaturalist for the community to help confirm an ID. Learn about bats AutoID suggests which species might be around you in real time. The Field Guide covers bats in your area and worldwide, curated by bat experts and kept up to date — and if you know your local bats, you can contribute too. Share it, or keep it to yourself Play the bats you're hearing through your device's speakers, or plug in headphones and listen alone.
What’s new
Version 0.9.8 · Updated September 22, 2026
Continuing to improve OpenBat and add additional features! New: - A blog in the field guide which read posts from openbat.app and see where they're about, pinned on the guide's globe alongside species. - Blog posts with locations are now shown on the globe. View them by tapping the filter wheel and rotating (imitates an old-style het detector). - Favourite recordings in the player so that they appear in the demo mode. - Re-run the classifier on any recording by enabling classifier mode and tapping a recording in the session (only visible in advanced mode). Improved: - The list of calls from a session now shows the name and best guesses for each one, plainly numbered, instead of a picture that could only be drawn for a few of them. - Added endorsement and affiliation notes next to each of the included models. Made license terms clear. Fixed: - Long calls are measured properly rather than being cut short by a display setting. - Opening a past recording during a live session no longer crashes the app, it offers to end the session first. - Fixes to the BatDetect2 (not endorses or affiliated with OpenBat).
App privacy
The developer, Niall Bell, reported these privacy practices to Apple.
Data Not Collected
The developer does not collect any data from this app.
Alternatives to OpenBat
Looking for apps like OpenBat? Here are 6 similar apps on the App Store. The highest rated is Birdly - Bird memorisation (5.0/5), and all 6 are free to download.
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Bat Synth
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Birdly - Bird memorisation
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Bat Detector
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Paige - Learn braille
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Memory Games For Kids
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MySolent
| App | Rating | Price | Last updated | Compare |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OpenBat | – | Free | September 22, 2026 | |
| Bat Synth | – | Free | Jul 25, 2026 | Compare |
| Birdly - Bird memorisation | 5.0 / 5 (1) | Free | Feb 4, 2026 | Compare |
| Bat Detector | 5.0 / 5 (4) | Free | Apr 30, 2026 | Compare |
| Paige - Learn braille | 4.6 / 5 (13) | Free | Oct 19, 2026 | Compare |
| Memory Games For Kids | 4.0 / 5 (13) | Free | Sep 5, 2025 | Compare |
| MySolent | – | Free | Apr 29, 2025 | Compare |
Compare OpenBat with the top alternatives: ratings, updates, ASO score and keyword gaps →