This quick reference guide covers all the essential details of Survey123 Mobile allowing you to use it to its fullest in collecting data. For guidance on the Survey123 field app, see Quick Reference.
My workspace
When starting Survey123 Mobile and signing in with your ArcGIS organizational account, the app opens to the My workspace page. This is the table of contents for all of your currently installed surveys, although it is empty when first starting the app. Once there is a survey downloaded onto your device, you no longer need to sign in when opening the app.
You can use the search bar at the top of the page to narrow the gallery to only surveys that match a certain name.
Use the Add content button 
to open or browse content. Use the menu button in the top corner to sign out or view settings. When signed in, the menu button changes to your profile picture or to your initials if no profile picture is available. A green indicator denotes that your device is online. The indicator turns red when your device is offline. Open the menu to view information about your account.
Open
Content owners can share QR codes and links to their surveys and projects so that users can open them in Survey123 Mobile. For example, a content owner can distribute a QR code on a website or send a link in an email. To open content directly using a QR code or a link, tap the Add content button , and choose Open. Tap Scan a QR code to open the camera and scan a QR code, or tap Use a link to paste or type a URL. For more information, see Open content with a QR code or a link.
Browse
On the Browse page, all surveys currently accessible to your account and designated as available in Survey123 Mobile are listed by the date they were last modified. You can sort them alphabetically. In the following image, the survey at the bottom has been updated, indicated by the Downloaded label being replaced by the Update button 
:
To download a new survey, select Download 
. Choosing Update on a downloaded survey replaces the locally saved survey with the latest update.
Survey contents
You can access the survey contents page by selecting a survey from My workspace. Here, you can start collecting new data or access previously collected surveys from folders.
The options on this page include the Collect button and folders for records stored on the device as follows:
- Collect—Open a new survey response.
- Drafts—Open a list of draft surveys stored on the device.
- Outbox—Open a list of completed surveys that have not yet been submitted, either by choice or because the device was offline when submitting.
- Sent—Open a list of surveys submitted from the device. The Sent folder may not be present if it has been disabled by the survey's author. For more information, see Edit existing survey data.
The Menu button at the upper right contains the options to delete the survey from your device.
The Drafts, Outbox, and Sent folders have similar layouts, with standardized buttons and functions. The following image is of the Outbox, but all folders look and behave similarly:
The options in these folders are as follows:
- Select a record to open it to edit the existing response. In the Sent folder, selecting a record opens the record in view mode. By default, each record is identified by the raw data contained in the survey. To customize how each record is named, see Instance name.
- The location indicators show the distance and direction from your device's location to the record and update as you move. The indicators are visible only if your device's location is valid, and the record has a geopoint question and a valid location. When stationary, the cardinal direction to the record is shown instead of the directional arrow.
- The Zoom to button opens a map of all records, centered on the selected record. The Map button at the bottom opens the map zoomed to the extent of all records.
- The Delete button deletes the record from your device.
- The Send button in the Outbox submits all records currently listed in it. This button does not exist in the Sent folder; however, the Sent folder instead has an Empty button, which clears the listing of all sent records. It does not delete the surveys from the survey's feature layer. There is no equivalent button in the Drafts folder.
Survey
On the individual survey page, you can fill in the data requested by the survey's author.
Surveys are modular and designed for specific purposes, so the actual layout and presentation vary from survey to survey. However the header and footer—which includes the Done button in the lower right—remain the same throughout.
Languages
If the survey has more than one language assigned to it, the additional languages appear as options in the menu in the survey header. Select the preferred language to translate the questions and labels in your survey (when translations have been provided). The default language used is determined by the survey author. For more information, see Manage multiple languages.
Text questions
When you fill in a text question, a number appears below the lower right corner of the field. This number initially displays the number of characters that can still be input before reaching the maximum size of the field. You are stopped from inputting any more text once you reach this maximum.
Location questions
Location questions have two forms of presentation. Initially, they're represented by a location panel on the form. When you select the location panel, it expands to a full-screen map with additional locating functions and tools to pan, zoom in and out, and rotate the map. You can capture a point on either the location panel or the full-screen map.
The Average the position button at the bottom of the location panel for a geopoint question captures an average of locations rather than a single result when it's selected. You can also use this with an accuracy threshold to ensure that only reliable results can be used. For more information, see Location accuracy threshold.
Tip:
As you rotate the map, the true north direction is shown below the map menu. Tap this direction indicator to remove the rotation and orient the map north. You can also tap and hold the indicator to switch the display between true north, cardinal direction, and bearing (in degrees).
The callouts in the image above are detailed as follows:
- The Layers button
displays a list of layers within the map whose visibility can be turned on or off. - The Menu button
displays the basemaps, layers, bookmarks, and legend options. - The Location button
is first displayed in black, indicating that the location sensor is disabled. Select the button to switch to Navigation mode 
, enabling Location and tracking the device's current location. Moving the map marker from here, either directly on the map or by changing the coordinates, changes the location and coordinates of the answer, but the device's location remains visible as a pulsing blue dot while doing so. When this happens, the button switches to an Active Location button 
; select it to return to Navigation . - The Home button
returns the map marker to where the survey creator has defined a home location. If no home location has been defined, it instead moves the marker to Redlands, California. - The coordinates of your current location are listed here. Altitude is also included if it has been enabled for the question. For more information, see Geopoints.
- The Map gallery allows you to change the map that is displayed.
Lines and areas have two methods: sketch and vertex. The survey author defines which method is used by a survey. The user responding to the survey in either Survey123 Mobile, the web app, or the field app, cannot choose between the two. For more information, see Capture lines and areas.
Image questions
Image questions with the default appearance initially display two buttons: one to activate the camera to take a photo, and one to select an image from device storage. If the device has no camera installed, only the button to select an image from storage is available. Once an image is provided, the question displays buttons that allow you to delete the image from the survey and open the options window with choices to delete and rename the image, and for multiline appearance, duplicate the image. For information about appearances for image questions, see Appearance.
When using the camera to take a photo, depending on the device, the buttons included allow you to turn the flash on and off, switch between connected cameras (rear- and front-facing, and external), and adjust the zoom up to a maximum of 10x. Zoom levels are defined by each camera and may differ.
Repeats
A repeat is a set of questions that can be filled out multiple times. For example, a repeat can be used to record the name, age, and gender of every person in a household.
A repeat can be presented as a collapsible section that allows you to navigate through the records in sequence. Alternatively, a repeat can be presented as a table. In the tabular view, records in the repeat are presented as rows, and questions in the repeat are presented as columns. The tabular view allows you to edit data directly in its cells and sort and navigate records in the repeat. The following image shows a tabular repeat that records the asset type, age, and condition for multiple assets:
The callouts in the image above are detailed as follows:
- Tap the menu button for each row to access the Edit in form view, Copy to new record, and Delete options.
- The read-only icon indicates that a question (column) cannot be edited in the tabular view.
- Tap a column header to sort the tabular view in ascending order and, optionally, do the following:
- Tap the column header again to sort in descending order.
- Tap the column header a third time to turn off sorting (reverts to the original row order). Alternatively, tap another column header to sort on that column.
- Tap in a cell to edit its value. Only some question types can be edited in the tabular view.
- Tap the clear button in a cell to delete its value.
You can also edit individual records in a separate, fully featured form view. To open a record in form view, tap the menu button for the row you want to edit, and choose Edit in form view.
Settings
Accessed from the Menu button on the My workspace page, Settings contains a number of options and choices to customize Survey123 Mobile. These are described below.
Personalization
The Theme option allows you to choose a light or dark app theme. If the system theme is chosen, the app theme will change when the device theme is changed.
The Gallery view options change how content in the workspace is displayed. List view is best when there is a lot of content in the workspace and scanning a single line of key information is sufficient. Table view is the most compact view and is best when there is a lot of content in the workspace and the content title is sufficient to distinguish it. List view displays the thumbnail, title, and publish date and fills the full width of the screen. Grid view shows a larger thumbnail, title, and publish date in the form of cards that are tiled to fit the screen.
The Measurement units option changes the unit displayed in the app between Metric and U.S. Standard.
Location providers
For each location provider known to Survey123 Mobile, you can configure the settings described below.
Information allows you to give your location provider a custom name. By default, the name returned by the device is used. If you do change the name, you can still see the name returned by the device in the details. You cannot change the name of the internal provider.
The Alerts options allow you to configure how Survey123 Mobile informs you when it fails to capture a location. By default, Survey123 Mobile displays messages and uses text-to-speech announcements to inform you. The option for vibration alerts is also available, but it is disabled by default.
Antenna height allows you to define the distance from the antenna to the ground surface. This value is subtracted from the altitude values captured in the survey.
The Altitude options allow you to ensure that values returned from your GNSS receiver are stored with the expected reference. Altitude values are generally poor, unless you're using a purpose-built receiver. Only modify these options if you are using a suitable receiver. Refer to your GNSS receiver's manufacturer specification for more information about necessary altitude settings.
Diagnostics
The Diagnostics page allows you to log information to a file or to a console on the network or online. For more information, see Troubleshoot.