Crowdsource (app)

Upon launch, the Crowdsource Android application presented users with 5 different tasks: image transcription, handwriting recognition, translation, translation validation, and map translation validation.[6] The most recent version of the app includes 11 tasks: Image Label Verification, Sentiment Evaluation, Audio Validation, Smart Camera, Glide Type, Handwriting Recognition, Reading Charts, Trust in Charts, Translation, Translation Validation, and Image Capture.

Translation related tasks (translation and translation validation) are only shown to users who have selected more than one language they are fluent in.[7][5][4][6] While Maps Translation validation is no longer a task in the Crowdsource Android and web apps, users can still complete translation and translation validation tasks.[7] Translation presents the user with one of the languages they listed themselves as fluent in, and asks them to translate it into another language they are fluent in.[7] Translation validation presents users with a list of translations submitted by other users, and asks them to categorize them as correct or incorrect.[7] Both of these tasks help improve Google's translating capabilities, most notably in Google Translate, and any other Google app with translated content, including Google Maps.[3][8]

Image Label Verification allows users to select a word from a list of topics, such as "Cars, and then presents the user with a picture, asking the question "Does this image contain cars?". Users can select "Yes", "No", or "Skip" if they are unsure.[1][4] The data gained from this task is used to help read text within images for services like Google Street View.[4]

A similar task is available in the Google Photos mobile and web apps. However, unlike Crowdsource, the photos that are presented there are the user's own photos.[9]

Handwriting recognition relies on users to read handwritten words and transcribe them to text. According to Google, completing this task helps improve Gboard's handwriting feature.[3]

Sentiment evaluation presents the user with various reviews and comments, and asks them to describe the statement as "positive", "neutral", or "negative".[10] Alternatively, users can skip a question if they are unsure.[3] These evaluations by the users of Crowdsource help with various recommendation-based technologies that Google uses on platforms like Google Maps, the Google Play Store, and YouTube.[3][10]

This task asks users to confirm if a specific landmark is visible in pictures shown in the app. This task is designed to help ensure businesses and landmarks are recognizable in applications such as Google Maps. This task is now complete and no longer available.[11]

Audio Validation helps improve Google's Text-to-Speech technology.[1] The user is presented with a short audio clip in which a computer tries to read a word out loud. The user can then specify whether this is how said word would be correctly pronounced.

This task helps improve an algorithm to create captions for online images. According to the Google Crowdsource web app, "Verifying machine generated captions will help make images more accessible to people with visual and cognitive impairment".[12]

Contributed via Crowdsource, this Likoni Ferry picture now illustrates several Wikipedia articles.

When working on the Image Capture task, the user is presented with an interface to upload an image and add tags to it.

When using Smart Camera, the user can point the devices camera to an object, similar to how Google Lens is used. A dialogue opens when an item is detected. The app then says what it thinks it sees. The user can then confirm or deny this description. If the user confirms, the photo will be uploaded and you return to the beginning. If the user denies, an option to select why you denied and a place to add tags to the image pops up.

This task was added on May 17, 2020, to help improve the algorithm for Gboard's glide typing feature.

These two tasks were also added on May 17, 2020, as a collaboration with King's College and University of Vienna to measure the community's understanding and trustworthiness of different graph types. The task was completed the next day, May 18th, and closed.

Beyond the tasks that users can complete, the Crowdsource app has an "Achievements" section that shows users stats and badges which they earn through completing different tasks in Crowdsource.[7][3][13][14]

When users contribute to Crowdsource by completing tasks, Crowdsource tracks their total number of contributions, as well as metrics like "upvotes" which show how many of a user's answers are "in agreement with answers from the Crowdsource community,"[13] and "accuracy" which shows what percentage of the user's answers have been accepted as correct.[13]

As users complete tasks, they also receive badges. There are badges for each type of task, which track progress along that particular task (such as translation validation), as well as badges for other milestones, like completing a task while offline or completing a task given through a push notification.[14][7]

An April 2018 update to Crowdsource included a new "Image Capture" task in which users can take photos, tag them, and upload them to Crowdsource.[4] Users can choose to open-source their images, as well, to share them with researchers and developers not exclusive to Google.[15] In an interview with Wired Magazine, Anurag Batra, a product manager at Google who leads the Crowdsource team, said that the data gained from users completing this image capture task could improve Google Images, Pixel Camera, and Google Lens.[16] The latest update adds a 'back' button to change your previous response.

On January 21, 2021, an update introduced dark theme to the mobile app.[1] This update also changed the overall user interface significantly. A new task, Audio Validation, was also added.[1]