Using the Akvo Flow app

Only have a few minutes? Start using your Akvo Flow app to capture data in 5 easy steps:

Install the Flow app

We are excited you decided to use Akvo Flow to capture your data. Start by installing the app to your smartphone or tablet.

1. Make sure your device allows you to download and install third party software. You can enable the setting Unknown sources in Settings > Security (or Applications).
2. Open the internet browser on your device.
3. In the browser address bar, type the address of your Flow online space, and add ‘/app2’. For example, if your organisation is called ‘care’, this would usually be ‘care.akvoflow.org/app2’.
4. Confirm. This will download the latest version of the Flow app directly. You will see the download icon in the notification bar at the top of the screen.
5. When the download is complete, draw down the notification bar from the top of the screen and click on the notification.
6. Click Install. Once the installation is complete you can open the app.

Sign in

Once you open the app for the first time, you need to create your user name and ID of your device. This device ID will be used to identify the device on the Flow online space when assigning surveys.

Select survey

To start collecting data you first you need to select a survey. Your device may have one or multiple surveys assigned to it. Each survey is created in Flow's online workspace and then assigned to devices. These are then sent to your smartphone or tablet, if you are connected to the internet. You can also always get a survey to your device offline.

To select your survey open the side navigation menu and select a survey from the list.

Capture data

It is time to capture data. To fill in a new form, click on the ‘+’ icon.

If you have a non-monitoring survey, you will access the list of questions directly.

For monitoring surveys, you can either register a new data point or update an existing one to capture change over time.

To create a new data point, click on the '+' icon. You will see a list of forms in this monitoring survey. Select the registration form to capture a new data point.

To submit data that shows change over time, you simply select the data point you want to update from your list. You will see the list of available monitoring forms and the registration form greyed out as it is already submitted for this data point. Select your form and answer the questions.

Submit data

Don't forget to submit your form once you have completed it.

A submitted form is locked to prevent further editing, and uploaded to the Flow server (green icon). If you are working offline or your internet connection is slow, the form is queued in the phone (orange connectivity icon) until connectivity is restored, when the data will be sent to Flow.

You can also capture data fully offline and upload it to your Flow’s workspace using bulk upload.