Stinger

Stinger Manual

Your apiaries and their colonies, one tap from the console.
Your apiaries and their colonies, one tap from the console.

Stinger is a voice assistant for managing your honeybee colonies: you talk, it keeps the records. Gloves on, veil down, phone in your pocket — say what you see and it becomes an inspection log, a reminder, a stock count.

Start here

  1. Install and sign in. Open the app, tick the box to accept the data terms and tap Sign In, then Continue with Apple, Continue with Google (or Sign in with Email; new without Google? Create account, then open the link in the email we send you before going further). One email address is one account: you can sign in with Google today and Apple tomorrow, and Stinger keeps it together (tap Forgot password to add an email password too). The one exception: if you let Apple hide your email, that is a separate account — keep using Continue with Apple for it.
  2. Start on the phone. The website alone cannot record inspections. If you made your account on the website and no phone is signed in, Stinger emails you how to join the beta and get the app.
  3. Trust your phone. Right after signing in — before anything else — Stinger asks Trust this device? On your own phone, tap Trust this device: this phone then gives your sign-in code for the web, with no other app needed. On a borrowed or shared phone, choose Not now. Next it offers a recovery number — a US or Canadian mobile that gets you back in by text if the phone is ever lost. Add it, or skip it and add it later on the Account screen.
  4. Create your operation. First time in, choose Register as Owner: enter your name and your operation's name (your "org"), then pick your operation's size — it sets how much Stinger says back to you, and you can change it any time in Settings. Joining someone else's crew instead? Choose Join Existing Crew and enter the code they gave you (it looks like ST-K4M), signed in with the email it was sent to. Already running your own operation and joining a crew as well? Open Join a crew — in the account menu, or in Settings if you have only your own operation — and enter the code the same way. Your own operation stays as it is, and Stinger offers to switch you to the crew.
  5. Already set up on another phone? Signing in asks for a 6-digit code: open Stinger on your other phone (Account → Trust this device shows it; before you have joined an operation, the Sign-in codes button on the welcome screen does) — the screen may call it your authenticator app. Old phone lost? If you added a recovery number, tap Phone lost? Text a code on that screen instead. To make the new phone your code phone, see The web app → New phone?
  6. Get ready for the apiary. When you trust this phone for sign-ins, it asks to show notifications (sign-in approvals and reminders). The first time you reach the console, a short Get ready for the apiary list asks for the microphone (how you talk to Stinger), location (how Stinger knows which apiary you are standing in) and the camera (say "take a picture" and the photo is taken hands-free), plus notifications if they are still off. Each has its own Allow button; you can skip the list and it comes back once. The bee needs only the microphone — anything else missing shows as a small marker you can tap to fix. To open the list again: Settings → System Configuration → Phone permissions.
  7. Talk to it. Tap the bee on the console (the app's home screen) to start listening. Speak naturally — full sentences are fine. Your words and Stinger's replies appear in the transcript — the running conversation on screen, like text messages. Each day you talked with Stinger starts with a date line (for example Tue, Sep 29, 2026 · 2:05 PM), so you can scroll back to a past day. Tap the play button beside a line you spoke to hear the recording.
The one habit that matters: say colony and apiary names exactly as you named them. Stinger matches names precisely on purpose — "Bench 3" is not "bench three-ish" — so records never land on the wrong colony. The names you'll see in examples — Workshop, Bench 1, Bench 3 — are ours; substitute your own.

Leaving Stinger

To delete your account: Settings → Account → Delete Account (if you are not in any operation, Delete my account is right on the welcome screen). Type DELETE to confirm; if you sign in with Apple, Apple asks you to confirm once more. Own an operation? Delete the operation first (Settings → Organization) — Stinger tells you before it asks Apple anything. Your account is then scheduled for deletion: nothing is removed for 30 days, and the only choices are Cancel Deletion or Exit. Sign in any time before then and tap Cancel Deletion to keep your account. After 30 days your account and sign-in are deleted, and Stinger disconnects from your Apple ID if you used one.

The chapters

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