My review of the OpenSea Mobile App scores a 3 out of 5 stars. A good first attempt, but could use some improvements.
Review Summary
- OpenSea's mobile app is a good first attempt, but doesn't make key stats on collections as front and center as I would like, making it difficult to track a portfolio on the go.
- The app doesn't allow you to buy or sell NFTs, so no impulse NFT purchases while sipping coffee at Starbucks.
- However, the app does have a clean UI and good performance making navigation quick and easy.
- The app also makes it easy to show off and share your NFTs using your phone.
What is OpenSea?
OpenSea is the largest marketplace for Ethereum based NFTs. OpenSea was founded in 2017 (considered old in the NFT world), making it the OG marketplace in this industry.
And the site has recently exploded in popularity.
It now ranks in the top 500 of all websites (yes, all websites, not just NFT related) according to Alexa rankings.
OpenSea’s monthly sales volume is now measured in the billions of dollars, as tracked by DappRadar.
Is the OpenSea mobile app available on iPhone and Android?
OpenSea now has a mobile app that is available on both iOS and Android. The mobile app for both platforms was released in September of 2021.
I went ahead and downloaded the OpenSea mobile app onto my Android phone.
I conducted this review on October 15-16, 2021.
If you are familiar with the desktop version of the OpenSea website, then navigating in the mobile app won’t seem jarringly different.
But there are a few key differences, such as the main menus being located at the bottom of the page.
OpenSea Home Screen. Menus are at the bottom of the screen
The app also puts the NFT category search right at the top of the page, which makes it clear to me that they designed this app for browsing NFTs.
NFT Categories are featured at the top of the Home page
The two areas on the app that I was most interested in were the “Stats” and “Profile” sections.
Stats
For anyone deep into the NFT space, we want to see statistics.
There is a stats section in the app, which is similar to the stats section on the normal desktop version.
When you click on “Stats” in the menu on the bottom of the page, you are taken to the rankings page for NFT collections.
Clicking on "Stats" takes you to the NFT collection rankings page
Here you can quickly see the top ranking collections along with the sales volume and daily percent change.
But the issue I have here is that they bury the floor price making you tap “More” to actually see it.
You need to tap "More" to see the Floor Price
Ok, maybe not a huge deal, but “degen” (degenerate) NFT investors like me love to see this sort of thing as quickly as possible.
Similar to the desktop version, you can tap on the collection name to see more information and view NFTs in the collection.
But unlike the desktop version, I can’t just tap on the floor price to see the actual NFTs that are at this price.
Tapping on "Floor Price" does nothing. A bit annoying.
To see the floor NFTs, I needed to open the filters in the app, click on “Buy Now” under the “Status” filter, and then have the “Sort by” filter selected as “Price: Low to High”.
These extra steps actually annoyed me.
You need to use the Filters to actually see the NFTs at the Floor Price. Kind of a pain.
A Note on NFT Statistics
NFT investors look closely at certain stats on a collection like floor price and number of unique owners.
The floor price is the lowest price item in a collection. If you hold an NFT in that collection, you can assume that your NFT is worth, at least, that floor price.
How that floor prices changes over time ... is it going up... is it going down... is an indication of increasing or decrease demand for that NFT collection.
Number of Unique Owners is also important as it can indicate if the NFTs are distributed over a large number of holders. For example, if the collection has 10,000 items with 5,000 unique owners, that means, on average, each owner has 2 NFTs.
The wider the distribution of owners the better. If the collection is too concentrated, then a few large owners could manipulate the price (by suddenly dumping their holdings).
Profile
The profile section of the app allows you to connect your wallet.
They currently offer 3 options:
- Metamask
- Trust Wallet
- “Enter ethereum address”
The last option, “enter ethereum address” just means you can copy and paste your public address into the app.
By doing so, you don’t officially connect your wallet, but you can see the NFTs that are associated with that address in the app.
I actually went with the ETH address option since I didn’t really want to officially connect a MetaMask wallet (the wallet I usually use) to the app for a couple of reasons:
- I don’t plan making any crypto or NFT transactions using my phone (for security purposes)
- You can’t buy or sell NFTs using the OpenSea mobile app anyway
Even if wanted to connected my wallet, given that you can’t actually buy and sell NFTs on the app, I don’t really see a good reason to do so.
l use MetaMask, but not on my phone (for security reasons, I don't want to transact on my phone), so I just copy and pasted my ETH address into the app (and you can only enter one address 🙁 ).
Here's what it looks like on my phone after entering my address:
The app shows the NFTs you've "collected" after connecting your wallet.
Final Thoughts
The OpenSea mobile app has relatively quick an intuitive interface, which is the main benefit of using the mobile app over just going to the opensea.io website on your phone (which is slow and clunky).
Given the app is pretty fast, it also makes it easier to share NFTs as these "share" icons are all over the app.
Share Icon
As far as connecting your wallet, I didn't see a good reason to actually connect my Metamask, as you can't buy and sell NFTs via the app anyway. So I opted to just copy and paste my ETH address into the app. I think there could be some improvements here.
I do have a bit of a bone to pick regarding the stats. I do hope they make it easier to look up and view key metics like floor price using the app as I know a lot of people like to see such stats.
Overall, the app was a pretty good first attempt, but I think OpenSea needs to put a bit more work into it to make it a top-notch mobile app for NFTs.
About the Author
Ed is NFTska’s lead Editor and Author based in the Los Angeles area. He fell deep down the crypto rabbit hole starting in 2017. Ed actively participates in and follows the fast changing NFT scene. Learn more about Ed.
