Motion & Orientation Sensor Tester
Free motion sensor tester. Fully client-side.
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What is Motion & Orientation Sensor Tester?
The Motion & Orientation Sensor Tester reads the DeviceMotion and DeviceOrientation APIs on phones and tablets and shows the raw values live: acceleration and gravity on three axes, rotation rates, alpha/beta/gamma orientation angles and a compass heading where the browser reports one. iOS 13+ permission requests are handled with a tap, updates are throttled to animation frames, and nothing is recorded or transmitted.
Key Benefits
- Verify motion hardware works without installing a native app
- Real device values for debugging sensor-driven web features
- One-tap handling of the iOS 13+ motion permission dialog
- Smooth animation-frame updates instead of janky event spam
- Compass heading support where the browser provides it
Common Use Cases
- •Checking whether a second-hand phone’s gyroscope still responds
- •Debugging a web game or AR feature that reacts to device tilt
- •Comparing sensor output across Android and iOS devices
- •Recalibrating expectations for compass-based navigation features
- •Demonstrating device APIs in a mobile web development class
How to Test Phone Motion Sensors
- Open the page on your phone: This tester is designed for touch devices with motion hardware. Open it in the phone browser for the most accurate readings.
- Grant sensor access: Press Start sensors and allow the motion permission. On iOS 13 and later the browser asks explicitly, and the tool handles that request.
- Read the live values: Tilt and move the device to watch acceleration, gravity, rotation and orientation values change. Compass heading appears where the browser reports it.
Key Features
- Live acceleration and gravity vectors on X, Y and Z axes
- Rotation rates around alpha, beta and gamma axes
- Orientation angles plus compass heading where supported
- One-tap iOS 13+ motion permission request handling
- Animation-frame throttled updates that stay smooth on phones
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does the tool ask for motion permission on iOS?
Since iOS 13, Apple requires web pages to request DeviceMotion and DeviceOrientation access explicitly with a tap, like camera or location permission. The tester calls that request when you press Start; without it the events simply never fire on an iPhone or iPad.
What do acceleration and accelerationIncludingGravity mean?
Acceleration is linear movement with gravity removed, so a device lying flat reads near zero. AccelerationIncludingGravity includes the gravity vector, so the same flat device reads roughly 9.8 on the Z axis. Comparing the two shows how much of the reading is real movement.
Why is there no compass heading on my device?
The compass heading comes from a non-standard webkitCompassHeading property that primarily Apple browsers expose. Android Chrome instead reports absolute orientation through a separate API, and some devices lack a magnetometer entirely, so the heading hides when it is unavailable.
The values look frozen on my laptop. Is it broken?
Most laptops have no accelerometer or gyroscope at all, so no events fire. This tester is designed for phones and tablets; open the page on a mobile device to see live motion data.