Matt Klein has nearly two decades of technical writing experience. He’s covered Windows, Android, macOS, Microsoft Office, and everything in between. He’s even written a book, The How-To Geek Guide to Windows 8. Read more.
Are you picture straightener? When you walk into a room, do you immediately notice when something hanging on the wall is crooked? Do you want everything to be level and perfect? With an iPhone, you can certainly try!
We live in an imperfect world full of crookedness, and for anyone who notices, it can be very annoying. Oftentimes, all it takes is a slight adjustment and everything is fine, but sometimes it may just not seem right. Luckily, if you pull out your iPhone and open up the Compass app, you can be leveling everything out in no time.
A lot of folks may not even realize they have a compass on their iPhone. It’s not well advertised because, like the Voice Memos app, it’s buried in the “Extras” folder by default.
At first glance, the compass appears as if that’s all it does, but a closer look at the bottom reveals it has another significant function.
Swiping left will reveal a level feature that you can use to place on top of crooked pictures, shelves, and anything else that looks like it might be a bit off.
When everything is nice and straight, the level will read zero and turn green.
While we wouldn’t recommend using your iPhone to hang doors or other carpentry work–it’s not going to be quite as perfectly accurate as a real level–it will work nicely for light duty, which is sure to please the picture-straightener in us all.
Who needs a dedicated level tool when you have an iPhone? Here’s how to measure out a flat surface via the Compass tool and apps like iHandy Level and Bubble Level.
Need to check for a level surface when hanging a painting, putting in a shelf, or doing construction around the house? A regular level tool would certainly come in handy, but maybe you don’t have one.
In that case, your iPhone can come to your rescue. A level feature is built right into the iOS Compass app through which you can gauge the angle of a surface.
If you want your phone to do more, you can grab any number of apps from the App Store, like iHandy Level and Bubble Level for iPhone. Let’s check out how to measure a surface using the Compass app and some helpful third-party apps.
Using the Compass App
Measuring a Horizontal Surface
Customize the App
Finding a Level Horizontal Surface
Measuring a Vertical Surface
Finding a Level Vertical Surface
Measuring Angles
Finding Alternatives
iHandy Level
Bubble Level for iPhone
In that case, your iPhone can come to your rescue. A level feature is built right into the iOS Compass app through which you can gauge the angle of a surface. \n\n
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Vyrovnáváte obraz? Když vstoupíte do místnosti, okamžitě si všimnete, že něco, co visí na zdi, je křivá? Chcete, aby vše bylo vyrovnané a dokonalé? S iPhone můžete určitě zkusit
SOUVISEJÍCÍ: Jak vytvářet hlasové poznámky na vašem iPhone
Žijeme v nedokonalém světě plném křivosti a pro každého, kdo si všimne, může to být velmi nepříjemné. Často se jedná jen o malou úpravu a všechno je v pořádku, ale někdy se to nemusí zdát správné. Naštěstí, pokud vytáhnete svůj iPhone a otevřete aplikaci Compass, můžete vše bez problémů vyrovnat.
Mnozí lidé si možná ani neuvědomují, že mají kompas na svém iPhone. Není to správně inzerováno, protože jako aplikace Voice Memos je ve výchozím nastavení pohřben ve složce “Extra”.
Na první pohled se kompas zobrazuje, jako by to bylo všechno, ale bližší pohled na dno ukazuje, že má
Když je vše v pořádku a rovně , úroveň bude nulová a zelená
I když bychom nedoporučovali používat váš iPhone k zavěšení dveří nebo jiných tesařských prací – to nebude úplně přesné jako skutečná úroveň – bude to fungovat pěkně pro světlo což je jistě potěšeno, že v nás všichni potěší obrázek.
Miluji Chromebooky (a Chrome OS obecně), ale vždy mě obtěžovalo, že není snadný způsob, jak vidět, jak většina vnitřního úložiště zařízení se skutečně používá. Dostávám celou věc “žít v oblaku”, ale pojď – někdy to prostě není praktické. A s omezeným množstvím úložiště, které se nachází na většině Chromebooků, musíte opravdu sledovat, co se děje.
Volání lidi s Siri je velký malý zástupce, ale to není vždy přirozené říct: „Zavolej Jane Smith“ namísto “Zavolej mámě”. Naštěstí můžete naučit Siri, kdo jsou lidé, vaši rodiče, váš lékař nebo někdo jiný, pro ještě pohodlnější hlasové vytáčení. To je obzvlášť důležité pro lidi jako „můj doktor“ nebo „My instalatéra“, jejichž jména jsou možná budete nepamatuj si to.
If you’ve updated your iPhone or iPad’s operating system to iOS 12, you may be wondering what happened to the level tool. Don’t worry, the level hasn’t disappeared, it’s just been incorporated into the new Measure app. Third-party developers have long offered a level app, a tape measure app, or both, but owners of the iPhone 8 and iPad 5th generation, iPad Pro, or later devices can enjoy the old level feature along with the new tape measure feature for free. If you’ve been wondering where to find your smartphone or tablet’s level (or spirit level as our British friends call it) read on.
How to Find the Level Tool on Your iPhone or iPad
Apple’s latest operating system, iOS 12, introduced the augmented-reality Measure app. All you need to do to find the level is open the Measure app!
How to Use the Level on Your iPhone or iPad
Once you’ve opened the Measure app, all you need to do is:
- Tap on Level at the bottom of your screen.
- Hold your device on the surface you’d like to check for level; you can use this app in Portrait or Landscape mode.
- When your device, and therefore the surface you’re testing, is level you’ll see a green screen and 0º.
- If the surface you’re checking isn’t level, the screen will be black, and you’ll see how many degrees plus or minus it’s off from level.
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Author Details
Author Details
Leanne Hays
Leanne Hays is an SEO Content Strategist and Feature Writer at iPhone Life, and has written hundreds of in-depth how-to and troubleshooting articles. She’s a former Associate Editor for iPhone Life magazine, and has written for the Iowa Source , as well as web content for education marketing. Leanne has an associate’s degree in education, with a focus on curriculum development, as well as a bachelor’s degree in science. She has over nine years of experience with SEO, social media management, and web development and writing. Despite years of web work, Leanne is by no means an early adapter; she’s only owned a smartphone for five years, which makes her highly sympathetic to the learning curve of new iPhone owners. She enjoys making reader’s lives easier and putting her education experience to work by walking them through the most practical ways to use Apple devices, step-by-step.
In off-work hours, Leanne is a mother of two, homesteader, audiobook fanatic, musician, and learning enthusiast.
We reveal one of the fun tools Apple has tucked away inside every iPhone
- By Sean Keach, Digital Technology and Science Editor
- 16:20, 16 Jan 2020
- Updated : 16:27, 16 Jan 2020
THERE’S no end of secrets tucked away inside your iPhone – including a hidden spirit level feature.
Yes, your iPhone has a built-in function that can work out if a surface is level, so you can do away with your giant, clunky spirit level.
Now you’re probably thinking: hey, I’ve never seen a spirit level app on my phone before!
That’s because it’s actually tucked away inside another app.
In fact, it’s in the Measure app, which is one of the default apps that comes pre-installed on all Apple iPhones.
So first, fire up the Measure app.
You should see a camera viewfinder, which is used for measuring objects.
Ignore that, and tap the Level tab in the bottom left of the screen.
It’ll show the degree at which the surface your phone is on is crooked.
The feature will also use two white circles to highlight the angle at which the surface is crooked.
If you wiggle your phone to line the circles up, the degree counter will set to zero.
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The screen will also (helpfully) turn green, indicating that it’s a completely level surface.
If you have vibration turned on, you’ll also feel a small vibration once your surface is level.
Do you know any iPhone secrets? Let us know in the comments!
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I just stumbled upon a fascinating iPhone camera leveling feature! The best thing about this handy tool is that you can use it to capture perfect photos from an overhead view with optimum ease. Hence you don’t need to use a tripod anymore just to scan the document or capture a pic of something that’s flat on the ground. Find it really cool? Let me show you how you can enable and use camera level tool on your iPhone and iPad to snap symmetrical and flawlessly centered images.
With the use of iPhone’s gyroscopes, the leveling tool helps you find out if your subject is ideally leveled against the background. And once you have got the bird’s eye view of your subject, you are able to capture a pretty balanced shot.
How to Enable and Use Camera Level Tool on iPhone and iPad
How to Enable Secret Camera Leveling Feature on iPhone and iPad
To get started, you need to first enable Grid that’s inside Camera settings.
Step #1. Launch Settings app on your iOS device.
Step #2. Next, you need to scroll down and tap on Camera.
Step #3. Now, turn on the switch next to Grid.
How to Use Camera Level Tool on iPhone and iPad
Note: This feature works in Photo, Timelapse, Portrait, and Square mode. Currently, it doesn’t support Video and Paranoiac modes.
Step #1. Open the Camera app on your device.
Step #2. Check out the 9 box grid overlaid on the camera. You will also see a couple of crosshairs in the middle of the screen; while one is fixed, the other is floating.
They look like plus icon (+). Next, you need to move the camera to perfectly align these two plus icons.
Step #3. When the plus icons are right on top of each other, they look a bit bold and turn yellow. That suggests that the photo is parallel with the ground.
As soon as you find them turning yellow, hit the shutter button to capture the shot!
Now, make the most of this useful tool to snap photos from the top-down view effortlessly! It would be really great to have your valuable feedback about it in the comments below.
Just plug it into the headphone jack and you can measure pretty much anything.
Here’s one way to make your iPhone more useful: Lasers. Simply plug the iPin Spatial Ruler into your iPhone, download the app, you have your own laser measuring device.
iPin’s first product was a laser pointer that plugs into the headphone jack of an iPhone. Pretty nifty, but its newest product, the Spatial Ruler, has many more practical applications. It’s hard to imagine that the iPhone app will be quite as accurate as a professional laser measuring tool, but it should suffice to determine whether a new TV will fit in the nook you have selected for it.
In addition to measuring the distance between an object and the phone, the iPin Spatial Ruler can determine the distance between two points on the object it captures, such as the length of a desk. The tutorial video makes both calibration and measuring seem pretty painless, and iPin cleverly incorporates a zoom feature on the touchscreen to precisely dial in your measurements.
Pricing information isn’t available yet, but this little gadget would sure be a handy thing to keep in your pocket or tool drawer.
The iPhone is a universal tool with a ton of impressive capabilities. One of those skills is the recorder (a.k.a. Voice Memos), which is a part of Apple’s core applications that come pre-installed on all its mobile devices. This feature allows you to easily turn your iPhone into a recording machine that can create decent audio for any personal or professional needs — all with just a few taps.
To get started with using Voice Memos, you need to first find the app on your phone. Typically, this can be found on your home screen. However, if for some reason you can’t find it, you can pull the Search tab and type Voice Memos, or you can just simply ask Siri. Once you launch the Voice Memos app, you’re now ready to start recording.
- How to record with Voice Memos app
- How to edit your Voice Memos
- How to sync Voice Memos to iCloud
How to record Voice Memos
- Tap the red circle to start recording.
- Tap the red square button to stop recording.
Tap new recording to play.
Remember, once you tap stop, your memo is saved automatically with your current location as the title. This can be edited at any time.
How to edit and rename Voice Memos
Once you’re finished recording, you can begin editing.
- To edit, tap memo or “new recording”.
- Tap the three blue dots.
Tap edit recording.
Tap Trim for the right spot you want.
Enter a new name.
After you’re done editing, you can save your audio, where the recording will then appear in a list on the Voice Memos’ interface.
How to get Voice Memos iCloud enabled
Not sure if Voice Memos are set to sync with the iCloud? Here’s how to check.
- Find Settings or ask Siri.
- Tap your Apple ID header.
- Tap iCloud
Scroll down and tap Voice Memos
The great part about having your recordings saved automatically is having the ability to pull those recordings up on all your Apple devices. This is due in large part to Apple’s iCloud integration. Just remember to follow the steps above in making sure you have Voice Memos turned on in the iCloud settings on each of your devices for things to work properly.
Any questions?
If you have any questions about the process of recording on your iPhone, please do not hesitate to drop us a line or two in the comments below.
iHandy Carpenter Plumb Bob
$1.99 for the iHandy Carpenter program suite
The Promise:
Builders, carpenters and masons use plumb bobs all the time to make sure that their constructions are “plumb,” or vertically true. The tools typically come as small weights that are suspended from a point using a string known as a plumb line. The iPhone app recreates this experience using the iPhone’s accelerometer. As the phone is tilted back and forth or side-to-side, the animated plumb bob swings, and the program tells you how far off plumb you are.
Roy’s Take:
While the program is visually impressive (it looked like a plumb bob that might appear in Myst), it was useless for practical purposes. The problem: It has no inherent ability to find plumb. To work, the user must first calibrate it. This requires positioning it in such a way that you know it’s perfectly plumb or level, and then hitting the calibrate button. “But you have no way of knowing whether the surface you are zeroing with is plumb or level in the first place,” Roy says. “You could visually tell within a few degrees, but that’s not good enough. You would need a level to measure whether it’s plumb or level first. If you have those tools, then why the hell would you use this? It’s baloney tech.”
Worse, the app can’t perform the most important purpose of a plumb bob: To draw a straight and plumb line between two points in space (such as one on the ceiling and one on the floor). This is because the iPhone can’t be suspended by a string (unless you built some sort of harness for it). As a result, the app can only be used to measure whether an already existing wall is plumb. For this purpose, you’d be better off using a real plumb bob, especially since the back of the iPhone isn’t perfectly flat, which will throw off your results.
