If you own an iPhone, you’ll know there’s a new app or feature craze almost every week. As the most popular smartphone on the planet, it’s no surprise we’re still excited about all this device can do. The iPhone is more than mobile games and instant messages. It contains a wealth of tools that can change your world if you know how to use them. The iPhone barometer, for example, enables your phone to track vertical movements without the use of GPS (and an internet connection). This can be a highly useful feature. However, many users are unaware of it. They exclusively associate the word ‘barometer’ with weather forecasting. It has a variety of helpful functions. In this article, we explain why the iPhone barometer app is useful to your daily routines. So, open it up. Take a look around. Learn to make it work for you.
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What is the iPhone Barometer App?
What does it include and why has Apple added it to the long list of iPhone features? In many ways, it is designed to complement an array of smart digital detectors such as the gyroscope, digital compass, proximity sensor, ambient light reader, accelerometer and more.
Barometers measure air pressure
So, this app is yet another way for your iPhone to interpret the world around it. As it includes an altimeter for understanding elevation, it adds to the depth of detail regarding where the phone is in physical space. The big picture is that your iPhone can now provide an extremely accurate read on your location.
Why is the iPhone Barometer App Useful?
Predicting the Weather
The smaller picture is that your barometer app can, of course, predict the weather. When variations in air pressure exceed 3.5hPA, they are indicative of coming changes. Generally, a move to high air pressure means sunny weather is ahead. A shift in low air pressure means rain is probably on the way. The iPhone barometer app gives simple readings. It’s easy to tell when a change in the elements is coming; who needs the weatherman.
Estimating Your Elevation
One cool feature of the barometer app is it reads the elevation of your phone (and you, if you’re with it). It does this by identifying air pressure levels in your immediate space and comparing it with those at sea level. The difference in levels allows it to calculate your environmental height. You can test this out by riding an elevator to the top of a skyscraper. If your app is configured correctly, you should be able to watch the elevation reading climb as you do.
Tracking Your Physical Activity
Elevation sensors are useful for travel and ‘extreme’ activities such as hiking and mountain biking. They’re also helpful for day to day tracking, especially when it comes to exercise. If you’re frequently moving up and down stairs, for instance, the iPhone barometer tool recognizes this and can record the results. It means the app is a great way to track physical activity levels without having to connect to the internet constantly. Used in this way, pedometer tools are not a drain on your battery.
Which iPhone Barometer Apps are the best?
We’ve compiled a list of the best barometer apps for the iPhone compatible with devices such as iPhone Xs, X, 8, 7 and iPhone 6
Pedometer++ App
With the Pedometer++app, you can track your active step count all day, every day. Permit it to connect to barometer functions, and it will convert steps into stairs as they are climbed. It means, at the end of a day, you can know exactly how many flights of stairs you have traversed. It’s useful for anybody looking to keep tabs on daily physical activity.
Barometer and Altimeter App
You can get the Barometer and Altimeter app for free from the iTunes store. It interprets elevation levels and gives accurate data on current air pressure. For quick access, you can create a widget for this app that sits on the home screen. There are lots of other apps out there that take advantage of the iPhone’s barometer functions. So, it’s worth getting to know what they’re all about. They’re easy to use, applicable to a wide variety of scenarios and can help your phone work even smarter!
How to measure the current altitude
In this day and era, you don’t need to have an actual altimeter with you, for you to know your current height. Thanks to the iPhone Altimeter, you can quickly tell how high you are above the sea level. This app is quite essential for climbers, hikers or anyone who needs to be updated with altitude change. To begin getting altitude readings on your iPhone, you must download it from the app store. From there you can use it as you wish. Nonetheless, you need to know that this iPhone Altimeter app isn’t designed for professional readings. Thus, it can only be used for recreational activities such as hiking and not complex ones like navigating a submarine.
The Altitude Measurement Procedure
Initially, the previous models of iPhones used the GPS to measure altitude. Launching the Altimeter app on your iPhone would prompt it to connect with at least three satellites revolving around the earth. This would result in the determination of the GPS coordinates and thus determining altitude. However, the recent models that are the iPhone 6 and six plus do have an inbuilt barometer sensor that determines the air pressure. They don’t require GPS to identify your altitude.
How To Install The iPhone Altimeter?
The installation procedure is quite simple. All you have to do is to navigate to the app store. You should then search for altimeter apps. You will be presented with a lot of them. It’s why we recommend you only pick those with the best ratings and reviews. Or rather, you can try out some of them and judge which is best for you. If you are short of time and would like an ideal altimeter app, then we recommend you install the Digital Altimeter Free developed by Patrick Giudicelli. It will provide you with reliable and accurate altitude readings.
A quick guide on how to use the iPhone Digital Altimeter
After you have downloaded and installed the iPhone Digital Altimeter, you can open it right away. You should grant the app permission to use your location. Failure to do so, the app won’t be able to determine your current altitude. Immediately you GPS is activated, the iPhone Digital Altimeter will give you the latitude and longitude readings accompanied with vertical and horizontal accuracy. To improve the efficiency of the app, you should provide the GPS with a minute or two for the signal to be fully calibrated. By doing so, you will observe vertical and horizontal accuracy. The app also allows you to change the measurement units from either meters or feet depending on your preference.
Does the iPhone Digital Altimeter Work?
You can’t know this until you test it. Basing on the fact that these apps use GPS to determine altitude. The best way you can see if it works is by measuring altitude while you are at the same GPS coordinates. We tested it out on one building. We first took the altitude readings on the ground floor and then the 10th floor. It detected the altitude difference.
The Results
Most people think applications such as the Altimeter don’t work. But, you will be surprised at how efficient they can be in giving you altitude readings. From the iPhone Altimeter test, it gave us a 30meter/100feet reading difference between the two spots on both the horizontal and vertical axis. This, therefore, indicates that you can use the iPhone Altimeter for leisure activities. You need not guess your altitude any more provided you have your iPhone along with you.
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