Gyroscope Test

How to test your phone's gyroscope

1. Open this page on your phone in Chrome, Samsung Internet or Safari and tap Start gyroscope test. On iPhone, tap Allow when Safari asks for access to motion and orientation.
2. Turn and tilt the phone. The 3D phone should follow every movement smoothly and the three lines on the graph should jump when you rotate around each axis.
3. Lay the phone flat on a table and tap Drift check. Do not touch it for 10 seconds; the result shows the bias and noise of the sensor.
4. For the Full turn check, line the phone up with the edge of the table, tap the button, turn the phone one full circle flat on the table and tap Stop where you started.

What the results mean

The page reads the gyroscope through the browser's motion events. Here is what each result tells you:

• Gyroscope: Yes means the phone reports a rotation rate, so it has a working gyroscope chip.
• Gyroscope: No with tilt angles still moving means the phone has an accelerometer but no gyroscope. Many budget phones are built this way; tilt works, but fast turns, 360 degree photos and AR apps do not.
• No data means the browser sent nothing: a laptop, a blocked permission or a browser without motion support.
• Drift check: a healthy gyroscope reads within about 0.5 degrees per second of zero while it lies still. Readings of 2 degrees per second or more mean drift, which shows up as a view that slowly turns on its own in games and VR.
• Full turn check: within 10 degrees of 360 is accurate. Larger errors usually mean the turn was not exactly one circle, so repeat it before blaming the sensor.

The sample rate is how often the browser delivers readings, usually 60 Hz. Browsers cap it, so it is lower than what the chip can do inside native apps.

What the gyroscope measures

A gyroscope measures how fast the phone rotates, in degrees per second, around three axes. X runs across the screen from left to right (tilting the top towards or away from you), Y runs from the bottom to the top of the screen (tilting the sides), and Z points out of the screen (turning the phone like a steering wheel or spinning it flat on a table). When the phone is still, all three read about zero.

The alpha, beta and gamma angles above are the phone's orientation, which the browser works out by combining the gyroscope with the accelerometer and, on some phones, the compass. The rotation rate graph is the raw gyroscope signal. To see how the gyroscope differs from the accelerometer, read gyroscope vs accelerometer, and try the accelerometer test next.

iPhone and Android notes

Every iPhone since the iPhone 4 has a gyroscope. Safari asks for permission before a website may read motion, and the prompt only appears after a tap, which is why the test needs the Start button. If you tapped Don't Allow, close Safari completely in the app switcher and open the page again to get the prompt back.

On Android, Chrome, Edge and Samsung Internet read the sensors without a prompt, unless motion sensors were turned off in the site settings. Some cheaper Android phones have no gyroscope at all; the page tells you so when the motion events arrive without a rotation rate. Firefox on Android also supports the test.

Common problems and fixes

The page says "No data"

Check that you opened the page on a phone, not a computer. In Chrome on Android, tap the lock icon next to the address, open Permissions and allow Motion sensors. On iPhone, close Safari fully and reopen the page so the permission prompt appears again.

The 3D phone drifts or turns on its own

That is gyroscope drift. Restart the phone first. Then lay it flat and still for a minute; most phones recalibrate the gyroscope automatically when they rest. Some Android phones have a manual sensor calibration under Settings, or a test menu (Samsung: dial *#0*# and open Sensor).

Games and AR apps say the phone has no gyroscope

If this test shows "Gyroscope: No", the phone does not have one and no setting can add it. A software "virtual gyroscope" built from the accelerometer and compass works for slow tilt but lags in fast games.

The gyroscope stopped after a drop

The sensor is part of a small chip on the main board and can be damaged by a hard knock. If the drift check shows large values on every run after a restart, a repair shop can confirm it; on most phones the fix is a board-level repair.