# Sensor Play - Data Recorder — Accelerometer and sensors fun

> iPhone sensor data recorder and analyzer with automation features. (iPhone/iPad app by Philip Broder.)

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/sensor-play-data-recorder/id921385514 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`)
- Developer: [Philip Broder](https://appshunter.io/developer/921385513)
- Category: Utilities, Education
- Price: $14.99
- Rating: 4.70/5 from 59 App Store ratings · 49 written reviews indexed
- Age rating: 4+
- Requires: iOS 11.0 · 16 MB
- Languages: American English
- Released: 2014-10-05
- Data updated: 2026-08-19
- Monetization: free
- User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/sensor-play-data-recorder/id921385514/reviews.md

## What is Sensor Play?

Sensor Play - the iPhone Sensor Playground, and the best app for serious scientific research and data recording.

Used by engineers, scientists, teachers, and enthusiasts all around the world.

The sensors built into all iPhones are amazing examples of the power in your pocket.  To have a GPS receiver, an accelerometer, a gyroscope, even a Barometer with you at all times is a marvel of miniature engineering.  It's simply fun to see the output from all these sensors, play with each interactively, or just view the raw data. 

Record Accelerometer, Gyroscope, GPS, Barometer, Magnetometer  sensor data and share by email for further analysis, or review using the in app viewer.

However Sensor Play is not just a toy.

Beyond the obvious fun of watching the accelerometer and gyroscope graphs bounce around you can now record multi-sensor data all at the same time, even in the background, for a full external analysis of your, or your iPhone's, motion through time and space however you so desire.

And now with Automation you can trigger your recordings to start either after a simple delay, when you enter or leave a preset GPS Region, or when the iPhone is nudged above a selected gForce.
Then end your recordings either after a set duration, or when you enter or leave a preset GPS Region.

Automation makes getting the data you want so much easier, and eliminates lots of unnecessary recorded data.  Set up the triggers as required, close the phone and go.  
Set and Forget!  Later when you open SensorPlay the data you were after will have been automatically recorded and saved for you.

The following data is recorded to a csv file for sharing through the standard iPhone share sheet.
Timestamp
Accelerometer: X, Y, Z
Gyroscope: X, Y, Z
Attitude: Roll, Pitch, Yaw
Location: Longitude, Latitude, Speed, TrueHeading, Altitude
Motion Activity: Type & Confidence
Barometer: Pressure, Relative Altitude
Magnetometer: µT X, Y, Z, calibrated x,y,z, rotation matrix, and quaternion

Visual graphs of sensor recordings in one place, as long as they're not too large anyway.

Background mode is supported for all recordings, accelerometer, gyro, and multi-sensor export, lock your screen and keep recording all sensor data for up to six hours.

A serious engineering, scientific, and educational analysis tool.

Sharing of all recordings is now through the built in share options which includes, Airdrop, mail, message, notes, dropbox (if installed), etc.

Sensors currently supported:

Barometer (iPhone 6 and above only)
 - see the atmospheric pressure in a choice of 7 units, see your relative altitude plotted over time.
 - Widget available to display the atmospheric pressure in the notification centre.
Accelerometer
 - See the g-forces on the X,Y,Z axis and see them traced over time.
 - Widget available to show gMax in X,Y,Z axis on notification screen.
 - Record the data and share for further analysis
Gyroscope
 - Watch the rate of rotation over the X,Y,Z axis plotted over time.
 - Record the data and share for further analysis
GPS/Location Services
 - See your exact location mapped on screen and share your Lat/Long coordinates by text or email.
Magnetometer/Compass
 - See the magnetic field acting on the X, Y, Z, axis along with an interactive compass.
3D/Force Touch (6S ->11 only)

Note: Continued use of GPS running in the background can dramatically decrease battery life.

## Key features

- Record accelerometer, gyroscope, GPS, barometer, magnetometer data
- Background recording up to six hours
- Automated recording triggers (delay, GPS region, g-force)
- Export data to CSV for analysis
- In-app viewer for sensor recordings
- Real-time sensor data visualization

## Recent user reviews (10 of 49)

All indexed reviews: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/sensor-play-data-recorder/id921385514/reviews.md

### 3/5 — iPhone 16e keine Barometeranzeige

*2025-06-14*

Leider funktioniert beim IPhone 16e die Barometeranzeige nicht mehr, die App stürzt nach dem Aufruf der Barometeranzeige sofort ab.

### 5/5 — M11-M33

*2024-04-16*

on the record data (csv file), what does m11, m12,m13 actually mean?

**Developer response:** Hello, these values represent the rotation matrix of the device, see this for more info:

https://developer.apple.com/documentation/coremotion/cmattitude/1616139-rotationmatrix

Thanks for your support.

### 5/5 — Works as adevertized

*2023-06-24*

This was the only app I found to easy capture the telemetry data I was looking for. I tried several other app export data was challenging, logs were in accurate. I have two suggestion, the app needs some documentation, specifically what all the data headers are. When I airdrop the data and open I in excel and there are tons on columns some of which I don’t know what they are.

### 5/5 — Bien

*2022-11-24*

Efficace. Il manque un enregistrement dans ICloud et 
qu’est-ce -ce que c’est 3D Touch?

**Developer response:** Thank you. 
Not sure what you mean about iCloud?
3D Touch is available on iPhones from 6S to X, it measured the pressure you pressed on the screen.

### 5/5 — Great App!!!

*2020-11-15*

I’ve used several sensor apps on iPhone, and this is my favorite. I like the intuitive interface and the ability to record for long periods. I’ve used it in many applications, including precision analysis of aircraft motion during test flights.

**Developer response:** Thanks for the great review, so glad to hear how useful Sensor Play is out there.

### 5/5 — Good app

*2020-10-30, version 5.2*

Good app, would like to know what units the accelerometer data is reported in? Is it metric?

### 5/5 — Awesome app

*2020-07-01*

I found this app by coincidence and immediately downloaded it. As a private pilot I intend to use it as a tracking/ manouever recording tool. First tests indicate excellent functionality and also extremely good usability. 

If I had one wish to the developer:
A time stamp button would make it a lot easier to find a specific action in the data analysis. This would be extremely beneficial and not to difficult to implement. 

A second wish would be axis values in the live view. 

And audio recording...:-)

**Developer response:** Thank you for the great feedback. 

Please get in touch via the app so we can discuss your ideas further.

### 5/5 — Great app for recording and sharing multi-sensor data

*2020-03-29*

Simple, easy to use. Automation is a nice feature. Would be great to have a trigger from the camera, is it possible/planned? Thanks!

**Developer response:** Thanks for the great review!
What did you have in mind for the camera automation trigger?

### 5/5 — Good but not perfect.

*2020-01-12*

Works great on my iPhone 11 except for the following that I have found so far.

I set it to record for 45,000 seconds (750 minutes or 12.5 hours) and it shuts off at 6:00 hours.

Also, I set the multi sensor recording to trigger on a g level and it only triggers on -g levels on the 2 g scale.  I flew my iPhone 11 on a Blue Origin flight and found this out the hard way.

### 4/5 — Very Good but not complete !!

*2019-09-11*

1) CMCalibratedMagnetic Field x, y, z are always zero (0), on iPhone 8+ and my iPad.
2) Though CMMagnetometer values are useful for somethings, CLHeadingComponent Values x, y, z (micro Tesla), are better for calculating stuff, IMHO, 

CLHeading:
I believe, Represents a vector pointing to magnetic North.

Please fix, and add CLHeading Magnetic Data 🤓😎.

## Frequently asked questions about Sensor Play

### What does Sensor Play do?

Sensor Play allows you to record and analyze data from your iPhone's built-in sensors, such as the accelerometer, gyroscope, GPS, barometer, and magnetometer. You can view raw data, visualize it with graphs, and export it for further analysis.

### What are the key features of Sensor Play?

Key features include the ability to record data from multiple sensors simultaneously, even in the background for up to six hours. It also offers automation for triggering recordings based on delays, GPS regions, or g-force, and allows for data export in CSV format.

### Is Sensor Play free to use?

Yes, Sensor Play is a free application. There are no in-app purchases or advertisements mentioned in the provided description.

### What kind of data can be recorded?

The app can record timestamp, accelerometer (X, Y, Z), gyroscope (X, Y, Z), attitude (Roll, Pitch, Yaw), location (Longitude, Latitude, Speed, TrueHeading, Altitude), motion activity, barometer (Pressure, Relative Altitude), and magnetometer data.

### Who is Sensor Play for?

This app is designed for engineers, scientists, teachers, and enthusiasts who need a tool for serious scientific research, data recording, and analysis of motion and environmental data captured by their iPhone.

## Version history (last 5 releases)

### 5.5 — 2023-07-27

This release is primarily cosmetic to ensure compatibility with latest SDK and devices.

### 5.4 — 2021-01-18

Accelerometer view now has a 2D Lissajous overlay option with axis selection for more insight of motion and vibration analysis.
Gyro view now shows Roll/Pitch/Yaw Angle gauges, plus you can select the Attitude reference frame from those available on your device.
Multi Sensor Recording enables you to select the Attitude reference frame from those available on your device.

### 5.3 — 2020-11-26

Multi-Sensor recording time limit removed.
Automation now allows for repeated recordings of a set duration to avoid huge file sizes, e.g., easily record 12 files of 1 hour each unattended, instead of one large 12 hour file.
Accelerometer display now shows the -g & +g Max values.

### 5.2 — 2020-05-09

Added real time charting of the Magnetometer calibrated magnetic field, finally!

### 5.1 — 2020-05-07

Calibrated magnetic field data is now recorded in multi-sensor recording.
Total magnetic field strength is now plotted in the multi-sensor visualisation.
Added full rotation matrix and Quaternion to the attitude data in multi-sensor recording.
Added the Course angle to the GPS data in multi-sensor recording.
iOS13 Ready
Fixed some dark Mode/iOS13 cosmetic issues.

## Apps similar to Sensor Play

| App | Rating | Price | Category |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [Sensor Data Recorder](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/sensor-data-recorder/id1438400138) | 3.0 (2) | Free | Utilities |
| [PanicFix](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/panicfix/id6751519619) | 5.0 (3) | $9.99 | Utilities |
| [Spectrum-V: Audio analyzer](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/spectrum-v-audio-analyzer/id6450556284) | — | $5.99 | Utilities |
| [GPSignal - Measure Watch GPS](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/gpsignal-measure-watch-gps/id6479388652) | — | $2.99 | Utilities |
| [Sensor Logs](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/sensor-logs/id1200504481) | 5.0 (1) | $0.99 | Utilities |
| [G-Field Recorder](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/g-field-recorder/id1154585693) | 3.9 (7) | Free | Utilities |

## More apps by Philip Broder

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All apps by Philip Broder: https://appshunter.io/developer/921385513

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*Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-08-19.*