LookAround vs SmoothTrack
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
LookAround
Enhance your flight simulator experience by using your iOS device for head tracking in X-Plane. This app allows you to look around the virtual cockpit hands-free, improving immersion and situational awareness. Basic roll tracking is free, with yaw and pitch tracking available via a one-time purchase.
- Hands-free head tracking for X-Plane
- Uses iOS device camera for face tracking
- Automatic X-Plane discovery
- Roll tracking included for free
- Yaw and pitch tracking via in-app purchase
- Simple setup over Wi-Fi
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Experience virtual reality in X-Plane without any additional hardware! Prop your iOS device running LookAround - Sim under your monitor and your head movements are magically reflected in X-Plane. Want help lining up the runway when turning to final? Simply rotate your head towards to the runway! Want to look at the beautiful mountain range on your right? Just rotate your head to the right! LookAround - Sim uses face tracking to let you look around in X-Plane simulator hands-free. Extremely simple setup: - Download LookAround - Sim on your iOS device. - Run X-Plane on your computer and start a new flight. - Verify your iOS device is connected to Wifi and on the same network as your computer running X-Plane. - Launch LookAround - Sim and it will auto-magically discover X-Plane! No need to figure out IP addresses and ports! LookAround - Sim is free to to download to try Roll tracking - tilt you head sideways and watch it reflected on your simulator. Yaw and pitch tracking can be enabled through a simple one time In-App purchase. LookAround - Sim requires X-Plane 10.40 and above. Head Roll tracking is only supported with X-Plane 11 and above. For optimal setup, try to place the iOS device and your Wifi router as close as possible. Additional, having a wired connection from your Wifi router to the X-Plane computer also helps with minimizing latency and delays.
SmoothTrack
Enhance your simulation gaming experience with phone-based head and eye tracking. This app allows for intuitive, 6-degrees-of-freedom head movements to control your in-game perspective without any extra hardware. Seamlessly look around cockpits, check blind spots, or zoom in on details with natural head gestures.
- 6DoF head tracking
- Optional eye tracking
- No extra hardware required
- Works with FreeTrack/TrackIR games
- Customizable view presets
- Exaggerated head movements for control
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SmoothTrack 2.0 uses the head and eye tracking AR capabilities of your phone to provide the simplest and best head tracker for 6 degrees-of-freedom head movements in your sim games. ----- "The best new controller on the market." - Charlie Hall, Polygon Customer reviews: "SmoothTrack just works. Less than 5 minutes to install, setup and fly. Love not being tethered to my desk! 5 stars!!" "This worked perfectly and way better than expected! Totally enhanced my experience with MFS 2020!" --- It's a near magical experience to seamlessly slightly move your head and have your game perspective immediately play along (the movements in the game are exaggerated so that you only have to make slight movements of your head to control the camera). Additionally, since version 2, your eyes are also optionally tracked and will nudge the camera based on where you're glancing on screen! - Simply lean forward to get a closer look at your Flight Simulator cockpit! - Look a bit up to see the overhead panel of your A320! - Simply shift your head a bit to the right to see the direction of the space station you're approaching in Elite: Dangerous! - Look a bit left before a hard left turn in Euro Truck Simulator 2! No headset or extra equipment of any kind is required! Simply set up your device so that it can see your face. Using simple camera gestures, you can shift your perspective in-game. Also, if you want, you can store views (say, a copilot angle, or a cockpit closeup) as Quick Views for easy access later. Your head movements are slightly exaggerated which enables you to look out of a cockpit side window with just a slight movement of your head to the left. Any game that supports the FreeTrack or TrackIR protocol will work with this, including: - Microsoft Flight Simulator - Microsoft FSX - DCS World - Elite: Dangerous - IL2: Sturmovik - Euro Truck Simulator 2 - Kerbal Space Program - ...and many, many others! Email and Discord support is provided if there are any issues (or if you have any ideas for new features!).
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: SmoothTrack at 86% against LookAround's 38%. SmoothTrack also leads on rating (4.7 vs 3.3) and in-app purchases (none vs 1). LookAround's advantage is price (Free vs $14.99) and update cadence (every 5 weeks vs every 4 months). On ads and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
LookAround is free to download; SmoothTrack costs $14.99 up front. LookAround sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. SmoothTrack asks for nothing beyond the download.
SmoothTrack holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 3.3. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: SmoothTrack has 250 ratings behind it against 6, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 38% of LookAround's written reviews are positive against 86% of SmoothTrack's.
LookAround ships an update every 5 weeks, SmoothTrack every 4 months. The most recent releases landed on October 3, 2026 and October 19, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | LookAround | SmoothTrack |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free — better | $14.99 |
| Rating | 3.3 (6 ratings) | 4.7 (250 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 37.5% of reviews | 85.7% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 6 | 250 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 5 weeks — better | Every 4 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases — better | Paid |
| Best chart rank | — | #190 — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 10.3 — better | 26.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 32 MB | 3 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Mutual Image LLC. | John Goering |
Customer experience
LookAround
SmoothTrack
Bugs and requests
LookAround
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
SmoothTrack
Reported bugs
2 issues- Tracking issues with certain phone positions
- Compatibility problems with some devices/OSes
Requested features
3 requests- Background mode support
- Ability to use rear camera
- Improved UI and customization options
In-app purchases
LookAround
- XPlane Yaw & Pitch$9.99
SmoothTrack
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is LookAround free?
Is SmoothTrack free?
Which has better reviews, LookAround or SmoothTrack?
Do LookAround or SmoothTrack have ads?
Which is updated more often, LookAround or SmoothTrack?
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