Sonar Ruler vs Secret
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Sonar Ruler
This experimental app uses your iPhone's speaker to send out sonic pulses and measures the echo to estimate distances up to 60 feet. It's a fun and innovative way to explore sonar principles, perfect for educational purposes or impressing friends with unique iPhone capabilities.
- Sonic distance measurement
- Up to 60 feet range
- Selectable units (feet, inches, meters)
- Custom saved settings
- Educational sonar demonstration
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Sonar Ruler is a winner in the Best App Ever Awards - "Most innovative use of iPhone hardware" category! The Amazing New Sonar Ruler is an experimental app that uses echoes to measure distances with your iPhone! * It uses the same principles that dolphins use to find food! * It sends a short pulse from the speaker and measures how long that pulse takes to bounce off of something and return to the phone. It then estimates how far away you are. >> Impress your friends with what this unique app can accomplish using only an iphone! << Ϟ GIZMODO.com: "that's a damned neat trick for a phone to be able to do." Features: * Sonic distance measurement up to 60 feet * Set Units to feet, inches, or meters * Custom saved settings for measuring in different environments If you're a teacher, this app is a great way to teach students the principles of sonar, and how sound propagates through air. ** Watch a demo video here: http://bit.ly/sonarvideo ** German/Japanese subtitles here: http://bit.ly/sonarvid Enjoy! Follow us on twitter @laanlabs *This is an experimental app, although it can be quite accurate, any measurements taken should be verified before using them. Note: Use with iPads requires some adjustment to the chirp boundaries
Secret
Securely send and receive encrypted messages that only the intended recipient can read. Protect your private conversations with end-to-end encryption and a password. Messages are not stored on your device after decryption.
- End-to-end message encryption
- Password protection for decryption
- Shake to clear messages
- Messages not stored on device
- Supports any language and emoji
- Multiple language localizations
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Send messages to your friends and colleagues – encrypted so that only they can read the message. Tap and type your message, and with one tap you can encrypt and then send your message, or copy it to the clipboard for pasting in to another application. Shake to clear your message. Secret – just between you and me... When someone who has Secret installed receives a Secret-encrypted message, they need only click on the message and they are taken straight to Secret where they can decrypt the message with a pre-arranged password. It's as simple as that! Secret uses DES symmetric encryption to keep your messages safe. You can use it anywhere you need to send a message that you don't want others to read. The decrypted message is not stored on your phone, so if someone intercepts or finds your phone, they can't read your messages without knowing the password. Secret works in any language, and even with emoji. Secret is also fully localised in English, French, Japanese, Italian, Greek, Spanish, Malay, Indonesian, German, Korean, and Simplified and Traditional Chinese. Secret – it's the easiest way to secure the messages you send and receive.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Secret at every 10 months against Sonar Ruler's every 94 months. Secret also leads on rating (3.0 vs 2.7) and review sentiment (55% vs 43%). Sonar Ruler's advantage is ratings volume (3 vs 1) and iOS requirement (8.1 vs 26.0). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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
Sonar Ruler costs $0.99 and Secret $0.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Secret holds the better App Store score, 3.0 against 2.7. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 3 and 1 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 43% of Sonar Ruler's written reviews are positive against 55% of Secret's.
Sonar Ruler ships an update every 94 months, Secret every 10 months. The most recent releases landed on October 18, 2026 and October 13, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Sonar Ruler | Secret |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $0.99 | $0.99 |
| Rating | 2.7 (3 ratings) | 3.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 43.5% of reviews | 54.5% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 3 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 94 months | Every 10 months — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Paid |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, Mac |
| Requires iOS | 8.1 — better | 26.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 13 MB | 11 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Laan Labs | curmi.com |
Customer experience
Sonar Ruler
Secret
Bugs and requests
Sonar Ruler
Reported bugs
10 issues- App crashes within 3 seconds of opening on iPhone 6 and older models
- Won't open on iOS 8.4 and later versions
- No chirping sound emitted on some devices
- Feedback loop and screaming noise on certain hardware
- Phone locks up requiring hard restart
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- Broken help video URL
- Measurements lock at same distance regardless of location
- Metric mode produces incorrect readings
- Incompatible with iPhone 4S, 5, and first-generation devices
- Inconsistent performance across different iPhone models
Requested features
11 requests- Room mapping by rotating phone in circle
- Vertical distance measurement capability
- Better ambient noise filtering
- Clearer, more intuitive user interface
- Optimized default settings (frequency, filter, chirp)
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- Larger, easier-to-manipulate sliders
- iPod Touch compatibility
- Automatic zoom functionality for measurements
- Visual indicator for when to use short vs long distance mode
- Better help video and documentation
- Accessibility features for blind users
Secret
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Sonar Ruler
No in-app purchases
Secret
No in-app purchases









