I’m primarily talking about stuff like step counters, but also health apps measuring your heart rate, how many stairs you take, the length of your steps, and so on. I’m honest when you tell me to explain it to me like I’m five years old, this one boggles my mind.
Your phone has something called an accelerometer in it, it’s a sensor that can tell the orientation of the device. It tracks your rhythm with the phone swinging left and right to tell when you take a step or climbed some stairs. Many apps also use your GPS location to give you a rough estimate if your accelerometer isn’t up for it.
The sensor to detect the orientation of the phone is the gyroscope sensor not the accelerometer, which is only there to measure acceleration of the phone.
Not quite right. The gyroscope tracks rotation. It’s really good at telling when your phone is making rapid turns, but has a a really hard time knowing the difference between a stationary phone and one that’s turning very slowly. It also can’t tell which direction it’s starting from.
The accelerometer is used to tell which way is down, by averaging the acceleration of gravity over time. It can get confused while the phone is in motion, but when things slow down it keeps the gyroscope from wandering around.