Measuring a room with your cell phone – how it works (Android & iOS)

If you want to measure a room with your cell phone, there are various apps available. Some use augmented reality, others use smartphone sensors. The apps can serve as a substitute for a tape measure, especially if you need to do it quickly

Measure a room with your cell phone

If you want to measure a room, you don’t necessarily need a tape measure or a laser range finder. You can also use your smartphone instead.

• You can use the Moasure app on an Android smartphone as well as on an iPhone.

• The app uses the motion and acceleration sensors on your smartphone. The camera is not used by the app for measurement.

• Before you can carry out the first measurement, you must calibrate the app. To do this, hold your smartphone against a wall so that the arrow on the screen is pointing upwards. Once the process is complete, you can start measuring

• You can use Moasure to measure a room height or an angle, among other things. There are corresponding tutorials for the various measuring processes.

• For the measurements, you must place your smartphone at the beginning and end of the distance to be measured. So if you place your smartphone in the corners of the room, you can calculate the area. As you can also measure the height, you can also calculate the volume

• For larger measuring distances, it makes sense to define intermediate measuring points. To do this, simply place your smartphone at several points along a line.

Measure a room with the iPhone

If you have an iPhone with iOS 12 or higher, you can use the integrated tape measure app to measure rooms. This works with the iPhone’s camera, or more precisely with augmented reality (AR).

• After you have opened the app, you must first calibrate it. To do this, follow the instructions on the display.

• When calibration is complete, a circle with a dashed line appears. To measure an object automatically, capture it with the app and press on the circle.

• If you want to measure an object or a room manually, press the “+” symbol. You can then set points until the entire object has been measured. The app calculates the distances between the points

• Once you have measured the object, you can also take a photo of the measurement.

• To measure a room, place several points in the corners of the room and have the distances calculated. As you can also use the app to measure the height in the same way, you can determine the area and volume of the room

AR measurement with Android cell phones

In order to perform an augmented reality measurement with an Android smartphone, it must be ARCore compatible.

• To carry out AR-based measurements with an Android smartphone, you can use the Google Measure app.

• In the app, you can choose between distance and height. So if you want to measure the length of a room, press Distance and then select the start and end points on the display. If you repeat this on all the walls of a room, you can calculate the area

• If you also measure the height of the room in the app, you can calculate the volume.

• In the app, you can also choose between the units inches and meters/centimetres.