Measure almost anything

It may be unheralded, but the humble Measure app can be very useful

IT WILL TAKE 30 minutes

YOU WILL LEARN How to measure real-life objects in the Measure app

YOU’LL NEED iPhone or iPad

Of all the built-in apps on iPhone, Measure is the one that gets the least attention. And yet, it’s also one of the most impressive. It’s also a good illustration of how augmented reality (AR) can be put to practical use on a mobile device.

The Measure app enables you to measure real-life objects around you using the iPhone or iPad’s camera sensors to detect edges and corners and then do some clever maths to determine the distance between them. On more recent iPads and iPhones, Measure also uses the built-in LiDAR scanner to more quickly and accurately determine distances.

As well as measuring the distance between two points, Measure can take multiple measurements and even calculate the area of a rectangle. You can use it to work out someone’s height and save photos of the measurements to your Photos Library. It even has a built-in spirit level which, while no substitute for a real one, can come in handy for, say, hanging a picture. Kenny Hemphill