Expo Sensors

A library that provides access to a device's accelerometer, barometer, motion, gyroscope, magnetometer, and pedometer.

expo-sensors provide various APIs for accessing device sensors to measure motion, orientation, pressure, magnetic fields, ambient light, and step count.

Installation

If you are installing this in an existing React Native app, start by installing expo in your project. Then, follow the additional instructions as mentioned by the library's README under "Installation in bare React Native projects" section.

Configuration in app config

You can configure expo-sensors using its built-in config plugin if you use config plugins in your project (EAS Build or npx expo run:[android|ios]). The plugin allows you to configure various properties that cannot be set at runtime and require building a new app binary to take effect.

Example app.json with config plugin

{
  "expo": {
    "plugins": [
      [
        "expo-sensors",
        {
          "motionPermission": "Allow $(PRODUCT_NAME) to access your device motion"
        }
      ]
    ]
  }
}

Configurable properties

API

import * as Sensors from 'expo-sensors';
// OR
import {
  Accelerometer,
  Barometer,
  DeviceMotion,
  Gyroscope,
  LightSensor,
  Magnetometer,
  MagnetometerUncalibrated,
  Pedometer,
} from 'expo-sensors';

Permissions

Android

Starting in Android 12 (API level 31), the system has a 200Hz limit for each sensor updates.

If you need an update interval of less than 200Hz, you must add the following permissions to your app.json inside the expo.android.permissions array.

iOS

The following usage description keys are used by this library:

Available sensors

For more information, please see the documentation for the sensor you are interested in: