Calibrating your compass on your Android phone can be a fairly simple task. It only takes a few steps to do so and you’ll be working with only 1 application. But if you want to take it a step further, you’ll have a few more steps to take than the usual calibration. Let’s dive into it!
How to Calibrate Compass on Android – Google Maps
Before we do anything complicated with our Google Maps, let’s establish first where we stand in calibration. It’s important to identify first if our calibration is okay and if it’s off, how off is it? This will save you time through the whole process because if it’s already good, then there’s no need to recalibrate it. First off, launch your Google maps and find the blue dot. This blue dot indicates your current location. If you can’t see the blue dot, you might be in a different place. You can easily locate this blue dot by tapping on the Location icon. This icon is located on the lower right side of your screen and it looks like a bullseye. Once you locate the blue dot, you’ll also notice a blue beam coming from the dot. It’ll look like a flashlight shining a light in the dark when represented in animated videos. With this beam, you can tell if your compass is accurate. If it’s short and moves with you correctly if you turn around in place, then your compass is accurate. If it extends too far out, this means that your compass isn’t very accurate. This will bring up a prompt from your Google Maps that you need to recalibrate your Android phone. So how do you do that?
How to Calibrate Compass on Android – Secret Service Menu
This option can be done in selected Android phones since not all phones will let you access the secret service menu. If you’re lucky, opening up this menu will be easy since you only need to type in a code in your dial pad. If you’re not lucky, you have to root your Android phone first to access this menu. Generally, this menu will allow you to test various sensors on your phone. Some steps may vary from phone to phone but try out these steps to see if it works for you.
Final Thoughts
Having Google Maps or any kind of navigation app on your phone can be very useful. It can get you out of a very sticky situation when you’re lost. This is why it’s important to check if your phone is properly calibrated from time to time. Whether it’s through your Google Maps or through the Secret Service Menu, what’s important is you took the time to calibrate it.
