How to Use the Online Compass
The online compass reads your phone's built-in magnetometer through the browser — no app needed. Here is how to start it, calibrate it, and get a heading you can actually trust.
Troubleshooting
- No prompt on iPhone: Settings ▸ Apps ▸ Safari ▸ Motion & Orientation Access must be on. The page must be HTTPS (this one is).
- Needle stuck or 90° off: figure-8 calibration; remove magnetic cases; step away from cars and radiators.
- Heading drifts on Android: some browsers only expose relative orientation — the page tells you when that happens; Chrome usually provides absolute readings.
- Desktop: laptops rarely have magnetometers; the dial renders but cannot point. Use your phone.
Related: the compass corrects for magnetic declination automatically — hikers matching a paper map should know their map's declination date, since it drifts a little every year.
Step by step
- Open the compass page on your phone (compasses need motion sensors, so desktops show a demo dial only).
- Tap Start compass. On iPhone, approve the Motion & Orientation prompt; on Android it starts immediately.
- Hold the phone flat like a map, screen up, away from magnets — cases with magnetic clasps, car mounts and laptops all bend the reading.
- Calibrate by waving the phone in a slow figure-8 for a few seconds until the needle settles.
- Optionally allow location so the dial corrects from magnetic to true north using your local declination.
- Tap Focus mode for a clean, full-screen dial — Esc or the button exits.
Try it now
—°
Point your phone
Works offline · nothing leaves your device · magnetic → true north corrected with your local declination when location is allowed.