How does a smartphone compass app works if a magnet (in the speakers) are so close to them?

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How does a smartphone compass app works if a magnet (in the speakers) are so close to them?

In: Technology

2 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

From [Apple Support](https://support.apple.com/en-au/guide/iphone/iph1ac0b663/ios):

“Important: The accuracy of the compass can be affected by magnetic or environmental interference; even the magnets in the iPhone EarPods can cause a deviation.”

So it is a true magnetic compass, but is clearly calibrated to ignore the known magnetic fields around it (if any) but can be affected by anything external that you introduce.

EDIT: Yes, seems plausible.

But the direction of magnetic north is probably moot in such a situation.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Because the magnets in the speakers don’t need to be very strong and as such aren’t going to impact the readings very much. For any impact they do have you can also calibrate the magnetic sensor to ignore it from the speakers as that will be constant and always on a single dimension where most smartphone compasses measure the magnetic field in all 3 spacial dimensions (meaning you will get an X, Y, and Z value)