Native iOS features

Build an iPhone app that counts steps and senses motion

Borel builds iPhone apps that read the phone's own motion sensors: today's steps, tilt and shake. Describe what your app should count or react to, and Borel writes it in Swift with Apple's Core Motion, using the pedometer for steps and the motion sensors for how the phone is held and moved.

Ideas

What you can build with motion and steps

A few apps people make with it. Describe yours in your own words.

  • A daily walk goal

    Today's steps toward a goal, filling up as you go.

  • A spirit level

    A bubble that slides as you tilt the phone.

  • Shake to choose

    Shake the phone to pick tonight's dinner or a name from a hat.

  • A walking week

    Each day's steps side by side, to see your week at a glance.

  • A step streak

    The days in a row you reached your goal.

Try it

A prompt to start from

Copy it, or start with it and change it to fit your idea.

The prompt
“A daily walk app: today's steps toward a goal, and a spirit level that shows tilt.”

From words to your iPhone

Three steps, no code

  • 1

    Describe it

    Say what the app does in plain words, or start from the prompt above. No code, and no Mac.

  • 2

    Watch it build

    Borel writes the Swift, compiles it with Xcode on its own Mac and opens it in the iOS Simulator, streamed into your browser.

  • 3

    Put it on your iPhone

    Borel Companion installs it over a cable the first time, then over Wi-Fi, and while it runs it puts each new version on by itself.

How Borel handles it

Written in Swift, with Apple's own frameworks

What Borel takes care of for you, so the feature works the way iPhone owners expect.

  • Steps from the pedometer

    CMPedometer counts steps the way the iPhone does, after iOS asks once with a sentence Borel writes.

  • Tilt and shake

    CMMotionManager reads how the phone is tilted and moved, with no permission needed.

  • Checked before it starts

    The app checks the sensors are there and says so on screen, rather than showing a zero.

The iOS Simulator in your browser has no motion sensors, so there the app says so on screen. On your iPhone, with Borel Companion, steps and tilt come alive.

Your Apple ID

Works with a free Apple ID

Yes. Borel Companion puts the app on your own iPhone with a free Apple ID, which keeps up to 3 of your apps there, and Companion renews them every 7 days for you.

Frequently asked questions

From the iPhone's own sensors, through Apple's Core Motion pedometer. The app reads them directly.

Yes. The iPhone counts all day, so the app can show today's total the moment it opens.

For steps, yes: iOS asks once for Motion & Fitness, with your app's own sentence. Tilt and shake need no permission.

Whatever your app needs: roll a die, pick a name, shuffle a list or start over.

Yes. Every iPhone that runs iOS 17 counts steps and senses tilt and shake.

Yes. Ask in the chat, or choose Motion sensors from Device in the chat's + menu.

Build your app with motion and steps

Start from the prompt above, change it to fit your idea, and Borel builds it while you watch.