Speed Glance User Guide
See your GPS speed as one large, calm number, in the app and on the Lock Screen, Dynamic Island, StandBy and CarPlay, in a car, plane, boat, on a bike or on foot.
Table of Contents
Basic Usage
How do I start seeing my speed?
Open Speed Glance. The first time, iOS asks for permission to use your location; choose "Allow While Using App". Your speed appears as soon as GPS has a fix, usually within a few seconds outdoors. There's nothing to tap: a trip starts by itself whenever you open the app, and your speed also appears on the Lock Screen.
Can I use Speed Glance while driving?
Set it up before you drive and glance at it as you would your car's speedometer: don't tap or adjust the app while driving. A passenger can change settings for you. GPS speed is an estimate, so always follow your car's speedometer and the road signs.
How do I end a trip?
Tap "End trip" at the bottom of the speed screen, or the End trip button on the Lock Screen, in StandBy or in the expanded Dynamic Island. You don't have to end trips yourself: once you've left the app, a trip ends after you've been stopped for 10 minutes. After you end a trip, tap "Start trip" to begin another, or leave the app and come back.
Can I start and stop trips myself instead?
Yes. Turn on Settings > Trip > Start and stop manually. The app then opens on a Ready screen where you choose your vehicle and tap Start. During the trip, use Pause and Resume, and Stop to end it. A manual trip runs until you stop it.
How do I choose my vehicle?
Tap the vehicle button (for example "Car") at the top left of the speed screen and pick Car, Plane, Boat, Walk or Bike. Each vehicle has its own unit, and its own timing for how long to wait through a lost signal: 10 seconds for Car, Walk and Bike, 20 seconds for Boat and 60 seconds for Plane, where the signal drops often. Trains and buses work best in Car mode. To choose which vehicle a new trip starts in, go to Settings > Trip > Default vehicle.
How do I change the unit?
Tap the unit under the number (for example "mph"). Each tap moves to the next unit: mph, km/h, knots, then pace (minutes per mile or per km). Each vehicle remembers its own unit, so Boat can stay in knots while Car shows mph. To see or set every vehicle's unit at once, go to Settings > Units.
How does Walk mode work?
Walk shows pace (minutes per mile or km) by default. Indoors or where GPS is weak, the step counter fills in, and the status shows "Steps" so you always know the speed came from your steps rather than GPS. Walk also offers Steps, Cadence and Floors climbed as stats. The first Walk trip asks for Motion & Fitness access; if you decline, Walk uses GPS alone. If you start walking in Car or Bike mode, the app may ask "Switch to Walk?"; it never switches by itself.
The Speed Screen
What does the icon in the top row mean?
It's the GPS status. A signal icon means a good fix and an accurate speed. Other icons mean Searching (waiting for a first fix), Fair (the speed is shown but is a little less certain, and won't set a new Max), Weak (the speed is too uncertain to show, so you'll see "—"), No signal, or Steps (in Walk mode, the step counter is filling in for GPS). Each status has its own icon shape, so it never relies on color alone, and VoiceOver reads its name.
Why does the number turn gray with "Last reading"?
When GPS signal is lost, in a tunnel for example, the app keeps showing your last good speed, dimmed, with how long ago it was measured. If the signal doesn't come back within your vehicle's wait time, the number changes to "—" and a "No signal" notice says the app is still trying. Your speed returns on its own as soon as the signal does.
What are the two cards under the number?
They're trip stats: Max and Moving time by default. You can choose any two of Max, Average, Elapsed, Moving time, Distance, Altitude, Heading, Climb rate, Average pace, Steps, Cadence and Floors climbed, or None for a screen with the number alone. Go to Settings > Stats and tap a card to change it. Max, Average, Average pace, Distance and Moving time belong to each vehicle: switch from Car to Walk mid-trip and Walk starts its own figures, so a walk never shows the drive's top speed.
What does the arrow and letter under the unit mean?
That's your direction of travel, such as "↗ NE", taken from GPS. Turn it on or off in Settings > Look > Details > Direction. When you slow below about 3 km/h (2 mph), the last direction stays, dimmed.
Does the screen work in landscape?
Yes. Turn your iPhone on its side and the number moves to the left, with your stats and trip controls on the right. This works well in a dashboard mount.
Does the screen stay on?
Yes, during a trip, as long as Settings > Trip > Keep screen awake is on (it is by default). While a manual trip is paused, your iPhone can sleep as usual.
Lock Screen, StandBy and CarPlay
How do I see my speed without opening the app?
Speed Glance shows your speed in a Live Activity on the Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island while a trip is running. It updates about once a second. If you swiped it away, tap "Show on Lock Screen" on the speed screen to bring it back.
How do I see my speed in CarPlay?
When your iPhone is connected to CarPlay, the Live Activity appears on the CarPlay dashboard. Speed Glance doesn't need to be open on your iPhone.
What is StandBy, and how do I use it in a car mount?
StandBy shows the Live Activity full screen when your iPhone is charging, locked and on its side. In a charging car mount, turn on StandBy in iOS Settings > StandBy; when your iPhone locks, your speed fills the screen. At night, StandBy turns the display red along with the rest of the screen.
Can I add a stat to the Lock Screen?
Yes. Go to Settings > Lock Screen, CarPlay and choose "Speed + stat", then pick the extra stat. Choose "Speed only" for the number alone. The Lock Screen, Dynamic Island and CarPlay use your accent color.
Why does the Lock Screen say "Tap to keep showing speed"?
iOS limits a Live Activity to about 8 hours. On a very long trip, the app replaces it with a fresh one while the app is open. If it's in the background, the Lock Screen asks you to tap it; tapping opens the app, which keeps your speed showing. Your trip's stats carry over.
Features and Display
Can I show a gauge instead of a number?
Yes. Go to Settings > Look and set Show as to Gauge, then swipe through the Gauge style tiles and tap one: Classic, Arc, Segments, Ring, Bar graph, Speed tape, Trip trace or Chevrons. The preview at the top of the page shows exactly how your speed will look. The gauge's scale suits each vehicle and grows if you go faster. Pace always shows as a number.
What is Trip trace?
Trip trace draws the last minute of your speed as bars, one per second, with the newest on the right. A gap means the signal was lost for those seconds. The trace is kept only for the current trip and is never saved.
How do I change the size, style or color of the number?
Go to Settings > Look. Size offers Large, Extra large and Fill, which makes the number as big as the screen allows and hides the stat cards if they'd squeeze it. Number style offers Default, Condensed, Monospaced and Digital. Under Details, choose how the number changes between readings (Roll, Odometer, Fade, Count or None), and whether to show one decimal (for speeds; pace always shows minutes and seconds). Under Color, pick one of eight accent colors; with Match app icon on, your Home Screen icon changes to match, and iOS confirms each change.
What are speed bands?
Speed bands change the number's color when you go above speeds you choose: amber above the Caution band and red above the Warning band, with an icon and a label such as "70+ mph" so they never rely on color alone. Turn them on and set their speeds in Settings > Speed bands. They're a cue on screen only: no sounds or alerts.
What is night mode?
Night mode turns the app red on black to protect your night vision. Go to Settings > Night mode and choose Off, On or Automatic, which follows sunset and sunrise where you are, calculated on your iPhone.
What is HUD mode?
HUD (head-up display) mode reflects your speed in the windshield. Lay your iPhone flat on the dashboard, screen up, 15 to 30 cm from the bottom of the windshield, and tap HUD on the speed screen. The first time, a short setup explains the placement and lets you pick a color (Green, White, Amber, Cyan or Red). In HUD, tap the screen to show Exit HUD, Flip (if the reflection reads the wrong way) and the colors. HUD works best at dusk and at night; for a sharper single image, you can add a small reflective HUD film to the inside of the windshield. Set up HUD while parked, or let a passenger do it. If your iPhone gets warm, HUD dims itself and says so; if it gets too hot, it closes. To end a trip, exit HUD first. Revisit the tips anytime in Settings > HUD setup.
Does Speed Glance work with VoiceOver and larger text?
Yes. VoiceOver reads your speed and unit, such as "42 miles per hour", and speaks updates at most every 10 seconds so it never talks over itself; double-tap to hear the current speed. The number and labels grow with your text size, every status has its own icon shape as well as a color, and with Reduce Motion on, the number changes instantly instead of animating.
Settings and Preferences
How do I open Settings?
Tap the settings button (the sliders icon) at the top right of the speed screen. The top of Settings shows a preview of your speed screen, and each row shows its current setting, so you can see your setup at a glance.
What's in each part of Settings?
Speedometer: Look (number or gauge, size, styles, animation, decimal, direction and color), Units (each vehicle's unit), Speed bands and Stats. Trip: Default vehicle, Start and stop manually, Keep screen awake, Haptics, and Car adjustment. Other screens: Night mode, Lock Screen, CarPlay, Open HUD and HUD setup. Help: User guide, Contact us, and Rate Speed Glance. About: iCloud sync status, Tips and privacy, Diagnostics, the Privacy policy, the Terms of use, and More from Asymmetric Enterprises.
My car's speedometer reads higher than Speed Glance. Which is right?
Most car speedometers are set to read a little high, so GPS is usually closer to your true speed. To make Car mode match your car's speedometer anyway, go to Settings > Trip > Car adjustment and move the slider, up to 10% either way. It changes the speed and the Max, Average and Average pace stats in Car mode only; distance stays as GPS measures it.
What do haptics do?
With Settings > Trip > Haptics on, your iPhone taps gently when a trip starts, pauses or stops, when you change unit, and when the GPS signal is lost or comes back.
Do my settings sync to my other devices?
Yes. When you're signed in to iCloud, your settings sync to your other iPhones and come back after you reinstall the app. Settings > About > iCloud sync shows whether sync is on. Trips, speeds and locations are never synced or stored.
What is Settings > About > Diagnostics?
iOS gathers performance reports for Speed Glance on your iPhone, about once a day: battery and CPU use, any hangs or crashes, and why the app closed, along with the app version, your iPhone model and iOS version. Settings > About > Diagnostics shows how many there are. They contain no location, speed or trips, stay on your iPhone for 14 days, and are never sent automatically. If you contact us about a problem, tap Share diagnostics to send them in one file with the app you choose, such as Mail. Tap Delete diagnostics to remove them.
Can a Focus change Speed Glance's settings?
Yes. In iOS Settings > Focus, choose a Focus (such as Driving), tap Add Filter, and choose Speed Glance. You can set night mode, what the Lock Screen shows and the HUD color for while that Focus is on. They switch back when the Focus ends.
Troubleshooting
Why does the app say "Searching…" or show "—"?
GPS needs a clear view of the sky. Indoors, in a parking garage, or deep inside a plane or train, the signal may be too weak for an accurate speed, so the app shows "—" rather than a wrong number. Move outdoors or near a window; after a while without a fix, the app suggests this too. In a plane, a window seat works best, and GPS works in airplane mode.
Why doesn't Speed Glance show my speed at all?
Check that Location Services are on (iOS Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services), and that Speed Glance is allowed "While Using the App" with Precise Location on. Speed can't be measured without Precise Location. If something is off, the app says what and offers a button to open Settings.
Why isn't my speed on the Lock Screen?
Make sure Live Activities are on for Speed Glance in iOS Settings > Speed Glance; when they're off, the speed screen says "Lock Screen display is off" with a button to Settings. If you swiped the Live Activity away, tap "Show on Lock Screen" on the speed screen. If a stale state shows "Updates paused", iOS stopped the app's updates in the background; open Speed Glance and they resume.
Why does pace show "—" when I'm barely moving?
Below about 1.5 km/h (1 mph), a pace would be a huge, meaningless number, so the app shows "—" until you're moving again.
Why did my speed leave the Lock Screen during a flight?
In Plane mode, if there's been no GPS fix for 15 minutes (often the case away from a window), the app ends the Lock Screen display rather than show a stale speed. Your trip continues; open Speed Glance to bring it back.
Why does the speed update less often sometimes?
Low Power Mode can slow location updates, and a note on the speed screen says so when it's on. The Lock Screen can also run a second or two behind the app, because iOS limits how often Live Activities refresh.
Is my location data private?
Yes. Speed Glance uses your location on your iPhone only, to show your speed. It never stores or shares your location, speed or trips, has no account, collects no data, and contains no ads or trackers. The only thing that leaves your iPhone on its own is your settings, synced through your own iCloud account. Diagnostic reports leave only if you choose Share diagnostics.