How to measure someone’s height on iPhone

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Did you know that LiDAR-equipped iPhones can be used to measure someone’s height?

That’s right, no more having to get squirmy toddlers to stand in one place while you use a ruler to mark the wall. The inbuilt Measure app on iOS is all you need.

You can also use it to measure rectangular objects, like packages you want to mail. The LiDAR sensor even enables an augmented reality ruler, so you are never far from a measuring tool.

Here’s how to use your iPhone to measure someone’s height

To start, you’ll need one of the following iPhones: iPhone 12 Pro, iPhone 12 Pro Max, iPhone 13 Pro, iPhone 13 Pro Max, iPhone 14 Pro, or iPhone 14 Pro Max.

Once you have confirmed your iPhone has the feature, follow along below:

Open the Measure app on your iPhone

Point the camera at the person you want to measure

There are a few things to keep in mind. Measuring someone’s height seems to only work in portrait orientation.

The person needs to be fully in frame. The image above gives you a good idea of how to place them. You also will need to keep pointing the camera at them for a few seconds.

The app does all the heavy lifting for you. Once it determines it is looking at a person, a white dotted line appears next to the head.

That line slowly scrolls up until it’s at the top of their head, hair, or hat and goes solid when it reaches the final measurement. You can also measure people when they’re sitting down, although this seems less useful.

Your iPhone has all kinds of features like this that you might not know about. We’ll keep surfacing more, so you can fully take advantage of all the tools and tricks that Apple has built in.

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Joe Rice-Jones

Maker, meme-r, and unabashed geek with nearly half a decade of blogging experience at KnowTechie, SlashGear and XDA Developers. If it runs on electricity (or even if it doesn't), Joe probably has one around his office somewhere, with particular focus in gadgetry and handheld gaming. Shoot him an email at joe@knowtechie.com.