Scrollometer

Find out how far you actually scroll.

Scrollometer turns the time you spend scrolling into a distance you can picture. It runs entirely on your iPhone. It has no account, no sign-in, and no server — nothing it measures ever leaves your device.

Getting help

Email support@martinapps.dev. Include your iPhone model and iOS version if you are reporting something that is not working, and I will reply.

Frequently asked questions

My distance says zero, or has stopped updating.

Scrollometer depends on Apple's Screen Time service reporting your usage to it, and that service occasionally stops delivering. Three things to check, in order:

1. Open Settings inside Scrollometer and confirm Screen Time access is still granted. iOS can revoke it, particularly after an iOS update.
2. Confirm you have selected at least one app to track. Scrollometer only measures the apps you explicitly choose.
3. If both look right, go to the Today screen. When tracking has stalled, Today shows a banner with a Restart tracking button. Be aware that today's figure restarts from zero: tracking only counts usage that happens after it is restarted.

If it is still stuck after that, email me — that is a bug worth knowing about.

How is the distance calculated?

Multiply three numbers: how many minutes you spent in an app, how fast people typically scroll in that app (measured in screen-heights per minute), and the physical height of your iPhone's display.

This is an estimate, not a measurement, and Scrollometer is deliberate about saying so. iOS does not let any app watch what happens inside another app — that is a privacy protection, and a good one. What iOS provides, with your permission, is how much time you spent. The distance is a model built on top of that time. The Methodology screen inside the app shows the exact figure used for every app you track.

Why does it say "at least"?

Because the time the figure is built from is counted conservatively. Usage is counted in whole minutes, so a partial minute is not counted at all, and the minutes behind your distance are a floor rather than a rounded-up guess.

That is a statement about the time, not a guarantee about the distance. The other half of the calculation is a typical scrolling speed for that kind of app, and that is an assumption rather than a measurement of you — iOS does not let any app watch what happens inside another app. If you scroll faster than the assumed rate the real distance is higher; if you scroll slower, it is lower. The Methodology screen shows the exact rate used for every app you track, so you can see what the estimate rests on.

Why does Scrollometer need Screen Time access?

It is the mechanism iOS provides for an app to learn how long you spent in other apps. Scrollometer asks for it during setup and uses it for exactly one purpose: counting minutes in the apps you selected, so it can convert them to a distance.

Scrollometer cannot see what you looked at, who you talked to, or what you typed. The Screen Time data available to it does not include any of that, and Scrollometer requests nothing beyond the usage time for apps you have picked yourself.

Does Scrollometer collect or send any of my data?

No. Not anonymised, not aggregated, not for analytics, not for advertising. The app contains no networking code at all, no analytics SDK and no advertising SDK. Everything it records stays in its own storage on your iPhone and is deleted when you delete the app. See the privacy policy.

Can I change which apps are tracked?

Not in version 1. The apps you pick during setup are the apps it tracks, and the only way to change them is to delete Scrollometer and set it up again — which also deletes your history, because that history only ever existed on your phone. So choose deliberately at setup. An in-app way to change the selection without losing history is the first thing being built for the next version.

Does Scrollometer know which apps I picked?

Not by name. The app picker is Apple's own, so the apps you choose are never revealed to Scrollometer as names it can read or transmit. iOS hands it an opaque token instead.

Does my history sync to my other devices?

No. Version 1 stores everything locally on one device. There is no iCloud sync, because there is no server and no account.

Which iPhones does it support?

iPhone running iOS 17 or later.

About

Scrollometer is made by Martin Apps LLC, a one-person studio. If something is broken or a number looks wrong, email support@martinapps.dev — it goes to a person.