How do I detect when someone shakes an iPhone?

Question

I want to react when somebody shakes the iPhone. I don't particularly care how they shake it, just that it was waved vigorously about for a split second. Does anyone know how to detect this?

Answer 1

First off, I know this is an old post, but it is still relevant, and I found that the two highest voted answers did not detect the shake as early as possible. This is how to do it:

1. Link CoreMotion to your project in the target's build phases:

2. In your ViewController:

   - (BOOL)canBecomeFirstResponder {
       return YES;
   }
   
   - (void)motionBegan:(UIEventSubtype)motion withEvent:(UIEvent *)event
   {
       if (motion == UIEventSubtypeMotionShake) {
           // Shake detected.
       }
   }
   

Answer 2

In 3.0, there's now an easier way - hook into the new motion events.

The main trick is that you need to have some UIView (not UIViewController) that you want as firstResponder to receive the shake event messages. Here's the code that you can use in any UIView to get shake events:

@implementation ShakingView

- (void)motionEnded:(UIEventSubtype)motion withEvent:(UIEvent *)event
{
    if ( event.subtype == UIEventSubtypeMotionShake )
    {
        // Put in code here to handle shake
    }

    if ( [super respondsToSelector:@selector(motionEnded:withEvent:)] )
        [super motionEnded:motion withEvent:event];
}

- (BOOL)canBecomeFirstResponder
{ return YES; }

@end

You can easily transform any UIView (even system views) into a view that can get the shake event simply by subclassing the view with only these methods (and then selecting this new type instead of the base type in IB, or using it when allocating a view).

In the view controller, you want to set this view to become first responder:

- (void) viewWillAppear:(BOOL)animated
{
    [shakeView becomeFirstResponder];
    [super viewWillAppear:animated];
}
- (void) viewWillDisappear:(BOOL)animated
{
    [shakeView resignFirstResponder];
    [super viewWillDisappear:animated];
}

Don't forget that if you have other views that become first responder from user actions (like a search bar or text entry field) you'll also need to restore the shaking view first responder status when the other view resigns!

This method works even if you set applicationSupportsShakeToEdit to NO.

Answer 3

Check out the GLPaint example.

http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#samplecode/GLPaint/Introduction/Intro.html

Answer 4

Sorry to post this as an answer rather than a comment but as you can see I'm new to Stack Overflow and so I'm not yet reputable enough to post comments!

Anyway I second @cire about making sure to set the first responder status once the view is part of the view hierarchy. So setting first responder status in your view controllers viewDidLoad method won't work for example. And if you're unsure as to whether it is working [view becomeFirstResponder] returns you a boolean that you can test.

Another point: you can use a view controller to capture the shake event if you don't want to create a UIView subclass unnecessarily. I know it's not that much hassle but still the option is there. Just move the code snippets that Kendall put into the UIView subclass into your controller and send the becomeFirstResponder and resignFirstResponder messages to self instead of the UIView subclass.

Answer 5

A swiftease version based on the very first answer!

override func motionEnded(_ motion: UIEventSubtype, with event: UIEvent?) {
    if ( event?.subtype == .motionShake )
    {
        print("stop shaking me!")
    }
}

Answer 6

Add Following methods in ViewController.m file, its working properly

    -(BOOL) canBecomeFirstResponder
    {
         /* Here, We want our view (not viewcontroller) as first responder 
         to receive shake event message  */

         return YES;
    }

    -(void) motionEnded:(UIEventSubtype)motion withEvent:(UIEvent *)event
    {
            if(event.subtype==UIEventSubtypeMotionShake)
            {
                    // Code at shake event

                    UIAlertView *alert=[[UIAlertView alloc] initWithTitle:@"Motion" message:@"Phone Vibrate"delegate:self cancelButtonTitle:@"OK" otherButtonTitles: nil];
                    [alert show];
                    [alert release];

                    [self.view setBackgroundColor:[UIColor redColor]];
             }
    }
    - (void)viewDidAppear:(BOOL)animated
    {
             [super viewDidAppear:animated];
             [self becomeFirstResponder];  // View as first responder 
     }