Javascript. Listen for iPhone shake event?

Question

Is it possible to listen for an iPhone (or any mobile phone with accelerometer) shake event with JavaScript? You know like shaking the iPhone to shuffle the next song in iTunes I want to call a JS function on my website when the iPhone got shaken.

Answer 1

Not as a straight web app, no. If you wrap your web app in PhoneGap, it exposes accelerometer and other app-only features to the site running within it, but the downside is that people have to actually download your app - they can't just browse to a site in Safari.

Answer 2

In the latest iOS update (4.2) the accelorometer is now accessible from Javascript.

See: http://www.mobilexweb.com/blog/safari-ios-accelerometer-websockets-html5

Answer 3

Here's an elegant implementation of shake detection using the accelerometer if anyone is looking for it:

https://github.com/alexgibson/shake.js

Answer 4

I just implemented the above in my web app which now has controls that appear on the page only after a device shake occurs. Very easy to implement and cleanly described.

https://github.com/alexgibson/shake.js

It is also worth noting that the iOS simulator's shake gesture doesn't trigger the event but a genuine device shake does.