Device orientation events

Secure context: This feature is available only in secure contexts (HTTPS), in some or all supporting browsers.

Device orientation events are events that allow you to detect a device's physical orientation, as well as allowing you to detect the device's motion.

Concepts and usage

Mobile devices commonly have sensors such as gyroscopes, compasses, and accelerometers that can enable applications running on the device to detect the device's orientation and motion.

The device orientation events enable you to write web applications that can change their behavior based on the orientation of the user's device, and that can react when the user moves their device.

Some typical features for which you might want to use the device orientation events include:

in web-based games, to enable the user to control the motion of characters or objects in the game by tilting and moving the device
in mapping applications, to re-orient a map based on the device's position, or to provide turn-by-turn directions that update with the user's movements
for gesture recognition — for example, recognizing a "shake" gesture and using it to perform some action such as clearing an input area when the user shakes the device

Note: This API is widely supported on mobile browsers. While some desktop-only browsers may have limitations due to hardware differences, these constraints are rarely significant given the API's primary usage on sensor-equipped devices.

Interfaces

DeviceMotionEvent: Represents changes in the acceleration of a device, as well as the rotation rate.
DeviceMotionEventAcceleration: Represents the amount of acceleration the device is experiencing along all three axes
DeviceMotionEventRotationRate: Represents the rate at which the device is rotating around all three axes.
DeviceOrientationEvent: Represents changes in the physical orientation of a device.

Extensions to other interfaces

devicemotion event: Fired at a regular interval to indicate the amount of physical force of acceleration the device is receiving at that time, and the rate of rotation of the device.
deviceorientation event: Fired when fresh data is available from the device about the current orientation of the device as compared to the Earth coordinate frame.
deviceorientationabsolute event: Fired when absolute device orientation changes.

Specifications

Specification
Device Orientation and Motion

Browser compatibility

	Desktop						Mobile
	Chrome	Edge	Firefox	Opera	Safari	Chrome Android	Firefox for Android	Opera Android	Safari on IOS	Samsung Internet	WebView Android
`Device_orientation_events`	31	12	6	18	No	31	6	18	4.2	2.0	4.4.3
`alpha`	31	12	6	18	No	31	6	18	4.2	2.0	4.4.3
`beta`	31	12	6	18	No	31	6	18	4.2	2.0	4.4.3
`gamma`	31	12	6	18	No	31	6	18	4.2	2.0	4.4.3

	Desktop						Mobile
	Chrome	Edge	Firefox	Opera	Safari	Chrome Android	Firefox for Android	Opera Android	Safari on IOS	Samsung Internet	WebView Android
`Device_orientation_events`	31	12	6	18	No	31	6	18	4.2	2.0	4.4.3
`x`	31	12	6	18	No	31	6	18	4.2	2.0	4.4.3
`y`	31	12	6	18	No	31	6	18	4.2	2.0	4.4.3
`z`	31	12	6	18	No	31	6	18	4.2	2.0	4.4.3

	Desktop						Mobile
	Chrome	Edge	Firefox	Opera	Safari	Chrome Android	Firefox for Android	Opera Android	Safari on IOS	Samsung Internet	WebView Android
`DeviceMotionEvent`	59	14	29	46	No	59	29	43	No	7.0	59
`Device_orientation_events`	31	12	6	18	17	31	6	18	4.2	2.0	4.4.3
`acceleration`	31	12	6	18	17	31	6	18	4.2	2.0	4.4.3
`accelerationIncludingGravity`	31	12	6	18	17	31	6	18	4.2	2.0	4.4.3
`interval`	31	12	6	18	17	31	6	18	4.2	2.0	4.4.3
`requestPermission_static`	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	14.5	No	No
`rotationRate`	31	12	6	18	17	31	6	18	4.2	2.0	4.4.3

	Desktop						Mobile
	Chrome	Edge	Firefox	Opera	Safari	Chrome Android	Firefox for Android	Opera Android	Safari on IOS	Samsung Internet	WebView Android
`DeviceOrientationEvent`	59	14	17	46	No	59	17	43	No	7.0	59
`Device_orientation_events`	7 Before version 50, Chrome provided absolute values instead of relative values for this event. Developers still needing absolute values may use the `deviceorientationabsolute` event.	12	6 Firefox 3.6, 4, and 5 supported `mozOrientation` instead of the standard DeviceOrientationEvent interface.	15	17	18 Before version 50, Chrome provided absolute values instead of relative values for this event. Developers still needing absolute values may use the `deviceorientationabsolute` event.	6 Firefox 3.6, 4, and 5 supported `mozOrientation` instead of the standard DeviceOrientationEvent interface.	14	4.2	1.0 Before Samsung Internet 5.0, Samsung Internet provided absolute values instead of relative values for this event. Developers still needing absolute values may use the `deviceorientationabsolute` event.	3 Before version 50, Chrome provided absolute values instead of relative values for this event. Developers still needing absolute values may use the `deviceorientationabsolute` event.
`absolute`	7	12	6	15	17	18	6	14	No	1.0	4.4
`alpha`	7	12	6	15	17	18	6	14	4.2	1.0	3
`beta`	7	12	6	15	17	18	6	14	4.2	1.0	3
`gamma`	7	12	6	15	17	18	6	14	4.2	1.0	3
`requestPermission_static`	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	14.5	No	No

	Desktop						Mobile
	Chrome	Edge	Firefox	Opera	Safari	Chrome Android	Firefox for Android	Opera Android	Safari on IOS	Samsung Internet	WebView Android
`Device_orientation_events`	50	79	110	37	No	50	110	37	No	5.0	50

	Desktop						Mobile
	Chrome	Edge	Firefox	Opera	Safari	Chrome Android	Firefox for Android	Opera Android	Safari on IOS	Samsung Internet	WebView Android
`Device_orientation_events`	31	12	6	18	17	31	6	18	4.2	2.0	4.4.3

	Desktop						Mobile
	Chrome	Edge	Firefox	Opera	Safari	Chrome Android	Firefox for Android	Opera Android	Safari on IOS	Samsung Internet	WebView Android
`Device_orientation_events`	7	12	63.6–6	12	17	18	64–6	12	4.2	1.0	3