How to use your phone as a shot timer

Can you use your phone as a shot timer?

Yes. A shot timer app turns your phone into a timer: it gives the start beep, hears each shot through the microphone and shows every split the moment you stop. That works for dry fire and on the range. A phone doesn't fully replace a good dedicated timer, but for most practice it does the job.

1. Allow the microphone

A shot timer listens for shots, so the app needs the microphone. It asks the first time you need it: when you press START, open the mic test or run Auto-configure. Without the permission it can't time a string.

The microphone is only used while the app is listening, and the signal is analysed in memory. Nothing is recorded or sent anywhere; the privacy policy has the details.

2. Tune shot detection

Every gun, room and phone sounds different, so set detection once for each place you train. All of it lives under Settings → Shot detection.

• Auto-configure is the quickest way. Tap Start, fire a few shots with your usual ammo and stance, then tap Stop. The app suggests a sensitivity and a frequency band that fit what it heard. Tap a capture to leave it out, for example a door slamming.
• Test microphone shows a live level meter with a red threshold line. Make the sound you want to detect and adjust the sensitivity until its peaks just cross the line, while the sounds you want to ignore stay below it. Gunshots usually push the meter to 95–100%.
• Frequency band filter only counts sounds whose energy sits in the band you set. It keeps out rumble, hiss and most noise that isn't a shot.

The start beep never counts as a shot, and a shot fired while the beep is still playing does. An echo filter ignores the reflections right after a shot, so one shot doesn't count twice off a wall or a baffle.

3. Where to put the phone

• Keep the microphone uncovered. In a pocket or a closed pouch, shots arrive muffled and the quiet ones can drop below the threshold.
• Put it in the same place every time, close to you, so the levels you tuned stay valid.
• On the range, keep it out of the way of ejected brass and away from the muzzle line.
• During a string you can lock the screen or switch apps: the timer keeps detecting shots and playing par beeps. Android shows a notification while it runs.

4. Hear the beep

Turn the media volume up. If it is muted or at zero while a string runs, the app shows a one-line notice so you don't stand there waiting for a beep that never comes.

Ear protection and loud ranges. Switch on the screen flash and the vibration on the beep in Settings → Beep. They fire at the same moment as the sound, so you can start on the flash when the beep is hard to hear. With reduced motion switched on in your phone's settings, a subtle edge ring replaces the flash.

Bluetooth speakers. Bluetooth adds delay, but the clock starts when the microphone hears the beep, not when the phone asks for it to play. A speaker the phone can hear is measured on every string, so its lag doesn't end up in your times.

Earbuds and headphones. The microphone can't hear sound that only plays in your ears. For that case, set a beep latency offset under Settings → Shot detection. Leave it at 0 for everything else, so the automatic measurement does the work.

5. Dry fire and live fire

A dry-fire click is much quieter than a shot. Either raise the sensitivity until the click registers, or don't rely on detection at all: Par mode gives you a start beep and a par beep, and you train to finish before the second one. The dry-fire par drills guide has drills and starting par times.

For live fire, run Auto-configure on the range with the gun and ammo you're shooting that day. The levels from your living room won't match an outdoor bay or an indoor range.

6. On a busy range

A sound-based timer can't tell your shot from your neighbour's if both are equally loud. That's true for dedicated timers as well. With the phone close to you, your shots are louder than the next bay's, which helps. If a neighbour's shot still counts, or the timer misses one of yours, fix it afterwards: delete the extra shot in the review, or add a missed one by hand.

7. Drills, history and CSV

• Saved drills: save the current mode, start delay and par or stage times under a name, and load any of them with a tap on the Drills tab.
• History: every string is saved with the drill it was shot with. Keep up to 5,000 (500 by default); the oldest go first. A run that detected no shots isn't saved unless you add a shot by hand.
• Review: each string shows its splits, first shot, fastest, slowest and average split. Add a label, notes and a penalty.
• CSV: export a single string or your whole history through the share sheet and open it in any spreadsheet.

Wondering whether this replaces the timer in your range bag? Shot timer app or dedicated shot timer compares the two honestly, and free shot timer apps compared shows which apps actually hear your shots.

More guides

• Dry-fire par drills with par timesSafety rules, how par time training works, and five classic drills with starting par times and timer settings.
• Shot timer app or dedicated shot timer?An honest comparison: beep, microphone and fast splits, battery, price and history, and which timer to buy.
• Par timer vs. shot timer: what's the difference?A par timer only beeps, a shot timer hears your shots. What each one does and when a par timer is enough.
• Free shot timer apps comparedWhich free apps hear your shots, run on Android and iPhone, show ads or collect data.