What You'll Have After Ten Minutes with TrueMeter
A timestamped sound reading, a light comparison between two spots in a room, a level check, and — if you want it — a PDF built from that data. None of it requires an account, and the whole walkthrough below takes about ten minutes on a phone you already own.
- An iPhone with TrueMeter installed
- A few minutes in the actual room or spot you care about, not a quiet office
- Willingness to allow microphone and camera access when iOS asks — both are used live and never saved
- TrueMeter Pro unlocked, if you want PDF export and unlimited saved history (optional for the first few steps)
Step 1: Open TrueMeter and pick your meter
The home screen shows three cards: Sound Meter, Light Meter, and Level & Vibration. There's no setup screen, no login, no tutorial to skip through. Tap the one that matches what you're trying to measure right now.
Step 2: Get a decibel reading in two taps
Tap Sound Meter and the live dBA number appears immediately, alongside min, average, max, and Leq, a running graph, and frequency bands underneath. Watch it for thirty seconds in the actual space — a fridge hum, traffic outside, a neighbour's bass — and you'll see the number move in real time as the sound changes.
Step 3: Record the moment while it's happening
A single reading is a snapshot; a recording is evidence. Tap the record button and TrueMeter timestamps the whole session as it captures it, so a spike at 11:47pm shows up exactly where it happened on the graph, not as a vague memory of "pretty late."
Step 4: Compare two spots with the light meter
Back on the home screen, tap Light Meter. It gives you an estimated lux reading from the camera and lets you save a spot for comparison. Walk to a second location — the other side of the room, a different desk — and TrueMeter shows you which one is actually brighter, instead of you guessing based on how tired your eyes are.
Step 5: Check level and vibration, no permissions needed
Tap Level & Vibration and you'll see a bubble level with a digital angle readout, plus vibration axes reading directly off the phone's motion sensors. Nothing to allow, nothing to configure — it works the moment the screen opens, because it never touches the microphone or camera at all.
Step 6: Read the accuracy limits before you trust the number
This is the step most meter apps skip entirely. TrueMeter has a dedicated accuracy screen that states the reliable measurement band plainly — where the reading is solid, and where it starts to drift. Read it once, and you'll know exactly how much weight to put on the number you just saw, instead of assuming a phone can measure like a calibrated instrument.
Step 7: Open the saved session and review the full graph
Every recording lands in your history list automatically. Tap a session to open the detail view, where the full graph, min/avg/max, and Leq are laid out together — useful when you're trying to show a pattern over an hour, not just a single loud second.
Step 8: Export a landlord-ready PDF report
With TrueMeter Pro unlocked, the session detail screen has an export option that turns your recording into a clean PDF: timestamps, readings, and the same graph, formatted so someone who has never opened the app can still understand it. This is the one-time purchase — export once or export fifty times, the price doesn't change.
Common questions
Do I need to allow microphone and camera access?
Yes, for the Sound Meter and Light Meter specifically — iOS will ask the first time you open each one. TrueMeter processes audio and camera frames live and never records, stores, or transmits them; the App Store listing itself states Data Not Collected.
Does the Level & Vibration tool need any permissions?
No. It reads directly from the phone's built-in motion sensors, so it opens and works instantly with nothing to allow.
Is TrueMeter a subscription?
No. TrueMeter Pro is a single one-time purchase that unlocks exports, extra weightings, alerts, and unlimited history. There's no recurring charge, ever.
Can I use this for a noise complaint against a neighbour?
Yes — recording timestamped sessions and exporting a PDF is exactly the workflow for that. For a deeper look at building a solid case, see how to document a noisy neighbour with your iPhone.
Why does the accuracy screen matter so much?
Because a phone microphone has real physical limits, and TrueMeter states them instead of hiding them in fine print. Read more in why most phone decibel meters lie, and TrueMeter doesn't.
Once you've run through this once, the rest is repetition — same steps, different rooms. For more ways to get readings that hold up under scrutiny, see TrueMeter Tips: Get Readings You Can Actually Defend or browse the full checklist category.
This article was drafted with AI assistance and reviewed by a human editor before publishing.