Magus Controls Your Phone With Physical Gestures (Not On-Screen Ones)

Android: Magus is a new utility that lets you move your phone in three dimensions to open apps, unlock, take pictures, and perform other common tasks. For example, you can flip your phone over twice horizontally to unlock it. Flip it over vertically twice to turn on the flashlight. Best of all, you can customise any or all of the built-in gestures.

The video above does a good job of showing you how the app works. Often “gestures” is interpreted to mean “drawing on-screen” but in this case, it requires physically moving your phone around its central axis to perform specific actions. It’s a unique way to lock and unlock your device, and it’s an even better way to open and snap pictures without having to unlock first, somewhat similar to the way the camera on the Moto X works. You can program specific events to take place with specific gesture sets, or use any of the pre-programmed ones.

The app is in beta, and may not work perfectly on all devices. Still, it looks promising, and definitely adds a personal touch to the way you interact with your device.

There’s a free version that gives you a general idea of the features, and lets you use gestures for a handful of tasks. Paying $1.09 for the full version gets you more gesture options and full customisation.

Magus Free/Magus ($1.09) [Google Play via XDA Developer Forums]