Published on August 30th, 2017 | by Guest

Are There Any Drones I Can Use With My iPhone?

Ten years ago, smartphones were practically a luxury item. Few people had them at first, but they quickly grew in popularity. Now virtually everyone who has a cell phone has a smartphone model, and we shudder to think what we’d do without this nifty little device.

It’s our primary tool for communication, playing games and checking the weather, but developers are always working on new apps to make smartphones, and iPhones in particular, increasingly useful. That’s why it should come as no surprise to learn that you can now use a drone (another incredible feat of engineering) with your iPhone!

Using an iPhone to Control a Drone

If you had to see this list from dronesbuy.net of the best drones for iPhone users you can see that one popular way iPhones are used to control a drone’s flight pattern is through mimicry. The drone itself will mimic whatever you do with your phone. If you tip your phone forward, the drone will tip too. If you rotate your phone 90 degrees, the drone will also rotate 90 degrees. It doesn’t get much easier! The Ghostdrone 2.0 and Parrot AR models are just two examples of drones that use mimicry to fly.

If you have experience with a handheld controller and want that familiarity plus the convenience of an iPhone, then there are other models with a joystick-like toggle on your iPhone screen. Simply use your thumb to send the drone forward, back, up, down, left or right. And if you prefer to hold something more substantial in your hands while using the toggle controls, you can buy a controller with a deck for your iPhone, allowing you to experience the full effect of flying a drone with the ease, convenience and lower price associated with iPhone controls.

Still other drones allow you to select from a short list of commands in order to direct the drone’s flight path. Or, you can choose from different predetermined flight modes on drones like the Yuneec Breeze 4K, which has 5 modes to select: Follow Me, Journey, Selfie, Orbit or Pilot.

All in all, most drones that use iPhones for controls are pretty user-friendly. If you can swipe and tap, you can fly a drone!

And it’s not just iPhones of course which have picked on this trend. You’ll see that there are apps for controlling drones with Android phones too. Given the popularity of both Android phones, Samsung (android-powered) devices, and iPhones, you would expect that all of these manufacturers and supplies would leap onto the bandwagon.

Pros and Cons of Controlling a Drone With Your Phone

One of the major benefits of using an iPhone with a drone is that it gives you one less piece of equipment to think about. That’s the ultimate appeal of an iPhone anyway: it’s a phone, music player, video player, newspaper, game console, fitness tracker and, now, drone controller all rolled into one pocket-sized device. When you are camping or traveling, carrying fewer things is a great advantage.

Another huge benefit when using an iPhone to guide your drone, is the FPV element of First-Person-View. If your drone also has a camera (which most drones and quadcopters do), the iPhone app probably provides a FPV view of what the drone camera is seeing. This means, that if you want to take pictures or videos, you don’t have to “guess” what the drone is looking at, because you’ll be seeing exactly the view from the drone.

This gives you a great way of capturing stunning photos and video.

Also, controlling a drone with your phone makes it easy to guide a drone over difficult terrain or long(ish) distances. Typically the drone’s camera feed appears on your iPhone’s display in real-time along with any controls, commands or toggles. This allows you to maneuver the drone with ease even when it goes out of sight and to ensure you get the perfect footage.

In reality, controlling a drone with a phone is something which we will be seeing more and more. With phone-integration becoming a central part of the success of any technology gadget, you can expect the feature set of iPhone drones to keep getting better and better.

There is always going to be a bit of a limitation for certain professional drones, particularly in the range which can be used in controlling a drone with an iPhone.

Unfortunately, you are beholden to whatever range your WiFi allows. Most iPhone to drone technology is connected via WiFi, and this means the drone cannot get too far away from your phone without shutting down.

You’ll see that such drones as the DJI Mavic and the Phantom series will use phones in another way. You can use the iPhone as an FPV view. So once again, you’ll be using the actual drone’s controller to have a range (up to several kilometers/miles), and the phone will be used to actually see where the drone is going.

The reason is that as the drone gets further and further away, you won’t be able to even see it! So you’ll have to have an extra set of “eyes” … and this comes as the integration of the drone controller with your iPhone, allowing you to see exactly what the drone is seeing. That’s of course a great advantage for videographers and photographers. Without even being in the visual range of the drone, they can still get stunning video and photo.

And speaking about range, MIT recently developed a drone that could be controlled from miles away – over 2,500 miles, in fact! Perhaps one day soon we will see such technology on the market for average consumers.

Ready to dive deep into the specs of the different drones to see which one is right for you? Then check out this list from dronesbuy.net of iPhone drones for various budgets and other requirements. You’ll find detailed descriptions of features, including camera quality, ease of use and flight time to help you pick out the best drone for you or a loved one!

Tags: drones, iPhone, use