# Look Around: the view follows the phone

URL: https://www.panoramr.com/help/look-around
Category: Viewing tours
Keywords: look around, gyro, gyroscope, motion sensor, device orientation, turn the phone, phone tour, tilt to look, motion permission
Last checked: 2026-10-22

Let visitors on a phone or tablet look around a tour by turning the device: where the Look Around icon is switched on, what it needs and what visitors see.

Look Around is an icon in the phone's bars. When a visitor taps it, the picture follows the phone as they turn it, so they can look around the room by moving the device. This page lists where the icon is switched on and what visitors get. Dragging with a finger works as always, with or without it.

**Who can use it.** The owner and, by default, an Admin collaborator can open the **Design** tab. **Mobile navigation** is in the **Advanced** view only. The icon is listed only for a tour that runs on Panoramr's New player engine. Panoramr's team decides which tours run on it: the Design tab has no switch for it, and a tour on the earlier engine shows no Look Around row. Ask [us](https://www.panoramr.com/contact) if you want it on a tour.

**When visitors get a change.** **Save & Render** refreshes the stored copy that visitors get, unless Draft Workflows is on: then nothing reaches visitors until you click **Publish changes** ([when changes show](https://www.panoramr.com/help/when-do-changes-show)). The bars are part of a theme: a tour in a Pro theme that has never been hosted, on a Free plan, shows visitors the free Default look of the phone's bars.

## Switch the icon on

### Look Around in the top bar

Shows the Look Around icon in the phone's top bar.

**Where:** **Design** tab > **Mobile navigation** > **Top bar features** > **Look Around**, after **VR Mode** in the list. Advanced view. Only for a tour on the New engine.
**Default:** `off`
**What it does:** Adds the icon to the top bar the phone uses. On a phone with the **Top nav bar – multi menu** it sits in the strip of that bar.
**What visitors see:** A round button with a phone between two arcs, on a screen 768 pixels wide or narrower. A computer's title bar never shows it.
**Needs:** A tour on the New engine, and a device that can say which way it is turned (see below).
**Related:** [Mobile navigation](https://www.panoramr.com/help/design-mobile-navigation).

### Look Around in the bottom bar

Shows the Look Around icon in the phone's bottom bar.

**Where:** **Design** tab > **Mobile navigation** > **Bottom bar features** > **Look Around**, after **VR Mode** in the list. Advanced view. Only for a tour on the New engine.
**Default:** `off`
**What it does:** Adds the icon to the bottom bar.
**What visitors see:** The same button in the bottom bar.
**Needs:** As above.
**Related:** [Mobile navigation](https://www.panoramr.com/help/design-mobile-navigation).

## What visitors get

### Turn it on and off

A tap on the icon makes the picture follow the phone; the next tap turns it off.

**Where:** The icon in the phone's bar.
**Default:** Off until the visitor taps.
**What it does:** The icon is there only on a phone or a tablet held in the hand: a computer's browser has no motion sensor and gets no icon. On some phones the browser asks first whether the page may use motion; the tap asks it. When it is allowed, the picture follows the phone, the icon is lit and the tour stops turning by itself. Pressing an Autorotate button turns Look Around off, and the tour does not start turning on its own while Look Around is on.
**What visitors see:** The view moving as they turn the phone, and the lit icon.
**Needs:** The browser's permission where it asks.
**Related:** [Auto-rotate and autoplay](https://www.panoramr.com/help/configuring-auto-rotate-and-autoplay-for-kiosks-and-displays).

### Messages

A short note appears over the tour when Look Around cannot start.

**Where:** Over the picture, near the bottom, for a few seconds. It is read out to a screen reader too.
**Default:** Shown only when needed.
**What it does:** If the visitor does not allow motion, the note reads `Motion was not allowed. Drag to look around.` If the device allowed it but sends no readings within about 2 seconds, the note reads `This device does not say which way it is turned. Drag to look around.` Look Around is off again. The notes are in the platform's languages.
**What visitors see:** The note, and the picture still dragged by finger.
**Related:** [Accessibility in a tour](https://www.panoramr.com/help/accessibility-settings-reduced-motion-and-screen-reader-support-in-360).

## Troubleshooting

**There is no Look Around row in the Design tab.** The tour is not on the New engine. [Contact us](https://www.panoramr.com/contact) to have it switched.

**The icon is not on my phone.** Check that it is switched on and saved, that the tour is on the New engine, that the page is not a copy kept before the setting (save again), and that the screen is 768 pixels wide or narrower. A computer never shows it.

**It says motion was not allowed.** The visitor said no, or the browser blocked it. They can allow motion for the site in the browser's settings and reload; dragging still works.

**It turns the wrong way or does nothing.** Some devices send no readings. The note says so. We have not tried it on every phone, and nothing here promises how a particular phone's sensor behaves.