Nowadays, smartphones have become an indispensable part of students"lives.Used mainly for communication purposes and for entertainment applications, theireducational uses are almost universally ignored by teachers and students alike. Thegreatest challenge for a physics teacher is to unlock the great potential of these devicesduring the teaching process and shed new light on the diverse and enticing ways inwhich students could grasp a better understanding of physics through the simple use oftheir pocket-fitting gadgets. Hence, the purpose of this article is to show howsmartphones operating on Android may take physics classes to the next level, as theycan be used both as data collection systems and as data processing systems throughtheir inbuilt sensors (such as the accelerometer, magnetometer, gyroscope, and thelocation and proximity sensor). With the help of open-source applications, these sensorsenable the device to perform a series of measurements, such as the acceleration andspeed of a moving person or vehicle, to establish the user" location through the methodof trilateration or to measure the angle value of a slope. Therefore, along with thefunctions of smartphones themselves, the numerous free applications available onGoogle PlayStore are a precious educational resource for a modern physics teacher anddeserve to be explored in a thorough study which will show a new and morecomprehensive way to approach the teaching of physics.
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