Help

Twangle can't hear your strings without it, so the tuner shows Twangle needs your microphone instead of the meter. Tap Allow microphone and say yes. The metronome and the Practice tools work without it.

After you have said no twice (on Android 10 and older, once with Don't ask again), Android doesn't ask any more, and the button becomes Open settings. Tap it, then Permissions, then Microphone, and choose to allow it while using the app. Go back to Twangle and the tuner starts listening.

The metronome's Listen and Ear training's Play it back ask the same way; there it says Microphone is off, with Open settings when only the settings can allow it.

From Android 12 on, the quick settings (swipe down from the top of the screen) have a Microphone access tile that silences the microphone for every app. Turn it back on. Android usually asks about it by itself when Twangle starts listening.

Also check that nothing covers the microphone: a case, a finger, a sticker. On most phones it is a small hole at the bottom edge.

Only one app can listen at a time. Close the other app (a voice recorder, a video chat) or end the call, then tap Try again in Twangle. If the microphone stopped in the middle of tuning, or could not be opened at all, the message asks the same: close what uses it and tap Try again, or restart the phone.

No. The sound is analysed live on your phone and thrown away straight after. The microphone is only on while the tuner is on the screen, or while the metronome's Listen runs. Twangle has no permission to use the internet, so it couldn't send anything even if it wanted to. The privacy policy explains it in plain words.

Twangle hears the room as well as your string, and talking, a fan or a TV shake the line in the lens. When the noise is too much, the tuner says Too noisy, move the phone closer under the lens.

• Hold the phone close to the instrument: near the sound hole or the body, not by the headstock.
• Play one string at a time and let it ring. Rest a hand lightly on the other strings so they stay quiet.
• Turn the peg while the string still rings, rather than plucking it again and again.
• Move away from the noise if you can, even a few steps.

When Twangle can't hear you well, the small line under the meter says what to do, such as Play a bit louder or Too noisy, move the phone closer.

A low string's own note is often weaker than its overtones, above all on a phone's small microphone and as the string dies away, so the note can be heard an octave up: E3 for the low E2.

• Pick your instrument and tuning with the name at the top of the tuner, also with Any note on. Twangle listens lower for a bass, a cello or a 7- or 8-string guitar; with the guitar picked, a bass's low strings are below what it listens for, and you see them an octave up.
• With an instrument picked (not Any note), a string Twangle is already following stays that string when it is heard an octave up, with the same cents. Tap the string to keep Twangle on it.
• Pluck with the soft side of your thumb, between the sound hole and the neck, rather than with a pick close to the bridge: that brings out the string's own note.

An octave up, the cents are the same, so the lens still tunes the string right.

Check that the instrument and tuning in the name at the top of the tuner match yours. If a string is far out of tune, Twangle may take it for its neighbour: tap the string you are tuning, and Twangle says Play the A2 string and listens only for that one. Tap it again to let Twangle choose.

Set it in Settings → Reference pitch (A4), anywhere from 415 to 466 Hz. Every note then follows: the tuner, the reference tones and the other tools.

Yes. Turn on Settings → While tuning → Vibration guide (with TalkBack on, it is on by itself). While the tuner hears a string, the phone taps: one tap to tighten, two to loosen, quicker as the string gets close, and one long buzz when it is in tune. Keep the phone in a pocket or on your lap to feel it best. The tuner's page says more.

With TalkBack, the tuner also says the note it hears and which way to turn the peg; the taps follow the string as it changes, quicker than words can. On the watch, the same taps come on your wrist.

The metronome plays only while its screen is open, and keeps the screen on while it plays. It stops when the screen goes off, when you switch to another app, tool or tab, when a call comes in, and when headphones are unplugged.

On some phones a battery saver or power-saving mode turns the screen off anyway, and the clicks stop with it. Turn the battery saver off while you practise, or plug the phone in, then tap Start again.

With Settings → Keep screen on (on unless you turned it off), the screen stays on while you play. After 3 minutes without playing, Twangle shows Screen turns off soon, and the phone's own screen timeout takes over; tap the screen to keep it on for another 3 minutes.

Turn on Settings → Look → High contrast. Twangle then shows white on black (or black on white with Light), with no grey text, thicker lines and a bigger pointer, and a check mark beside in tune, so the note and which way to turn read at a glance, also at low brightness or in sunlight.

You may not need to: while you haven't set the switch yourself, it comes on by itself when your phone asks for high contrast, with its contrast set to high (Android 14 and later) or its high-contrast text on (in the phone's accessibility settings). Once you flip it, your choice holds. Light or dark still follows Settings → Look → Light or dark.

To start afresh, as on the first day: touch and hold Twangle's icon, tap App info, then Storage (or Storage & cache) and Clear storage (on some phones Clear data). That clears every setting and the tunings you made yourself. The words differ a little from phone to phone.

Uninstalling and installing again may not do it: if Android's own backup is on, it can bring the settings back.

To put back only the reference pitch, tap Reset to 440 Hz under it in Settings.

Yes. Every feature, for good: no ads, no purchases, no account. Twangle is made by one person who wanted a tuner like this.