Um telefone que trabalha
como um instrumento a sério.
O Signal Collector regista continuamente os dados de sensores, rádio e rede que o telefone consegue alcançar, diretamente no telefone — sem armazenamento na nuvem e sem que os dados medidos saiam do aparelho.
Âmbito do MVP
Uma sessão.
Todo o contexto.
- 01GPS, GNSS e sensores do aparelho
- 02Redes móveis: LTE / 5G / 3G / 2G
- 03Wi‑Fi, Bluetooth e contexto de rede
- 04Mapeamento contínuo da internet por Wi‑Fi e rede móvel
Fora dos testes,
para o mundo.
A versão 1.0.0 é o primeiro lançamento público. O instrumento em si não muda; o que é novo é que qualquer pessoa o pode instalar, experimentar durante uma hora antes de pagar e ler os ecrãs na sua própria língua.
Uma hora de medição, por conta da casa
Cada telefone recebe uma hora de tempo de medição por ano, repartida por quantas medições quiser — a ferramenta é para ser experimentada no terreno, não numa captura de ecrã. O tempo restante e a data em que volta estão mesmo por cima do botão Iniciar.
Comprada, não alugada
O desbloqueio é uma única compra dentro da aplicação, ao preço do Google Play para o seu país. Sem subscrição, sem validade, e segue a conta para todos os outros telefones onde iniciar sessão.
Permissões explicadas antes de serem pedidas
O primeiro arranque já não começa com uma pilha de janelas do sistema. Um ecrã diz para que serve cada permissão — e que a localização é aquilo a que o Android liga as células e o Wi-Fi — e o sistema só pergunta depois de premir o botão.
Ecrãs na sua língua
A aplicação e este site falam toda uma série de línguas, escolhidas pelo telefone ou definidas apenas para o Signal Collector. A exportação nunca as segue: mantém-se em SI, UTC e com nomes de colunas em inglês, para que dois ficheiros de dois países continuem a ser um só conjunto de dados.
Ready for the world
and for the Store.
Version 0.10.0 completes the move to the production identity, adds full English and US units, closes the release blockers and gives the instrument a calmer, more precise visual system — without changing how it is operated.
English and Czech, neither one a bolt-on
Text is no longer produced inside the collection layer, and errors are no longer recognised by their wording. The language can be switched for the app alone, and an English phone never gets half-Czech screens. Numbers follow the locale; the export deliberately stays stable.
Metres, feet and miles
Units can follow the phone automatically, or be forced to metric or imperial in the settings. Only the screen and the notification are converted; the database and the scientific export always stay in SI.
A release with no silent traps
The production bundle requires the upload key, targets Android 16 / API 36 and carries the final identity app.signalcollector. Corrected permission checks close the crashes that followed a revoked permission, and the updated SSH client brings security fixes.
Around the globe
runs time itself.
Inside the globe sits only what has a bearing. Quantities without direction got their own bands outside the horizon, the operator composes the instrument themselves — and measured data can finally leave the phone by a route other than the share sheet.
Four quantities in the ring
Noise, temperature, pressure and now light. The angle along a band is time, not bearing — one minute split into seconds, so the head of the trace sweeps like a second hand with a gap behind it where values have aged out of the minute.
You compose the view
The middle button switches off whatever the cursor rests on. A switched-off row stays in the list with its value, only struck through: the filter changes the picture, not the measurement.
Data can leave on their own
The gear icon gained S3, WebDAV and SFTP destinations. Passwords are encrypted with a key from the Android Keystore, an address without https is rejected, and the server key fingerprint is verified.
You can see
where the signal came from.
The pulsing background circle gave way to a globe of the sky. Satellites sit where they actually are — and anything without a direction lights the whole ring instead of inventing a bearing.
Satellites in their real place
Android reports azimuth and elevation for GNSS only, and the app has recorded them since day one — there was simply nowhere to see them. Colour separates the constellation, size and brightness carry C/N0, a filled dot counts towards the fix. Verified on a Pixel 10a: 20 satellites from four constellations, 14 in the fix.
What has no bearing lights the whole horizon
Wi‑Fi gives strength, not azimuth; Bluetooth gives none either, and cells report only their identity. Samples without direction therefore ripple the entire ring rather than a sector — a sector would claim the signal came from there. The ripples also rotate, so not even the tallest of them points anywhere.
It tilts with the phone, not just turns
Lying face up it looks into the zenith, held upright it looks at the horizon — and what was near the horizon moves behind the phone. Collapsed, the card leaves a flat compass with a needle to north: calm, no flicker.
Scrolling that
never jumps away.
While hiding, the header used to take part of the gesture for itself and the content was re-measured under the finger. Now it only observes the scroll and takes nothing from it.
Content follows the finger the whole time
The finger used to drag while the page stood still until the header had collapsed — and on reversing direction it expanded again first. The header now sits above the content and takes no part in scrolling; it simply moves away, taking the status row with it.
Nothing is re-measured mid-scroll
It hides by offsetting at draw time, not by changing its height, so the content inset stays constant. Measured on a Pixel 10a: 0.30 % janky frames and no missed vsync across ten drags over the threshold where the header switches.
It returns the moment you pull down
Direction decides, not position — you do not have to scroll back to the top to get the header. Because it also returns mid-page, it got an opaque backdrop; otherwise the title would sit on top of the card text.
A scan that does not
pretend to be a measurement.
Android throttles Wi‑Fi scans and keeps handing back the same result meanwhile. The app used to write it down again and again — and the export then claimed a measurement every five seconds.
A repeated scan is recognisable
Every attempt records the state FRESH, THROTTLED or UNCHANGED together with the age of the result; per-AP records are written only for a fresh scan. Without that, the data could not tell you where measuring actually happened — and for a coverage map, that is the whole difference.
Six times denser sampling
Measured on a Pixel 10a: with throttling on, 70 rejected attempts against 45 fresh scans; with it off, zero rejections and a fresh scan every 4.2 s at the median. At walking pace that is one sample every 6 metres instead of every 40.
Points on a floor plan, throughput per network
GPS gives no position indoors, so a place marker was added — you stop, mark a point, walk on. And a new optional source visits the Wi‑Fi networks you list one by one and measures their actual throughput, not just their signal.
Every second
gets its own row.
Continuous internet measurement no longer leaves holes in the timeline. When measuring is impossible, the reason is written down — and a Wi‑Fi network that is gone is recognised at once, not ten minutes later.
A second without a measurement is still a row
A capacity burst or a manual speed test holds the link for several seconds, and the data used to be left with a gap — a full minute in the worst case. Now it says BUSY, naming who held the link. A missing second cannot be told apart from a failed measurement; a written one can.
A dead Wi‑Fi is recognised immediately
After losing Wi‑Fi, the app stayed bound to a network that no longer existed, and over six hundred samples claimed the internet was not answering. The handle is now dropped as soon as the system stops knowing about it, and the app waits for a new Wi‑Fi with internet.
A sample knows which Wi‑Fi it came from
SSID and BSSID were added to the quality record — until now only the direct Wi‑Fi source knew them, and measured quality could not be tied to a network. Android placeholder values (RSSI −127, frequency −1) are also left empty instead of looking like readings.
From your pocket you can tell
how the run is going.
The notification for a running measurement no longer just says “collecting data”. It shows the duration and the record count, refreshes every five seconds and speaks up when data stops being stored.
Time and count in the notification
On a dark screen you see 00:02:43 · 29,880 records instead of a terse line. The duration is pure collection time, the same as on the status card — a pause between Stop and Start does not count towards it.
Data loss reports itself
As soon as samples are dropped, their count joins the line, and the title changes when writing stalls or fails. It is the one thing worth reporting before the operator looks at the screen again.
Ready for Live Updates
The notification declares itself to the system as a Live Update — Android's counterpart to the iOS Dynamic Island, a strip inside the status bar itself. On the Android 16 build under test it does not render yet, because that part of the system is not switched on; the app is waiting for it, ready.
The colour tells you
what was just captured.
A wave crosses the background every time something is written — and now in a colour that says where the sample came from. From across the desk you can see not only that data is flowing, but what is being heard right now.
A colour per source
Green is sensors, blue networks, amber GNSS and violet Bluetooth. Sensors run at 50 ms, so green is a continuous swell with the other colours flashing through it — a blue flash is a network scan, a violet one Bluetooth.
The wave keeps off the text
It used to be drawn over the content as well, tinting the title in the header, the messages and the status row. Now it sits at the very bottom: it passes under the header but leaves the type alone.
Content runs under the bars
When the header hides on scroll, the cards continue under the status bar instead of stopping at it and leaving an empty strip above. The wave shows through under the bars too.
Start no longer overwrites
work in progress.
Start resumes the last measurement instead of quietly replacing it with a new one. Beyond that, the phone lets your pocket know when the connection drops or data stops being stored.
Start continues, it does not restart
Until now every Start opened a new measurement and the previous one became unreachable — it stayed in the phone, but only the new one could be exported. Now it continues, and a clean slate comes only from Reset, which deletes the previous measurement.
A pause does not count towards the duration
The duration is the sum of the time actually spent collecting, not the span from the first Start to the last Stop — for a run interrupted overnight that would claim fifteen hours of collection. In the export it is running_ms.
Interruptions are in the data
Every stop and every resume adds its own session record with a timestamp. The data therefore shows when collection ran and when it waited, so a pause is not mistaken for a hole in coverage.
A buzz at a hole in coverage
Losing the connection is a soft thud, regaining it two light taps, a failed write three firm knocks. The phone is in your pocket while you walk, and these are the events the screen cannot tell you about. Every buzz goes into the data as haptic, so a window can be cut around the vibration.
The counter runs live
The count is no longer sampled. At two thousand records per second it used to jump by more than five hundred; now it flows, and only the digits slow enough to read are animated. The figures have fixed slots and sit on the baseline.
A panel instead of a form
Start, Reset and Stop are solid colour fields — an unavailable switch turns translucent but keeps its colour. Export got its own plate with a label on which the size of the pending file grows, and a green wave crosses the background with every written sample.
How much ground
we actually covered.
This version adds distance walked next to the duration, in a way that does not credit metres to a phone lying on a desk. Beyond that, the capacity burst shows its progress and technology selection is driven by presets.
Distance walked, in metres
The status card shows Distance instead of a static source count. The value is stored with the session, so a finished measurement still shows it after an app restart, and in the export it is distance_m.
Metres, not GPS noise
A walker covers about 1.4 m between one-second fixes, while the uncertainty of a single fix is usually larger. Distance is therefore not measured between neighbours but by moving an anchor once it passes the threshold max(3 m, accuracy).
Location accuracy on show
The accuracy of the last fix sits under the metrics. When the position is too coarse to count towards distance, the card says so outright, so a number that will not move has an explanation.
The capacity burst shows its progress
A new record for the start of a burst puts its beginning into the data, not only its result. Meanwhile the UI runs a countdown next to the transport, and a burst interrupted by Stop is not left hanging.
Technology presets
“All” and “Clear all” became a single switch, with Default in front of it. The app recognises hand-tuned sensor values, asks before overwriting them and offers to keep them as the Custom preset.
Legible messages
A dark treatment tinted by message type, dismissible by dragging down. An error stays on screen for 15 seconds, an ordinary notice disappears after four.
Internet mapping
while moving through a building.
Continuous transfer mapping got its own card ahead of Start, a heartbeat began watching collection from the inside, and a code audit cleaned up the bindings to Android callbacks.
A card of its own for mapping
A separate card keeps continuous mapping apart from the one-off speed test. It can measure Wi‑Fi, cellular data or both transports at once over a specific Android Network.
A data estimate up front
The interface shows the upper bound before you start: at most 204 MB per 30 minutes for one transport and 407 MB for both.
A heartbeat over collection
A running check of the collectors, the writer and the write queue. The session then distinguishes an ordinary Stop, a writer failure and an interruption after the process died.
The export admits its gaps
The header carries the last stored timestamp, the trailing gap and the counts of accepted, written and dropped samples.
Audited callbacks
Registrations for GPS, GNSS, NMEA and navigation messages are visible in the export itself. Bluetooth Classic stores the states of the discovery cycle as well as the devices actually found.
Fixes from the code audit
The duration of a finished measurement is computed from stored timestamps, stopping the mapping leaves no NetworkCallback hanging, and sensors deliver data on their own thread.
Maintenance that
stops dropping samples.
No new measurement feature. A version born from a code audit, fixing the reliability of collection, writing and export, and moving the format to V3.
Dropped samples on show
When writing falls behind, the count appears in the app and goes into the header as dropped_samples. Samples used to vanish unannounced; ending a measurement no longer loses the last of them either.
Ranges hold
A setting outside the allowed range is pulled back into it, so a zero interval no longer spins a scan with no pause.
A disabled Bluetooth is recognised
With the adapter off, the sources are not marked as measured and ADAPTER_DISABLED goes into the export instead of a blank.
Collection off the main thread
The GNSS, location, Wi‑Fi RTT and cellular callbacks run aside, so raw GNSS no longer slows the controls. The microphone is released only after the read completes.
Format V3
SIGNAL_COLLECTOR_TXT_V3 adds the dropped_samples header and drops the source_timestamp_ns column, which only duplicated elapsed_realtime_ns.
Schema 2 without losses
The database moves by migration and existing measurements survive. Temporary files created for sharing are cleaned up, so the cache no longer grows by a whole measurement.
Transfer quality,
measured continuously.
Alongside the one-off speed test there is now a per-second stream of samples of real download, upload and RTT — bound to a specific network and enriched with radio context.
A sample every second
The measurement runs from Start to Stop and produces roughly one network_quality_sample per second.
What a sample holds
A 64 KiB download, an 8 KiB upload and three small HTTPS RTT probes. The output carries the real transfer times, short-term throughput, RTT min/avg/max, jitter, errors and timeouts.
Capacity burst
Every 30 seconds a network_capacity_probe is produced with a 1 MiB download and a 128 KiB upload.
Forced transport
The test can be sent over a specific Wi‑Fi or cellular Android Network, even when both are available at once.
Radio and location with the sample
Every sample carries the last Wi‑Fi or cellular radio context and the last known location, including its age.
Quality, not a record
The small samples are labelled as measurements of quality over time, not of maximum internet speed. The server layer supports the CLOUDFLARE, CUSTOM and LOCAL modes.
Controls that
stay where they are.
A small interface release. Actions no longer move with the state of the measurement, the top bar gives room to the content, and a message can be dismissed when it is in the way.
Download and Share stay put
The buttons keep their place. Without a finished measurement they are dimmed and inactive, not hidden.
A vanishing top bar
It hides when you scroll down and comes back when you scroll up.
Recommend from the bar
Prepares a new e‑mail with no recipient filled in, carrying a subject, a message and links to the app.
Dismissible messages
Status notices are a bottom message that can be closed; otherwise they disappear on their own after a longer interval.
The storage note moved down
The note about local data storage now sits at the very bottom, visually subdued.
Active scan
and a measured speed test.
This version introduces an experimental active cellular scan with an exact reason for refusal, and a full speed test bound to the transport actually chosen.
Active scan events
Unambiguous ACTIVE_NETWORK_SCAN_REQUESTED, STARTED, RESULT, COMPLETE and FAILED instead of guessing support from the phone brand.
The exact reason for refusal
A failed scan stores the numeric code, the exception type, the message, the carrier privileges state and the state of the MODIFY_PHONE_STATE permission.
Kept apart from passive cells
The result carries scan_mode=ACTIVE_NETWORK_SCAN and only the operator Android supplied; an unknown one stays UNKNOWN.
A test over the chosen transport
Manually over MOBILE, WIFI or sequentially BOTH, with the traffic genuinely bound to the requested Android Network. The options offered follow the validated networks available.
A complete test summary
speed_test_result carries download and upload in Mb/s, bytes and times, the minimum, mean, median, maximum and p95 RTT, jitter, packet loss, errors and the server — together with the last cell or Wi‑Fi context.
Collection that survives
The measurement continues in the background through a foreground service, preferences survive a restart, and from an estimated 10 MB upwards the export preselects GZIP.
Instalação
Instalada apenas
através do Google Play.
- 1
Instale a partir do Google Play — sem convite, sem lista de testadores, sem esperas.
- 2
Meça até uma hora por ano sem pagar nada.
- 3
Desbloqueie a medição ilimitada dentro da aplicação quando a hora deixar de chegar.
O Google Play é o único canal de distribuição: assina a cadeia de atualizações e em lado nenhum é oferecido um APK direto. A aplicação em si não precisa de nenhuma conta nossa nem de nenhum servidor nosso para funcionar.
Experiência, preço e apoio
Uma hora por ano
para decidir.
Um instrumento de campo não se julga por capturas de ecrã, por isso o Signal Collector entrega a cada telefone uma hora de tempo de medição por ano — o suficiente para percorrer um trajeto, ver o anel encher-se e abrir a exportação. Conta-se o tempo de medição, não o número de sessões, por isso pode gastar-se em vários sítios e em vários dias. Quando acaba, o desbloqueio é uma compra única dentro da aplicação ao preço do Google Play para o seu país: sem subscrição, sem data de renovação, e vale em todos os telefones com a mesma conta.
O retorno chega pela avaliação no Google Play; cada nova avaliação é recolhida no espaço de um dia, transformada num problema e respondida, e as correções seguem com a atualização seguinte. A aplicação paga não traz publicidade, nem análises, nem SDK de terceiros dentro da medição — é o preço que paga o desenvolvimento em vez deles.
O que a aplicação recolhe de facto
Dos sensores físicos
às redes à sua volta.
Cada fonte pode ser ligada ou desligada individualmente antes de uma medição e, em tecnologias selecionadas, o intervalo também pode ser definido.
Rede móvel
Célula servidora e vizinhas, parâmetros LTE/NR/3G/2G, mudanças de registo e a análise ativa experimental.
GNSS e localização
GPS a 1 Hz, satélites, medições GNSS em bruto, relógio, AGC, mensagens de navegação, NMEA e informação da antena.
Wi‑Fi e RTT
A ligação atual, pontos de acesso próximos, Wi‑Fi 7 MLO, capacidades e distâncias RTT/FTM até pontos de acesso compatíveis.
Bluetooth
Deteção clássica e a carga de anúncio BLE, incluindo dados de fabricante e de serviço.
Sensores e ruído
Movimento, campo magnético, pressão, luz, proximidade, vetor de rotação e um nível dBFS indicativo sem qualquer áudio guardado.
Rede e transferência
Amostras por segundo de descarregamento, envio, RTT, jitter e tempos esgotados reais, rajadas de capacidade de 30 segundos e ligação simultânea a uma rede Wi‑Fi e a uma rede móvel específicas.
SIM e eSIM
Ranhura, operador, MCC/MNC, roaming e que cartão leva os dados — as células por si nomeiam o transmissor, não quem estava a olhar. Nem o ICCID nem o EID são registados: são identificadores permanentes da subscrição que sobrevivem até a uma troca de telefone.
Verificação no terreno, 10 de agosto de 2026
Dados de um telefone
a sério.
Tudo o que se segue foi medido num Google Pixel 10a com Android 16. Na versão 0.7.2, uma única medição em três troços recolheu 87 597 registos: a duração cresceu de 2:49 para 7:21 e depois 8:12, o número da medição nunca mudou, e mais de vinte minutos de pausas entre os troços não contaram para a duração. Os valores de distância vêm de uma sessão de nove minutos da versão 0.7.1 no mesmo telefone — o filtro de distância não mudou desde então.
As primeiras 274 fixações tiveram uma precisão entre 9 e 114 m. Somar as distâncias entre fixações vizinhas daria 429 m, ou 28 m depois de filtradas as fixações grosseiras; mover a âncora para além do limiar deu zero. O telefone de teste não tinha SIM, por isso o ramo móvel do mapeamento comunicou corretamente que a rede não estava disponível.
Versões e material
Instalação, alterações
e código-fonte.
O repositório continua privado. Os colaboradores com sessão iniciada encontram nele o código-fonte, as versões etiquetadas e as somas de verificação dos APK.
Privacidade
Os dados medidos nunca saem do telefone.
A aplicação funciona offline e não contém qualquer SDK de análise, publicidade ou relatórios de falhas — nada que possa dar conta de si em segundo plano, porque simplesmente não há lá dentro nada que o consiga. O mapeamento contínuo opcional da qualidade de transferência usa os pontos públicos do Cloudflare Speedtest para pequenas transferências HTTPS de teste e rajadas periódicas; não é uma medição da velocidade máxima da internet. O módulo está desligado por predefinição. Se comprar o desbloqueio, sai do telefone um aviso de compra que não leva quaisquer dados medidos; está descrito na política de privacidade. Uma exportação pode conter dados de localização sensíveis e identificadores de redes próximas.
Como funciona
De um sensor
a uma linha num ficheiro.
Cada fonte segue o seu próprio ritmo. Uma amostra é marcada com a hora e a última localização conhecida, passa por uma fila não bloqueante e é guardada em lotes na base de dados local. As chaves sublinhadas no diagrama levam ao dicionário de dados.
Definições da recolha
Os mesmos parâmetros que a aplicação oferece para cada fonte antes de começar uma medição. Os intervalos e a estimativa de dados correspondem à implementação; uma alteração aparece logo no diagrama acima.
Intervalo 10–1000 ms
Intervalo 100–60000 ms
Intervalo 5–300 s
Intervalo 5–60 s
Intervalo 5–300 s
Mapeamento da internetRede para a medição contínua
Com ambas selecionadas, funcionam ao mesmo tempo dois identificadores Network do Android separados.
Intervalo 500–5000 ms
Intervalo 1–1024 KiB
Intervalo 1–256 KiB
Intervalo 10–300 s
Intervalo 64–10240 KiB
Intervalo 8–2048 KiB
A estimativa é um limite superior: numa ligação lenta uma amostra demora mais, por isso cabem menos no mesmo tempo e transferem-se menos dados. Isto não é uma medição da velocidade máxima — porquê.