DocsMotion Player

The Sensors page

Scenes can show your heart rate, your steps, the weather outside or anything else a phone or watch can measure, and someone else's too, if they share them with you. The readings come from devices through Motion Hub, with a token made there: by Motion, with your account, by someone sharing with you, or by you. This page is about connecting them in Motion Player; Sensors and the watch is about using readings in your own scenes. How your own devices pass the keys to each other is in Your devices' keys.

How it fits together

1. A device sends readings to Motion Hub's relay with a token: the Motion watch app, or anything else that can write to it.
2. Motion, on your computer or phone, listens with the same token and hears the readings as they arrive.
3. Scenes that read those sensors move with them.

A token is a key to the sensors you chose when you made it, and nothing else. It starts mpat_. You can have up to eight in Motion, each with a name of your own: yours, a friend's watch, a second device.

Scenes never carry tokens. A scene says which sensors it listens to, and on each computer the person who has the scene picks whose token feeds it. A scene published on Motion Hub works for anyone, with their own people's sensors.

Where it is

On the computer, it's the Sensors section of Settings. The foot of the rail says Phone or watch connected once there's a token, or No phone or watch yet · with a Connect link that goes straight there.

On Android, it's under Settings: Sensors there says how many tokens you have, and Open Sensors opens the page.

Adding your own

With your Motion Hub account

When the app is signed in to Motion Hub, the section says Signed in to Motion Hub as your name, with Connect my phone or watch. Click it and Motion makes a token there for this computer, in one go:

• it only reads sensors (every one the Hub has) and sends none;
• on the Hub it's called Motion on and your computer's name, so you can tell it apart on the Hub's tokens page;
• here it's kept by your account's name, and its row says Your Motion Hub account and Reads every sensor, sends none.

The readings are encrypted, so this computer also needs the keys of the tokens your phone and watch send with. Approve this computer on your phone, once, and they come by themselves: Your devices' keys says how.

If your phone or watch isn't signed in to Motion Hub yet, choose Sign in in Motion there, and type the code it shows into the box under Phone or watch not signed in yet?, then click Approve on Motion Hub and approve it in your browser.

Not signed in on the computer, the section says so, with Sign in. Once you're in, the button is there.

On Android, signed in and with no token yet, Sensors has Make a token. It makes one on Motion Hub for the phone and its watch, called Mine, that reads and sends heart rate, steps, movement, battery, charging, light and pressure, with keys made on the phone.

Add someone's sensors

Add someone's sensors, at the top of the section, takes in someone else's sensors, two ways.

Shared with you on Motion Hub

When someone shares their sensors with your Motion Hub account (from Share my sensors in their Motion, or on the Hub's tokens page), the share waits at the top of the section: NAME wants to share their sensors with you, with what it reads and until when. Accept adds it as NAME's sensors: the Hub gives your Motion a token of its own for exactly those sensors and that long, and nothing is copied by hand. Decline says no. The Hub's tokens page lists it under Shared with you too, but accepting is done in Motion.

Their readings are encrypted on their devices, and Motion Hub never has the keys. Once you've accepted, the share's row shows a code of 16 characters: Tell NAME your code, CODE: their Motion asks for it before it sends you the keys. Tell them the code yourself, in a message or out loud, not through the Hub. Once they've typed it in, their Motion sends you the keys to the shared sensors, locked so that only your Motion can open them, and their readings start coming through. The code makes sure the keys reach you and nobody else.

The share's row says Shared with you by NAME on Motion Hub. Remove ends the share on the Hub as well (Remove and end the share), so they would have to share again. If they stop sharing, their readings stop at once, and the row says NAME has stopped sharing.

You need to be signed in to Motion Hub for this. Signed out, the section says so, and pasting still works.

Pasting a token

Or paste a token opens the boxes for a token sent to you, or one made by hand on the Hub's tokens page:

1. Click Make a token. Motion Hub opens in your browser at its tokens page. Make a token with only the sensors you want to share, and copy it. The Hub shows it once.
2. Back in Motion, give it a name. The first one is called "Mine" unless you change it.
3. Paste the token in the box beside it (it's hidden as you type) and click Add the token. A token from Share my sensors comes with its key after it, on the same line: paste both together.

If something's wrong, Motion says what under the boxes: the token isn't the right shape, the name is longer than 40 characters, or there's already a token by that name.

When Motion Hub knows a pasted token, its row says whose account it's of, what it reads and until when.

On Android, the boxes are under Advanced: paste a token, relay, at the foot of Sensors: Add a token (then Add another), with Add to keep it.

Share my sensors

Share my sensors gives someone some of your sensors for a while. It shares the token Motion made with your account (Connect my phone or watch first, if you haven't), so you need to be signed in to Motion Hub. With more than one such token, From picks which.

1. Pick Which sensors: the Hub's sensors, each a button to turn on.
2. Pick For how long: A day, A week, A month or Until I stop it.
3. Say Who it's for, such as "Sam, for the kitchen screen". It's only a label, so you can tell your shares apart.
4. Then either:

• Make a token to send: Motion makes a read-only token on the Hub for exactly those sensors, ending when you said, and shows it once, with its keys after it, and a Copy button. Send both to them privately; they paste them under Add someone's sensors. The note under it says what it gives: your readings of those sensors through Motion Hub, until when. The keys open those sensors' encrypted readings only, and only until it ends (a year, for one with no end).
• Or share with someone on Motion Hub: type their name on the Hub and click Find. Motion shows their name and picture (never more), and Share with NAME offers it to them. They accept it in their Motion, and theirs shows them a code. Then your share says type NAME's code to send them the keys: ask them for it, type it under Their code and click Send the keys. If it doesn't match, nothing is sent.

A share you offered on Motion Hub's website, or one from an older Motion, says offered on Motion Hub: say yes here to share this: check which sensors and for how long, and click Share this before anything is given for it. If a share says NAME's Motion has a new key, stop it and share again.

Shared now lists your shares: who each is for, what it reads, when it ends (or until you stop it), and waiting to be accepted for an offer they haven't taken yet. Stop sharing ends one at once: the Hub revokes its token, and the relay stops their stream. The Hub's tokens page lists them too, under Shares you've made.

A share gets only the sensors you picked, and the keys you give with it open only those sensors, until the share ends (Motion renews them as the days pass). They also open the last reading of each of those sensors from just before the share began. When a share ends, its readings stop at once, and its keys stop working within a week.

Your people and devices

Each row shows a name of your own, the start of the token (Motion never shows the whole thing again), whose it is (Your Motion Hub account, Shared with you by NAME on Motion Hub, or Pasted), what it reads and until when, and the scenes it feeds. The first feeds every scene not set to another and is marked the default. Rename renames it, and the scenes that use it follow. The button at the end, Advanced: its token and keys, opens Accept unencrypted readings (off unless you turn it on, so only devices with the token's keys reach your scenes), a box for the token's keys, as they were sent to you, and, on all but a share accepted from someone, Copy its keys by hand: the keys to give your phone, watch or other computers along with the token. Your approved devices pass them to each other anyway, so you only need this for a device that isn't one of them.

The badge on the first token says how it's going:

Remove asks first: Forget Mine? Scenes it feeds switch to the first token, or stop hearing those sensors. Keep it or Forget it. Forgetting a pasted token here doesn't revoke it on the Hub; do that on the Hub's tokens page if you want it to stop working everywhere.

A token Motion made with your account is different: Remove asks first, saying Motion revokes it on Motion Hub too, and Remove and revoke does both, so it stops working everywhere at once. If the app has since been signed out, or signed in as someone else, it's removed here and Motion says to revoke it on the Hub's tokens page. If the Hub can't be reached, it's kept, so you can try again.

Readings

Under Readings, a card for each sensor your scenes read: its name, the latest value, and when it came (just now, 5 min ago, or nothing yet). They update as readings arrive. If no scene reads a sensor yet, it says None of your scenes reads a sensor yet, so Motion isn't listening.

Scenes that use them lists the scenes in your library that read sensors, with the sensors each one reads.

Which token feeds a scene

A scene that reads sensors is fed by one of your tokens: yours, or someone's who shares with you. Unless you say otherwise, that's the first.

To change it, open the scene. Under Whose sensors, the sensors it reads are listed with a button for each of your tokens. Click the one that should feed it. The scene's Reacts to line says which sensors it reads.

If a scene reads sensors and you have no token, it says It reads sensors. Add a token in Settings › Sensors.

On Android, the same choice is under Sensor readings on the scene's settings. Motion Studio's preview reads from the same token, so it hears what the wallpaper will.

On Android

Motion for Android is coming soon to Google Play (see Install Motion). Once it's out:

The phone's Sensors page lists each token with where its keys are (Encrypted · keys on 2 devices, say), and whether it's heard now. Under it:

• Sending from: Your watch, and how its sending is going, and This phone, a switch that sends the phone's own steps, movement, light and pressure, encrypted, with the first token that has keys on the phone. A notification shows while it does, with Stop.
• Add a watch (see The watch).
• Read by: this phone's wallpaper, and your other approved devices, each with Remove.
• Advanced: paste a token, relay: tokens by hand, their keys, and the relay's address.

The watch

The Motion watch app for Wear OS sends the watch's heart rate, steps, wrist movement and battery. It's coming soon to Google Play, free, in the same listing as Motion for Android (see Install Motion). To give it a token from your phone:

1. On your phone, open Motion, go to Settings, Open Sensors, and press Add a watch. With no token yet, it says to make one first: Make a token, on Sensors.
2. With the watch in reach and Motion open on it, the phone offers it: press Send to and the watch's name. The token's keys go with it, so there's nothing to copy.
3. On the watch, press Add to keep the token.

A watch that isn't in reach can be added by a code. On the watch, open Motion: with no token yet it shows Connect this watch and a code (later, Add from your phone under Tokens shows one). On the phone, pick Another watch, by a code and type it, then follow what both screens say. A watch is always added from the phone, which gives it the keys that encrypt its readings: Motion Hub's website never has them, so its watch page only points here. You can also type a token straight into the watch under Or type a token, but one typed there comes without its keys, so the watch can't send encrypted readings with it until your phone sends them (Add a watch again). A code lasts 15 minutes.

The watch now sends with the same token Motion on your phone listens with, so the phone's wallpaper follows the watch straight away. A computer you've approved as one of your devices gets the token and its keys too, so its wallpaper follows as well.

The first time the watch app opens, it asks to show notifications. Allow it, so a token sent from the phone shows up on the watch.

On the watch, choose what to send under What it sends and press Start sending. Allow what it asks: body sensors for heart rate, physical activity for steps. Heart rate and Steps are on at first; Movement (the wrist's) and Battery are off, as they cost more battery. Readings every sets how often readings go, for everything it sends: every second, 5 seconds or 30 seconds. Less often lasts longer. A notification stays while it sends, with Stop on it.

The watch keeps up to eight tokens and sends every reading with all of them, so your wallpaper and a friend's can both follow it.

Privacy

• Readings go from your device to Motion Hub's relay, and from there only to whoever listens with a token that can read them. Motion asks the relay only for the sensors your scenes read.
• Motion listens only while a scene that reads sensors is on a screen, or while you have Settings open (then for the sensors the scenes in your library read, to show them under Readings).
• Your tokens are kept on your computer in a file only you can read. The app shows only their start.
• A token reads only the sensors you picked when you made it. Revoke it on Motion Hub's tokens page and it stops working everywhere at once.
• Sharing with someone on Motion Hub shows them your Hub name and picture, and you theirs; never an email. Motion Hub never has your readings' keys: it passes them between your two Motions locked so that only theirs can open them, and only after you've typed the code theirs shows.
• Either of you can end a share at any time, and the relay stops their stream at once.

From the terminal

On Linux, motion-cli sensors does the same:

motion-cli sensors tokens                              # their names and starts
motion-cli sensors add "Their watch" mpat_…            # add one
motion-cli sensors remove "Their watch"
motion-cli sensors rename Mine "My watch"
motion-cli sensors use my-scene partner "Their watch"  # which token feeds a scene's source

Last changed 2 November 2026. Something wrong here? Tell us.