Woman shares iPhone hack to expose men staring at the gym: ‘Sad that it’s needed’

‘This video is probably going to upset some men’

(TikTok / @emilywithanimals)

A woman on TikTok has shared a helpful hack that catches gym creepers right in the act.

Emily, who goes by the username @emilywithanimals on the app, shared the iPhone camera hack in a video that now has more than 630,000 views. “If you ever have that feeling that a creeper is staring at you but you don’t want to actually look at them and risk making eye contact, I’ve got a trick for you,” she said.

In the viral video, Emily first tests out the iPhone hack by using her husband as a demo. “Point your camera down low and just pretend you’re texting, totally not suspicious,” she said. The camera angle shows just her husband’s feet standing at the weight bench.

“Without moving your phone, switch to wide angle. Now you’ll be able to see their face and whether or not they’re staring at you,” she said. The camera lens zooms out so that viewers can see her husband’s entire body, including his face.

As she showed a recording of a man watching her as she worked out at the gym, Emily said, “Now please enjoy some bonus footage of the gym creeper I caught while using this method.”

To do this helpful gym hack, go to the camera app on an iPhone and zoom out. Then, switch the regular 1x angle to 0.5x or 0.6x. However, this feature is only available on the iPhone 11 and subsequent models.

“This video is probably going to upset some men,” Emily captioned her TikTok. And for some, it did.

“So checking people out is a crime now,” commented one male TikTok user. Emily replied: “I feel bad for the people you interact with if you don’t know the difference between checking out and five minutes of staring.”

Another TikToker said that the man was just looking, but Emily told them there was a stark difference between looking and staring. “Imagine not knowing the difference between looking and staring,” she responded. “That must be fun for people you interact with.”

“Maybe he’s looking at the lady with a camera turned in his direction,” commented someone else, to which Emily jokingly replied that they missed the entire point of the video explaining “how to do this without turning the camera in their direction”.

However, a majority of the comments praised this newfound iPhone hack and shared their own ways to catch men creepily staring at the gym. Others called out how gyms can often make women feel unsafe or uncomfortable.

Female-only gyms have been on the rise as a number of women reported being harassed during their workouts. According to a recent survey of 1300 individuals, 75 per cent of women reported being heckled or catcalled at least once per week while working out. The concept of women-only gyms have gone viral on TikTok within the past year, with many gender-exclusive gyms opening up across the country.

“My gym solves this by having an entire extra, blocked off gym only for women,” commented one TikToker user under Emily’s post. “It’s sad that it’s needed”.

“The amount of work that is being a woman ugh!! We gotta have all the tricks and skills to protect ourselves from dying!” wrote someone else.

One gym-goer shared how they tried the iPhone camera hack but forgot that their camera flash was on. “He never looked away so fast,” they said.

“I pretend I’m taking selfies while the camera is actually pointed at them, never been caught,” one person shared.

“Thank you for this,” said another.