Ace Trace - Shot Tracker

Review by eFreeware

If you play golf, disc golf or baseball and want your best shots to look like the clips you see from televised events, Ace Trace is built for exactly that. It is a shot tracer: you take a video of a drive, a throw or a hit, and the app draws an animated line along the object's flight so the trajectory reads clearly on screen. Coaches who want to show a player what their swing or throw actually did will find the same idea useful, and so will anyone making short videos for social media.

The app is free to download, shows no ads, and offers in-app purchases in the form of weekly or yearly subscriptions, with a free trial on selected plans. It has been installed more than 100,000 times and holds a 3.3 average from 1,363 ratings, which suggests a tool people try in numbers and judge fairly critically. It first appeared in December 2021 and was last updated in October 2026.

Tracing a shot without a tripod or an editing suite

The feature the developer leads with is handheld tracing. You do not need a tripod, and the trace line is meant to hold steady even when the camera moves, which matters because most people film a shot by holding a phone and following the ball. That is the difference between a tracer that only works on a fixed setup and one you can use while playing with friends.

The workflow is short by design. You record a clip or import one you already have, then trace the trajectory either by hand or with auto-tracking, adjust the line, and export the result. The developer says a shot can be traced and customized in under a minute without any editing skill, and the recent update embedded an AI tracking model for golf along with a longer default flight duration for golf shots, which points to the automatic side of that process being where the work has gone lately.

Two tracing modes cover different kinds of motion. Trace Golf Mode is intended for long, straight flights such as golf drives and baseball hits, while Free Curve Mode lets you shape a path manually, which is what disc golf throws, putts and other curved trajectories need. Between them, the app is not limited to one sport, and the developer describes it as able to follow golf balls, discs, baseballs and other objects in motion.

Making the line look the way you want

Once a path exists, the styling options are the part that decides whether a clip looks convincing. You can pick solid colors or gradients, or apply animated effects such as electricity and waves, and you can change the line's color, width, opacity and layering. Layering is the interesting one: the developer says you can route the trace behind trees and other obstacles, so the line appears to pass behind what was in front of the ball rather than sitting flat on top of the frame.

Distance labels add a second layer of information. You enter the distance of the shot and the app animates a counter that runs along the flight path, which is a neat fit for long drives, disc golf throws and coaching clips where the number is the point. It is a manual input rather than a measurement, so the figure is only as good as what you type in, but for a highlight video that is usually all you need.

The combination of effects, layering and distance labels is what separates a tracer from simply drawing on a video. A plain line tells a viewer where the ball went; a styled line with a running counter and a sensible route behind the trees tells a story about the shot.

What the app asks of you

The main requirement is footage. Ace Trace works from video you record or import, so you need a clip of the shot in the first place, and the quality of the trace depends on how clearly the object is visible against its background. The developer's claim that the line stays accurate despite camera movement is the promise that makes handheld filming viable, and that is the thing worth judging for yourself on a real clip.

The other requirement is money, at least for part of the app. It is free to download, there are no ads, and premium features sit behind a subscription. Plans run weekly or yearly, and a free trial is available only on selected subscriptions. The developer's terms are the usual store arrangement: payment goes to your Google Play account at confirmation, the subscription renews automatically unless you cancel at least 24 hours before the period ends, and canceling leaves it active until the current period finishes without a refund for the remainder. Any unused part of a trial is lost when you buy a subscription.

Those two facts together shape who this is for. You need to be someone who films shots regularly enough to justify a recurring cost, and who is willing to work with phone footage rather than a dedicated camera setup.

Getting a clean trace on the first attempt

Start with the mode that matches the shot: Trace Golf Mode for a straight drive or a line drive, Free Curve Mode for a disc that bends or a putt that breaks. Choosing the wrong mode means fighting the tool instead of using it.

Filming matters more than editing here. Because the app is designed around handheld footage, the object needs to stay in frame and stand out from what is behind it, so a clean background and a steady follow-through will give the auto-tracking more to work with. If the automatic pass struggles, the manual option is there, and the styling controls let you tidy up the result afterward.

For coaching, the distance label and the layering option are the two features to lean on. A counter running along the flight path turns a clip into something a player can compare against the last one, and routing the line behind obstacles keeps the visual honest rather than pasted over the top. For social clips, the gradient and animated effects do the work of making a routine shot look worth watching.

It is also worth treating the first few attempts as practice with the app rather than a test of it. Tracing is a skill of its own, and the developer's under-a-minute claim describes the process once you know which mode and which settings you want.

Where Ace Trace fits and where it does not

Ace Trace is a video tool, not a launch monitor or a swing analyzer in the measurement sense. The distance on screen is something you enter, and the trace is drawn over footage you supply. Anyone wanting a drive to look like a tour broadcast will find it here.

That is not a judgment on the tracing itself, but it does mean the sensible approach is to try the free download, work with your own footage, and decide whether the premium features are worth a weekly or yearly plan before committing.

The scope is deliberately narrow. Golf, disc golf and baseball are the sports it covers, and the two tracing modes are built around straight flights and manually shaped curves. Other activities are described as supported, but the tool is designed around an object in flight and a line drawn along it.

A useful tracer for players who film their shots

Ace Trace does one job and does it in a way that fits how people actually record sport: handheld, on a phone, with a clip they already have. The mode split between straight flights and curved paths, the styling controls, the option to route the line behind obstacles and the animated distance counter add up to a tool that can produce a genuinely watchable highlight without a desktop editor.

The cost structure is the part to weigh. It is free to download with no ads, but premium features need a weekly or yearly subscription, with a trial on selected plans only, and the terms are the standard auto-renewing arrangement. That suits someone who films shots often enough to use it month after month.

I would point golfers, disc golf players, baseball players and coaches toward it if they want their own footage to show a trajectory clearly, and if they are comfortable paying a recurring fee for the styling and premium options. It is a focused app for a focused job, and judged on that job it looks worth trying.

What's new in version 3.27

- Embedded the AI tracking model for golf - Increased default golf flight duration - Bug fixes - Upgraded Android API - Fixed crash on start