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I was seeing how the approximate location of a device is determined from WI-FI/Mobile Networks and Precise location by mainly using GPS 1. From this one can infer that using WI-FI/Mobile & BT network to determine location is somewhat inaccurate than using a GPS.

Yet, to get a more accurate location data the location services recommend that you enable the WI-FI/mobile & BT scanning. Doesn't this conflict with the first notion? Because location data from GPS are more accurate(precise) than those of WI-FI/Mobile networks?

So my question is when you give an app your approximate location does it just give the coordinates from using WIFI/Mobile networks because it is somewhat "inaccurate" or does the Location SDK somewhat widens the coordinate data from your actual location?

daniman
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  • Location Accuracy you are referring to is a Google's proprietary service, not part of Android project. Scanning Wi-Fi / Cellular / BT networks *may* improve your location accuracy in case your GPS signals are weak. What make it possible is that Google (and others) collect users' location data and build a database of all location identifiers. // When you give an app the permission to only access your approximate location, it does not have access to GPS. – Irfan Latif Sep 25 '22 at 17:28
  • Okay. So Does Location service directly shares the location data from WI-FI/Cellular & BT when an app is given approximate location access? What if this location data is so precise? Doesn't the location services alter the location data to distance the coordinates from the actual location? – daniman Sep 25 '22 at 18:07
  • I'm not quite sure what you are asking. But pure Android provides only GPS location (provided that the hardware is available). In order to get location based on Wi-Fi / Cellular / BT networks, you need a third party service which is usually provided by Google (or the OEM). "Google Play services" functions as a location-provider in this case. The same app is responsible for sharing your device's location data with Google servers. How Google Play services work exactly is not documented and cannot be answered because it's a closed-source proprietary app / service. – Irfan Latif Sep 25 '22 at 18:20
  • Documentation: Android, Google. – Irfan Latif Sep 25 '22 at 18:25

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