Develop Reference

Why is mock location jumping back to real position

I added a test provider using LocationManager.GPS_PROVIDER as provider name like described here
https://mobiarch.wordpress.com/2012/07/17/testing-with-mock-location-data-in-android/
In Google Maps app, I see location jumping between mocked location and real location, and then back to mocked location.
Why is jumping to real location and how can I stop it?
Maybe I misunderstand how to use mock locations. I haven't found any official documentation available.

You most likely have your location settings configured in a way that your phone (and apps) can use both the location from the GPS sensor and the location from the cells and wi-fi. Since the coming of the Fused Location Provider, the way the system fetches your location got a bit murkier.
When you mock the position you are only able to mock the GPS sensor readings (this is also true for when you mock the position through the simulator settings).
So when the system feeds Google Maps with a position from the GPS sensor it gives it the fake one, and when it provides the position from other sensors it will be the real one.
To test that I'm correct, you can switch location settings to "Device only" and you should only get the fake positions.
Unfortunately there's no way to mock the other sensors readings.

Turn off Wi-Fi scanning / Bluetooth scanning in the Location Settings to stop jumping to preserve mock location.

Is Fused Location Provider good choice?

I am developing an application where I want to use Fused Location Provider. But I have some doubts, and couple of questions.
When GPS is off and I set priority to HIGH, does that mean that the GPS will be automatically turned on, or not?
Can I set UpdateLocation with Fused provider with HIGH priority on demand to save battery at least a little bit?
How can I know what Fused provider is using (is it a GPS or a network provider)?
And finally
Is Fused provider really the best choice for android location? Are there any negative points about it?
What is your opinion?
Thanks in advance.

When GPS is off and I set priority to HIGH, does that mean that GPS will be automatically turned on, or not?
No, it will not be turned on automatically. But if you use SettingsApi, will prompt a dialog to user and gives information that GPS is must be turned on. If user accepts it, the gps will be active automatically. Check the SettingsApi
How can I know what Fused provider is using (is it a GPS or a network provider)
If you use fused provider api with SettingsApi properly. It will make adequate the required settings for current location request.
Is Fused provider really the best choice for android location? Are there any negative points about it?
In my opinion, before fused provider you must deal with directly providers(Gps, network) But fused just asks you, "how accurate locations you wanna receive ?"

As in here https://developer.android.com/training/location/index.html stated very clearly that, the Google Play services location APIs are preferred over the Android framework location APIs (android.location) as a way of adding location awareness to your app. If you are currently using the Android framework location APIs, you are strongly encouraged to switch to the Google Play services location APIs as soon as possible. So I hope you got your answer.

I made a testing application for Gps, Wifi and Fused Location Provider and testing it for 2 days. It's better because it uses both of them and most of the time it's the one most accurate. Also, Gps data is a very noisy data that causes jittering, to solve this low-pass filter or other filters are used. One of the most successful filter used to get most accurate results is Kalman Filter. FusedLocationProvider use this filter same as RotationVector which is a fused sensor combines hardware and software. RotationVector uses accelerometer, gyroscope(if available), and magnetic field sensor to get and filter positition and azimuth data.
Location.getProvider for Gps with LocationManager returns "gps", Wifi returns "network", and FusedLocationProvider returns "fused".
When GPS is off and I set priority to HIGH, does that mean that the GPS will be automatically turned on, or not
Anything other than "Battery Saving" turns Gps on if available. This settings available on my Android 7.1.1 phone. Setting for location was different on previous versions of Android on user's side. As a developer to enable using Gps you should set mLocationRequest.setPriority(LocationRequest.PRIORITY_HIGH_ACCURACY);
PRIORITY_HIGH_ACCURACY - Use this setting to request the most precise location possible. With this setting, the location services are more likely to use GPS to determine the location.
Setting Priority also determines battery use level too.
Can I set UpdateLocation with Fused provider with HIGH priority on demand to save battery at least a little bit?
Yes, you can set interval of location request in addition to priority.
mLocationRequest.setInterval(UPDATE_INTERVAL_IN_MILLISECONDS);
mLocationRequest.setFastestInterval(FASTEST_UPDATE_INTERVAL_IN_MILLISECONDS);
How can I know what Fused provider is using (is it a GPS or a network provider)?
Location from Wifi never returns true for Location.hasSpeed() but Gps returns almost always true if you are outdoors. Also location.getExtras() have satellites tag which you can check for satellites which is only available for Gps. Speed may not be correct if you are walking or as far i've read so far, i haven't tried this on car, when speed it less than 5km/h it's not very accurate. I mean if you are using FLP and last location data contains speed info it's definitely from Gps.
Are there any negative points about it?
As of Android 8.0 and above there is location retrieving limit if you do not use a Foreground Service or get location on foreground while app is not paused for both FLP and LocationManager.
Also FLP requires GooglePlayService to be available on user's device and it should be above a particular version. 10 or 11 depending on which one you use. This can be trouble if you wish to publish your apps on a country, for example China, that bans Google Play Services.

The existing answers don't say why the FusedLocationProvider is better.
It is better because the API fuses from more data sources (sensors, wifi, context, history) in an intelligent and battery-saving way. Also, Google is always improving it by adding more data sources. If your app uses it, you get those improvements for free.

LocationService not retrieving location using only Network

I have re-read the whole documentation and as I understand, this API intelligently fuses the providers to give you an accurate result.
The Fused Location Provider intelligently manages the underlying location technology and gives you the best location according to your needs.
To my understanding, it will use Network and WiFi and GPS to give you a location. Now it is only logical to assume if one of those 3 is unavailable, it will use the remaining 2.
My problem is I'm testing my app to get Location when both WiFi and GPS are off. That will leave Location Service with the network provider only. But I'm getting Latitude and Longitude = 0.0
Long story short, either way I'm wrong in assuming that it will work relying only on network (no GPS, no WiFi) or there is something else I don't know or haven't read yet. Which of this 2 is my issue?
PS: my LocationRequest configuration is set to setInterval(30000) to setFastestInterval(60000) (30 and 60 seconds respectively, for each update.

Find location source using Fused Location Provider

AFAIK, fused location provider can use network or gps data depending on different conditions. Is it possible to find which exact location data source (WiFi, Cellular, GPS) was used after getting location with fused location provider? All I want is to show some notification on screen about the source of location data, like it's done in 2Gis app.

No,
Fused location provider:
The Fused Location Provider intelligently manages the underlying location technology and gives you the best location according to your needs.
It may use combo of that data.

Android Location Providers - GPS or Network Provider?

In my application I would like to determine the user's current location. I do however have a couple of questions in this regard:
There are different Location Providers, which one is the most accurate? The GPS Provider or the Network Provider?
In how far do those available provider differ? How do they function?
Could you please provide me with some code-snippets or tutorials on how to get started with implementing GPS functionality in my application?

There are 3 location providers in Android.
They are:
gps –> (GPS, AGPS): Name of the GPS location provider. This
provider determines location using satellites. Depending on
conditions, this provider may take a while to return a location fix.
Requires the permission android.permission.ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION.
network –> (AGPS, CellID, WiFi MACID): Name of the network
location provider. This provider determines location based on
availability of cell tower and WiFi access points. Results are
retrieved by means of a network lookup. Requires either of the
permissions android.permission.ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION or
android.permission.ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION.
passive –> (CellID, WiFi MACID): A special location provider for
receiving locations without actually initiating a location fix. This
provider can be used to passively receive location updates when other
applications or services request them without actually requesting the
locations yourself. This provider will return locations generated by
other providers. Requires the permission
android.permission.ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION, although if the GPS is not
enabled this provider might only return coarse fixes. This is what
Android calls these location providers, however, the underlying
technologies to make this stuff work is mapped to the specific set of
hardware and telco provided capabilities (network service).
The best way is to use the “network” or “passive” provider first,
and then fallback on “gps”, and depending on the task, switch between
providers. This covers all cases, and provides a lowest common
denominator service (in the worst case) and great service (in the best
case).
Article Reference : Android Location Providers - gps, network, passive By Nazmul Idris
Code Reference : https://stackoverflow.com/a/3145655/28557
-----------------------Update-----------------------
Now Android have Fused location provider
The Fused Location Provider intelligently manages the underlying location technology and gives you the best location according to your needs. It simplifies ways for apps to get the user’s current location with improved accuracy and lower power usage
Fused location provider provide three ways to fetch location
Last Location: Use when you want to know current location once.
Request Location using Listener: Use when application is on screen / frontend and require continues location.
Request Location using Pending Intent: Use when application in background and require continues location.
References :
Official site : http://developer.android.com/google/play-services/location.html
Fused location provider example:
GIT : https://github.com/kpbird/fused-location-provider-example
http://blog.lemberg.co.uk/fused-location-provider
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GPS is generally more accurate than network but sometimes GPS is not available, therefore you might need to switch between the two.
A good start might be to look at the android dev site. They had a section dedicated to determining user location and it has all the code samples you need.
http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/location/obtaining-user-location.html

There are some great answers mentioned here. Another approach you could take would be to use some free SDKs available online like Atooma, tranql and Neura, that can be integrated with your Android application (it takes less than 20 min to integrate).
Along with giving you the accurate location of your user, it can also give you good insights about your user’s activities. Also, some of them consume less than 1% of your battery