Good way of getting the user's location in Android

Looks like we're coding the same application ;-)
Here is my current implementation. I'm still in the beta testing phase of my GPS uploader app, so there might be many possible improvements. but it seems to work pretty well so far.

/** * try to get the 'best' location selected from all providers */private Location getBestLocation() {    Location gpslocation = getLocationByProvider(LocationManager.GPS_PROVIDER);    Location networkLocation =            getLocationByProvider(LocationManager.NETWORK_PROVIDER);    // if we have only one location available, the choice is easy    if (gpslocation == null) {        Log.d(TAG, "No GPS Location available.");        return networkLocation;    }    if (networkLocation == null) {        Log.d(TAG, "No Network Location available");        return gpslocation;    }    // a locationupdate is considered 'old' if its older than the configured    // update interval. this means, we didn't get a    // update from this provider since the last check    long old = System.currentTimeMillis() - getGPSCheckMilliSecsFromPrefs();    boolean gpsIsOld = (gpslocation.getTime() < old);    boolean networkIsOld = (networkLocation.getTime() < old);    // gps is current and available, gps is better than network    if (!gpsIsOld) {        Log.d(TAG, "Returning current GPS Location");        return gpslocation;    }    // gps is old, we can't trust it. use network location    if (!networkIsOld) {        Log.d(TAG, "GPS is old, Network is current, returning network");        return networkLocation;    }    // both are old return the newer of those two    if (gpslocation.getTime() > networkLocation.getTime()) {        Log.d(TAG, "Both are old, returning gps(newer)");        return gpslocation;    } else {        Log.d(TAG, "Both are old, returning network(newer)");        return networkLocation;    }}/** * get the last known location from a specific provider (network/gps) */private Location getLocationByProvider(String provider) {    Location location = null;    if (!isProviderSupported(provider)) {        return null;    }    LocationManager locationManager = (LocationManager) getApplicationContext()            .getSystemService(Context.LOCATION_SERVICE);    try {        if (locationManager.isProviderEnabled(provider)) {            location = locationManager.getLastKnownLocation(provider);        }    } catch (IllegalArgumentException e) {        Log.d(TAG, "Cannot acces Provider " + provider);    }    return location;}

Edit: here is the part that requests the periodic updates from the location providers:

public void startRecording() {    gpsTimer.cancel();    gpsTimer = new Timer();    long checkInterval = getGPSCheckMilliSecsFromPrefs();    long minDistance = getMinDistanceFromPrefs();    // receive updates    LocationManager locationManager = (LocationManager) getApplicationContext()            .getSystemService(Context.LOCATION_SERVICE);    for (String s : locationManager.getAllProviders()) {        locationManager.requestLocationUpdates(s, checkInterval,                minDistance, new LocationListener() {                    @Override                    public void onStatusChanged(String provider,                            int status, Bundle extras) {}                    @Override                    public void onProviderEnabled(String provider) {}                    @Override                    public void onProviderDisabled(String provider) {}                    @Override                    public void onLocationChanged(Location location) {                        // if this is a gps location, we can use it                        if (location.getProvider().equals(                                LocationManager.GPS_PROVIDER)) {                            doLocationUpdate(location, true);                        }                    }                });        // //Toast.makeText(this, "GPS Service STARTED",        // Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();        gps_recorder_running = true;    }    // start the gps receiver thread    gpsTimer.scheduleAtFixedRate(new TimerTask() {        @Override        public void run() {            Location location = getBestLocation();            doLocationUpdate(location, false);        }    }, 0, checkInterval);}public void doLocationUpdate(Location l, boolean force) {    long minDistance = getMinDistanceFromPrefs();    Log.d(TAG, "update received:" + l);    if (l == null) {        Log.d(TAG, "Empty location");        if (force)            Toast.makeText(this, "Current location not available",                    Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();        return;    }    if (lastLocation != null) {        float distance = l.distanceTo(lastLocation);        Log.d(TAG, "Distance to last: " + distance);        if (l.distanceTo(lastLocation) < minDistance && !force) {            Log.d(TAG, "Position didn't change");            return;        }        if (l.getAccuracy() >= lastLocation.getAccuracy()                && l.distanceTo(lastLocation) < l.getAccuracy() && !force) {            Log.d(TAG,                    "Accuracy got worse and we are still "                      + "within the accuracy range.. Not updating");            return;        }        if (l.getTime() <= lastprovidertimestamp && !force) {            Log.d(TAG, "Timestamp not never than last");            return;        }    }    // upload/store your location here}

Things to consider:

• do not request GPS updates too often, it drains battery power. I currentlyuse 30 min as default for my application.

• add a 'minimum distance to last known location' check. without this, your points will "jump around" when GPS is not available and the location is being triangulatedfrom the cell towers. or you can check if the new location is outside of the accuracyvalue from the last known location.

To select the right location provider for your app, you can use Criteria objects:

Criteria myCriteria = new Criteria();myCriteria.setAccuracy(Criteria.ACCURACY_HIGH);myCriteria.setPowerRequirement(Criteria.POWER_LOW);// let Android select the right location provider for youString myProvider = locationManager.getBestProvider(myCriteria, true); // finally require updates at -at least- the desired ratelong minTimeMillis = 600000; // 600,000 milliseconds make 10 minuteslocationManager.requestLocationUpdates(myProvider,minTimeMillis,0,locationListener); 

Read the documentation for requestLocationUpdates for more details on how the arguments are taken into account:

The frequency of notification may be controlled using the minTime and minDistance parameters. If minTime is greater than 0, the LocationManager could potentially rest for minTime milliseconds between location updates to conserve power. If minDistance is greater than 0, a location will only be broadcasted if the device moves by minDistance meters. To obtain notifications as frequently as possible, set both parameters to 0.

More thoughts

• You can monitor the accuracy of the Location objects with Location.getAccuracy(), which returns the estimated accuracy of the position in meters.
• the Criteria.ACCURACY_HIGH criterion should give you errors below 100m, which is not as good as GPS can be, but matches your needs.
• You also need to monitor the status of your location provider, and switch to another provider if it gets unavailable or disabled by the user.
• The passive provider may also be a good match for this kind of application: the idea is to use location updates whenever they are requested by another app and broadcast systemwide.

Answering the first two points:

• GPS will always give you a more precise location, if it is enabled and if there are no thick walls around.

• If location did not change, then you can call getLastKnownLocation(String) and retrieve the location immediately.

Using an alternative approach:

You can try getting the cell id in use or all the neighboring cells

TelephonyManager mTelephonyManager = (TelephonyManager) getSystemService(Context.TELEPHONY_SERVICE);GsmCellLocation loc = (GsmCellLocation) mTelephonyManager.getCellLocation(); Log.d ("CID", Integer.toString(loc.getCid()));Log.d ("LAC", Integer.toString(loc.getLac()));// or List<NeighboringCellInfo> list = mTelephonyManager.getNeighboringCellInfo ();for (NeighboringCellInfo cell : list) {    Log.d ("CID", Integer.toString(cell.getCid()));    Log.d ("LAC", Integer.toString(cell.getLac()));}

You can refer then to cell location through several open databases (e.g., http://www.location-api.com/ or http://opencellid.org/ )

The strategy would be to read the list of tower IDs when reading the location. Then, in next query (10 minutes in your app), read them again. If at least some towers are the same, then it's safe to use getLastKnownLocation(String). If they're not, then wait for onLocationChanged(). This avoids the need of a third party database for the location. You can also try this approach.