Building Apps with Location & Maps

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Making Your App Location-Aware

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.

Note: Since this class is based on the Google Play services client library, make sure you install the latest version before using the sample apps or code snippets.

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Getting the Last Known Location

Specifically, use the fused location provider to retrieve the device’s last known location. The fused location provider is one of the location APIs in Google Play services. It manages the underlying location technology and provides a simple API so that you can specify requirements at a high level, like high accuracy or low power. It also optimizes the device’s use of battery power.
This lesson shows you how to make a single request for the location of a device using the getLastLocation() method in the fused location provider.

Set Up Google Play Services

To access the fused location provider, your app’s development project must include Google Play Services. Download and install the Google Play services component via the SDK Manager and add the library to your project. For details, see the guide to Setting Up Google Play Services.

Specify App Permissions

Apps that use location services must request location permissions. Android offers two location permissions: ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION and ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION. The permission you choose determines the accuracy of the location returned by the API. If you specify ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION, the API returns a location with an accuracy approximately equivalent to a city block.

Connect to Google Play Services

To connect to the API, you need to create an instance of the Google Play services API client. For details about using the client, see the guide to Accessing Google APIs.

In your activity’s onCreate() method, create an instance of Google API Client, using the GoogleApiClient.Builder class to add the LocationServices API, as the following code snippet shows.

// Create an instance of GoogleApiClient.
if( mGoogleApiClient == null ) {
    mGoogleApiClient = new GoogleApiClient.Builder(this)
    .addConnectionCallbacks(this)
    .addOnConnectionFailedListener(this)
    .addAoi(LocationServices.API)
    .build();
}

To connect, call connect() from the activity’s onStart() method. To disconnect, call disconnect() from the activity’s onStop() method. The following snippet shows an example of how to use both of these methods.

protected void onStart() {
    mGoogleApiClient.connect();
    super.onStart();
}

protected void onStop() {
    mGoogleApiClient.disconnect();
    super.onStop();
}

Get the Last Known Location

To request the last known location, call the getLastLocation() method, passing it your instance of the GoogleApiClient object. Do this in the onConnected() callback provided by Google API Client, which is called when the client is ready. The following code snippet illustrates the request and a simple handling of the response:

public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity implements
        ConnectionCallbacks, OnConnectionFailedListener {
    ...
    @Override
    public void onConnected(Bundle connectionHint) {
        mLastLocation = LocationServices.FusedLocationApi.getLastLocation(
                mGoogleApiClient);
        if (mLastLocation != null) {  
             mLatitudeText.setText(String.valueOf(mLastLocation
             .getLatitude()));  
             mLongitudeText.setText(String.valueOf(mLastLocation
             .getLongitude()));      
        }
    }
}

The getLastLocation() method returns a Location object from which you can retrieve the latitude and longitude coordinates of a geographic location. The location object returned may be null in rare cases when the location is not available.

Changing Location Settings

If your app needs to request location or receive permission updates, the device needs to enable the appropriate system settings, such as GPS or Wi-Fi scanning. Rather than directly enabling services such as the device’s GPS, your app specifies the required level of accuracy/power consumption and desired update interval, and the device automatically makes the appropriate changes to system settings. These settings are defined by the LocationRequest data object.

This lesson shows you how to use the Settings API to check which settings are enabled, and present the Location Settings dialog for the user to update their settings with a single tap.

Connect to Location Services

Set Up a Location Request

Get Current Location Settings

Prompt the User to Change Location Settings

Receiving Location Updates

Displaying a Location Address

Creating and Monitoring Geofences

Adding Maps