How to Track Your Users Location in the Background in Android - Android Studio Tutorial

Tracking the user's location in Android is often needed when your app is minimized. Thanks to foreground services that works really well and without many restrictions. In this video I'll show you how.
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[@lifebylazy]

"To provide a streamlined experience for short-running foreground services, devices that run Android 12 or higher can delay the display of foreground service notifications by 10 seconds, with a few exceptions. This change gives short-lived tasks a chance to complete before their notifications appear." - Android Docs, if anyone was curious about that weird delay behavior

[@sahilkanabar8605]

How can I be so lucky I just had a project with background tracking and here it is by best teacher like him on youtube .❤

[@yeinsonjosesernahuamani9542]

friend how would it be sent to a node.js server?

[@sahilkanabar8605]

@@yeinsonjosesernahuamani9542 sorry i could not understand you.

[@yeinsonjosesernahuamani9542]

@@sahilkanabar8605 How do I send the location to a server in node.js?

[@user-eh2el2mt2n]

@@yeinsonjosesernahuamani9542 use retrofit?

[@BapeRuLLZ]

I think we may be able to improve upon the DefaultLocationClient class by putting all the locationmanager checking methods and also the context extension function into usecase classes that are wrapped by interfaces and the DefaultLocationClient class would depend upon those. That way you could unit test the class better by providing different mock implementations for the interfaces so if you would want to write a test case that checks the output if for example the gps is enabled but the location is not, then that way you could easily do that. It might be overkill but I think every unit test in itself could seem like an overkill. Just my two cents.

[@muhammadirfanrajput8400]

Android gives continuous pain by continuous changing android SDK

[@ChrisAthanas]

Its a constant clusterfuck for sure

[@SEMPERFIDELIS7]

It sure is one hell of a shame!

[@juansuarez5216]

Congrats!! Really good tutorial, well explained and keeping it as simple as possible

[@halvtysk]

Nice video, we have this setup in our app, albeit implemented before the introduction of flows. If you "take requests" for future videos, I would love to see your approach to handling automatic startup of these types of services when a BLE device is present. Our devices requires physical activation and for our app to be ready for this, we have to keep a sticky notification at all times which is ugly. There are workarounds to use "companion devices", but the support for proximity to BLE devices seems limited to the latter two (?) Android versions. It would be interesting to see how you would handle the "do stuff when in proximity"-approach for both newer Android devices as well as for older.

[@chabbishreels1983]

What a great video, helps A LOT in the beginning.

[@KhadijaHameed-bx2mt]

you r going to catch 100k soon :D i noticed it from the 2 days it add +100 on regular but today it +200 so soon 😃👏

[@learner5439]

Thank you Philipp for this wonderful video.

[@maximooze3196]

send(location), exactly how khabib said it. Thanks again @Philipp

[@skarloti]

Beautiful and clear Thanks!

[@AnkitKumar-dd8fo]

Adding foregroundServiceType="location" in Manifest file is very crucial for foreground service to run even if app is closed in higher android version.

[@elgracko]

Oh, this worked perfectly, thanks!! you have no idea how much this helps!! I'm definetly buying you that coffee, right now|

[@Giulyozz]

hi philip, great video, I was wondering if you had any suggestion for using a default location listener instead of fused location, i need my app to work without play services, thanks

[@PrabhatPandey-jk6ur]

Thank you brother, you made our life easy.

[@dhiraj.20]

Nice tutorial, Thanks Philipp

[@SengKuz]

Nice video, Thank you for your source code. it has useful to my develop about show location.

[@mustafaammar551]

Very cool video Thank You Bro Wish you all the best

[@ChrisAthanas]

Very nice and thorough explanation!

[@PhilippLackner]

Thank you!

[@McIntoch666]

Location not updated

[@mukammart379]

Hello! Can we unit test for FusedLocationProviderClient using mock? or we have to write ui test for it?

[@EmanNollase]

nice tutorial. qq, what is the difference between foreground service vs WorkerManager?

[@ahmedelaswly1231]

Thank You , it was so clear

[@Adam0001]

Thank you Philipp🔥 Could you make a tutorial about How to observe new data in the backgroud and then fire a notificarion. BEST WISHES

[@salmaK20012]

YOU ARE A LIFE SAVER!

[@aviksutar]

Can you make a tutorial on complex survey form using json. Mean to say that the form is dynamically created from server end json response with multiple different layouts like rating bar, editext, radiobutton, spinners

[@juarez.roberto]

This video is gold !!

[@ameentehseen6900]

Finally ! thank you Philipp

[@TidelxD]

Thank You Philip you are the best

[@jopadjr]

1.3K+...Thanks Philipp. Great tutorial !! Would you mind adding Google Map series in your premium course?

[@dalveersinghdaiya2844]

Exceptional content

[@rarespetrusamartean5433]

Thanks man, I got really stumped by needing to declare the service type in the manifest. Everything else was flawless and worked but as soon as I closed the app, it would stop sending locations to my server, which frustrated me to no end to the point where I resorted to youtube. Thanks again, this has been very annoying.

[@omarhaddad980]

I found that calling `stop()` before even attempting to start will cause a problem. The reason I'm sharing this is because I'm trying to implement a `restartLocationTracking()` feature. It's essentially a location tracking refresher that involves calling `stop()` and then `start()`. This feature is particularly important when developing a Hybrid cross-platform app using Ionic and Capacitor. Is there a way to check if the (location is being tracked) before we call `stop()`?

[@erzhananarkulov9826]

awesome! I would like to ask what if I want to share location with my backend and see other users location of my app. is it a good if you request to server every second to update location? How uber taxi app handle it, for example? Thanks

[@chndraja]

Hi Philip, I ran into a issue, where my foreground service is closed after sometime in some OEM. Any idea on how to solve this issue.

[@berkc5323]

Why did you use launch { send() } instead of trySend()? Is it okay to launch a new coroutine every time that location callback triggers?

[@Uz_Mobile_Developer]

Thanks for usefull vedio.

[@alirahimi7425]

fantastic, but u need to add high accuracy for update frequently with new numbers

[@joaopaulopop]

Thank you very much!

[@michaelremme8319]

Really really great, what you did. It was exactly what i was searching for ( for nearly a week of search ). Transfer into java was not that complicated. I have one question: why are you building the NorificationChannel inside the Application? I found some others, which are building it inside the Service directly. In that way it seems that they are recreating it with each location update. Cause of this?

[@RK-lv9qc]

I dont think it's possible , for creating UI we need to request through mainactivity and we need to build a channel before our activity gets paused or destroyed , so we need to make use of application class , one other way is to use the Mainactivity and build the channel there

[@lihan7257]

How to learn your coding style , so beautiful.

[@raojilani3103]

thank you thank you so much for this help

[@flowzk921]

Great Video!

[@yaddogaming]

How we can make a code editing app or a code compiler (with jetpack compose) , pls make a video on this 🙏

[@roshanpvarghese4280]

Just wondering why you didn't go with Work manager's long running worker for this?

[@EmanNollase]

Also can I make request a tutorial: would possible to make tutorial about swipetodismiss(compose) but the catch is will wait for the server result before it will dismiss or not?

[@_WT_WhiteKnight7YT_]

thank you so much dude you're a god

[@panagiotisangelosisiris6315]

Hi Phillip! Can I take the coordinates from this foreground service and print them also on screen, somehow?

[@xITRicKsHooTzIx]

Hi, another wish I would like to see is background push notifications. I always had problems with that and the implementation is getting harder from experience. Thanks!

[@jeromet]

Check out tutorial using Firebase!

[@yugmewada4339]

I am working on android kotlin food delivery project i have order tracking screen in which path will be drawn and customer can track the driver’s location application support is 6-12 than what will the best way to do above defined job? I have to send updated lat long to api to suggest me accordingly

[@sercanyigit3292]

Hi Philip what theme are you using ?

[@siddharthp2061]

Nice tutorial ! How are you handling requesting permissions from user ?

[@Uz_Mobile_Developer]

Pls can you make vedio about canvas and using 3d objects in android

[@onlinemarketing9865]

Sir,, Please help me.. I have faced a problem.. My app previous update version was only 10 megabyte. But now I have added some features,, the size jumped to 25 MB, which is not possible because I have added very small amount of code... When I cancled all and go to previous version by github using version control; it also showing 25MB in released version,,, which was 10MB..

[@bleuforcedz6727]

Can u do tutorial on how to make a background service cant be killed by battery optimization?

[@DrakotMetal]

why don't you use IntentService? what you include in it runs on the background by default

[@danishranjan9208]

it work on my pc thx bro vеry much

[@cernaruka]

Great, thanks a lot

[@jansk598]

Hi,does the foreground service run also when device is locked and in sleep mode?

[@GirishKumar-vj6yy]

Thanks Bro😊

[@xandrviking1113]

Super, thank you philip 🖖👍🤝

[@abdullahtutun]

You haven't used the ACCESS_BACKGROUND_LOCATION permission in the project. Would this cause any issues when uploading the app to Google Play?

[@faxmodem2397]

Hello, how can we save this information and send it to the backend? And the second question is how can we send an alarm to the backend when the user turns off the GPS

[@kiruthigat0152]

Hi philipp,Could you please upload a video on monitor geofence

[@deepfuchsia7204]

Hey Philipp, thanks for the video and the code. I had problems with foreground service and your code worked perfectly fine. I have an additional question tho. Let's say we want to render a map and a polyline which would render something like a path using the list of locations gathered over time. The map is rendered inside a @Composable. What's the best way to pass the location data from the service into the @Composable, so it can render the path?

[@hegde421201]

use arcgis polyline API

[@berkc5323]

did you find a nice way? I am actually trying to find a way to use the location in a Fragment. I need to pass it to something like a StateFlow and collect it in the Fragment.

[@pranjalisrivastava6170]

How to play navigation sound when navigation started to confirm that voice directions are working in android studio?

[@rajeevthakur4916]

I have tried you other videos also and done each step to replicate the same but still having the issue that the notification is easily removeable by just swiping. With the foreground service i want to show a persistent/static/non-removeable notification which includes the stop button to directly stop the foreground service from the notification. By this the user will not have to open the app and the app will not be running in the background when the user dont want it to. I have tried .setOngoing etc but still not solution. Waiting for you response ..........

[@galihgaharditama7432]

Link github of the source code is wrong, can you update it? Thanks..

[@luizfelipemontuaniesilva1371]

Is it possible to set the notification importance to LOW and set it silent without impacting the service?

[@Cyber-lw1bi]

Hi cool video but how do i make it that the camera of the google map follows the user's GPS position?

[@user-ng3kf4cs4d]

I know i m kinda late but what IDE did you use and what programming languages?

[@exploringgodscountry]

You have the best KZbin channel for Android development for sure. However, I'm old school. I've programmed in a BUNCH of languages... Really a hardware guy though. I cannot wrap my head around Kotlin. Are you not doing any Java tutorials on location services? I honestly, really don't want to learn Kotlin. I don't see it's utility.

[@sahilkanabar8605]

can we track location after user take out our app through recent?

[@retechitsolution2564]

Thank its good prectice for me. But one my question How to send location on pho server

[@babatundeadenowo7568]

I have followed all of the process, but the location in the notification bar remains "Location: null" and doesn't update with the actual latitude and longitude. The only difference in my implementation is that I put the call to start the service in the setContent on the MainActivity, just before the NavHost, rather than onClick of a button. This is because I need my app to always track.

[@JonuGurjar]

Hi Phillip, I was seeking the same solution but it's not working when app gets killed, can you please add something

[@marvelrivera1194]

Nice one

[@hossamqandel5303]

Philipp ♥️

[@zlash7]

The link below "Get the source code for this video here" is wrong

[@user-dq7ti9zt4p]

miui kills the foreground service, if battery optimization is enabled and autorun is disabled, I restart the service using FCM, if the device has stopped sending data durin some time, this is not the best solution, but working one

[@alirehman842]

How you check service is stopped for sending notification

[@EntertheBlackDragon]

Column will not render, not sure what that's about.

[@yugmewada4339]

Why you have used flow? Why you cant used mutable live data of Location?

[@Tech1st]

can't we running after close the app?

[@fredericoamigo]

Good video, and I'm one of your biggest fans, but unfortunately the user location updates really really slow. Also. Is this a bit too complex? Is there an easier way to do this?

[@ManishDubeyAndroid]

Can’t we extend LifecycleService and use lifecycleScope instead of creating own coroutineScope with supervisor?

[@Salehalanazi-7]

Yup That's even better :)

[@yeinsonjosesernahuamani9542]

How do I send the location to a node.js server?

[@vishwanathkumbar3083]

We have alternative solution for location tracking.we can use listenableworker and show notification

[@mohaimensarker]

Will the location will change with moving the device?

[@florianaleman9120]

Hey great tutorial. I have some trouble getting the location in background idf i dont implement the code for the notifications. Is it possible ?

[@sedraopamp]

I've tested with different devices (Samsung S20, Motorola G42 and Pixel 6a), and LocationManager provides a location every 10 minutes in the background. I've not found an approach to reduce this time. However, you must add background location permission in the manifest and request it to the user. Coarse and Fine location will only work in foreground.

[@krepkovmeste]

It was very informative, but it's not entirely clear where all the code comes from ... I'm beginner in android dev, only know web development and everything is much simpler and clearer there It would be cool if a video appeared on KZbin on how to make a full-fledged gps tracker with sending the received data to the server in MySQL and authorization, or at least there were normal lessons that would teach you how to use the original source to master mobile development...

[@dgcov]

I'd be very interested for Philipp to try to replicate the tutorial a year after it was originally posted. So much has been deprecated and changed in the SDK that it no longer compiles.

[@sijanneupane]

updated weeks ago, now was the schedule.

[@trevortrevose9124]

Heard facebook tracks user search history and keystrokes is this possible or a myth

[@Cyber-lw1bi]

Hello... Am I the only one with the problem that the gps location does not change? So if i try to set a virtual gps location in extended controls, the app will continue to print out the original location until the whole emulated smartphone has been restarted. And then again, only the one location that has been set before the device restart is continuously printed out...

[@jackc-gw7630]

Hey. The location doesnt seem to update continesly anymore?

[@rithulraj3348]

Is it possible to track location when the app is killed?

[@omarhaddad980]

at 08:40 I think there must be an OR instead of and AND in the line 24 where you check gps and network

[@PhilippLackner]

No, if one of these is enabled GPS can be used

[@omarhaddad980]

@@PhilippLackner Great video BTW, and now I get it, so the phone can get location using the network also besides the the Gps sensor itself, in this case I would rename the variable isNetworkEnabled to isNetworkLocationEnabled. but of course this is a personal preference. thanks a lot for the help

[@xmaster9841]

How can i push this data to ViewModel?

[@codefriendly8528]

Is this work on android 14 as well?

[@Uz_Mobile_Developer]

Hi Philip