`auto` always yields the Android location provider, not Play Services

michalchudziak / react-native-geolocation

Geolocation APIs for React Native

MIT License

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`auto` always yields the Android location provider, not Play Services #266

Open jkaufman opened 1 year ago

jkaufman commented 1 year ago

Reviewing the code, it appears that the default location provider configuration setting, auto, always yields the Android location provider.

At GeolocationModule.java:37, mLocationManager is set to AndroidLocationManager.
When the configuration is set, onConfigurationChange checks for the values android and playServices, but auto is a no-op. As a consequence, the location manager remains android by default.

On line 54:

else if (Objects.equals(config.locationProvider, "playServices") && mLocationManager instanceof AndroidLocationManager)

… should probably read …

else if ((Objects.equals(config.locationProvider, "playServices") || Objects.equals(config.locationProvider, "auto")) && mLocationManager instanceof AndroidLocationManager)

michalchudziak commented 1 year ago

Hey, that's correct. I indeed wanted to keep the android.location backend default for 3.X release, to get the feedback from the community and resolve issues. I will change this behaviour in upcoming versions when it becomes stable enough.

christophemenager commented 5 months ago

That is super interesting @jkaufman ! Thanks for sharing this.

This part of the docs does not seem to reflect this behavior:

locationProvider (string, Android-only) - Either "playServices", "android", or "auto". Determines wether to use Google’s Location Services API or Android’s Location API. The "auto" mode defaults to android, and falls back to Android's Location API if play services aren't available.

Many developers might be mislead and thinking they use the new play API but they are not, which leads to many issues about poor accuracy

FreTimmerman commented 2 months ago

@christophemenager i think the wording of the docs is weird/wrong. what it says now:

'auto' defaults to android, but will fall back to Android (if play services aren't available)

HUH?? that is VERY confusing. i'd like to see that cleared up.

will it default to Android and fall back to Play services?
or will it default to android and never use play services? or ... ?
does choosing 'playServices' fall back to Android when not available?

other than that. it's been a year. is it maybe time to have 'auto' default to Play services?