How often are GPS points made with the mobile apps?

This feature requires the Locations add-on.
Question:

How often are GPS locations taken when tracking time with the mobile app?

Answer:

We rely on the OS giving us the location points. Since we use 500 meters resolution, we don’t get the locations of the user continuously. Instead, the OS will give to us when it notices a significant amount of movement.

We filter out the ones that are closer than 500m unless there hasn’t been a reading accepted in the last 5 minutes. This explains why there are instances where it may appear that you are missing locations for long periods of time (inside a building that blocks GPS, etc.) or why you may see a pin drop on the map that is not accurate (in a city, inside a building, etc). So you could have 1 location point (or maybe a handful) for several hours if the user stayed in the same location. It wouldn’t make sense, in that case, to have 100+ location pins on the map, since the user barely moved.

Maybe you were cleaning a house or working at a construction job site. If you’re driving you will get quite a few pin drops because you are moving over 500 meters more often. We focus on when big movements happen, not small ones. And at a 500 meters resolution, we only drain the battery ~2%/hr. So it may not seem like a significant drain.

On Android, updates are sent by the app to our servers every 5 minutes.
On iOS, we can use deferred updates, which says send us changes in location once the total movement is > 3,000 meters or 5 minutes has elapsed, we cannot control the granularity of the locations in the deferred scenario, only how much total movement to queue up before sending us all the locations it collected. The app will record locations when either:
  1. A user is tracking time, or;
  2. When the user’s device is set as a primary device and the organization has their location tracking setting set to “Always.”

While the app is location tracking, locations are recorded when:

  1. Your location changes significantly (iOS determines what changes are significant), or;
  2. In increments of ~150 meters while in motion
  3. When the user stops moving/becomes stationary.

For instructions on how to download the mobile app, click here.

For a guide on how to enable location services for your device, click here.

  • Was this Helpful ?
  • Yes   No
  • Was this Helpful ?
  • Yes   No