Though it is not evident, geolocation has become a part of our lives and goes on adding convenience to our everyday experience. We don’t even pay attention to how many apps that we use are actually powered by geolocation. Our apps don’t offer us the spots or restaurants that are far away from us. Instead, they suggest places close by that we are likely to visit.
Social media apps use it as well to let you check in at particular places together with your friends. And of course, without geolocation, Uber and Google Maps won’t be able to take you to the places you want to reach or notify you about traffic problems. If you get lost, this is geolocation that helps the map app to identify your exact position and guide you to the destination that you want to reach.
But how does geolocation work? Let’s understand it together!
What Is Geolocation Technology?
Geolocation technology allows apps to identify the exact geographic location of the Internet-connected device. Using geolocation in mobile apps opens opportunities for both businesses and individuals. The former can come up with more effective marketing and customer acquisition strategies, and the latter get more relevant messages, fewer annoying ads, and a lot of handy features in their apps.
How Does It Work in Your Mobile App?
Geolocation is about enabling communication between the satellite and the smartphone (equipped with the Global Positioning System, GPS). Apps are used to make the interaction between the satellite and the smartphone easy and flawless. As a result, the app gatherers data about the position of an object in particular periods of time.
What Technologies Help to Determine Your Location?
Geofencing
Geofencing allows identifying the distance between a device and a particular point. The device should be connected to the Internet and allow the app to use its GPS. Geofencing can be used to get to know whether the person is outside or indoors, left or entered a specific place. In all, there are three types of geofencing triggers:
- static (depending on the user’s location in relation to a particular spot),
- dynamic (depending on the user’s position on the changing data stream),
- combined (depending on the user’s position in correlation with other devices close to it).
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi is the most precise way of defining the location of the device. Geolocation is made possible by means of RSSI (Receive a Signal Strength Indication) or by checking the places on Wi-Fi networks that are often visited by particular users. The estimation can be as accurate as within two meters.
Cell ID
If the GPS data is unavailable for some reason, the cell towers of the mobile network that were used to enable the last communication of a person can also help you to define the exact position of the device.
GPS
As the majority of smartphones come with integrated GPS, this technology is widely used to identify the location of a person. GPS gets the info about the location and timing from the satellite and then confirms it with at least four other satellites.
How Do Mobile Applications Use Geolocation?
As we live in a time of personalization, the providers of mobile apps use geolocation to personalize their offerings and ads, as well as offer particular features. To give a few examples, mobile apps can use geolocation directly for navigation (Google Maps & Waze), for providing relevant information (weather forecast apps, dating apps, social mobile apps), and for other features (on-demand services and fitness apps).
Is Using Geolocation Safe for Your Privacy?
Though location-based features make apps so tempting for users and providers and open many opportunities, they also bring in a bunch of concerns related to the safety of user data. Businesses get to know a lot about you to personalize the information they send to your device. Some of the apps are entirely built around the idea of knowing a person’s location (for example, a dating app Happn or Tinder location-based dating feature). Users are offered to check the profiles of people around them, which, of course, implies sharing your location data with the app and other users. For sure, applications ask for your permission in order to get to know and share the info about your location. And as a user, you can turn off the feature in the app or device settings. Still, there are concerns both from the point of view of users (people are afraid that geolocation can open opportunities for stalkers and fraudsters) and businesses who have to protect the data they get from third parties seeking ways to get money in illegal ways.
Final Thoughts
Whether we trust it or not, geolocation has already become a part of our reality. Mobile apps powered by geolocation can benefit businesses almost in any domain. This technology is changing the way users interact with businesses, giving more opportunities for advertising, marketing, and sales. At the same time, users can also unlock new features and enjoy the comfort that comes from checking the places and people nearby. Read more about the popular domain for using geolocation and interactive maps — dating apps — in our upcoming post.