Sort of? If you are in a trusting relationship who cares? It’s simply convenient to check where your spouse or kids are without having to wait for a response.
The only reason me and my wife don’t do it is because we don’t trust the apps not to scoop up our location data and sell it to everyone and their mothers.
Not really. Your phone is already doing location checks every few minutes for a variety of reasons, so it doesn’t really affect it unless you have rooted your phone and hunted down all the little bullshit things that trigger location checks.
Turning off your GPS will not turn off location sharing to Google or other people, it will just fall back to using cell towers and wifi. Admittedly, it will be much more inaccurate, but it will still try it’s best. You can also turn off wifi and even data service itself to save energy. Although at that point you might as well just turn off the phone.
But I wasn’t talking about system level shutdowns. I want talking about in comparison to your standard level of activity. If you have your GPS on for anything like maps or anything else, you aren’t going to see a noticeable difference with personal location sharing on.
You can turn off higher level location services at the OS level, but at the radio level the cellular network will always need a precise enough location to handle tower handoffs and timing issues between the tower and phone, as well as modern beam forming techniques where the tower “aims” the signal at the phone. The simple act of the phone communicating with a specific tower tells the phone where it is (sometimes with surprisingly high precision).
911/emergency services also use more low level location techniques, but I’m pretty sure those functions don’t get called unless you dial an emergency number.
Sort of? If you are in a trusting relationship who cares? It’s simply convenient to check where your spouse or kids are without having to wait for a response.
The only reason me and my wife don’t do it is because we don’t trust the apps not to scoop up our location data and sell it to everyone and their mothers.
Doesn’t leaving location on drain phone battery at a higher rate?
Not really. Your phone is already doing location checks every few minutes for a variety of reasons, so it doesn’t really affect it unless you have rooted your phone and hunted down all the little bullshit things that trigger location checks.
You know you can just turn off location services right? Pretty sure even iPhone has the option
Turning off your GPS will not turn off location sharing to Google or other people, it will just fall back to using cell towers and wifi. Admittedly, it will be much more inaccurate, but it will still try it’s best. You can also turn off wifi and even data service itself to save energy. Although at that point you might as well just turn off the phone.
But I wasn’t talking about system level shutdowns. I want talking about in comparison to your standard level of activity. If you have your GPS on for anything like maps or anything else, you aren’t going to see a noticeable difference with personal location sharing on.
You can turn off higher level location services at the OS level, but at the radio level the cellular network will always need a precise enough location to handle tower handoffs and timing issues between the tower and phone, as well as modern beam forming techniques where the tower “aims” the signal at the phone. The simple act of the phone communicating with a specific tower tells the phone where it is (sometimes with surprisingly high precision).
911/emergency services also use more low level location techniques, but I’m pretty sure those functions don’t get called unless you dial an emergency number.
You’re getting way too far in the weeds on this, man. They’re asking if you can turn off GPS to save battery
I’m giving some reasons why turning on or off location services at the OS level doesn’t appreciably change battery life.
not really a problem on modern phones. i got a fairphone 6 and my phone lasts the whole day with Bluetooth, GPS, NFC and whatnot all active
Yes, kinda. But that’s what chargers are for. ☺️