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Is it necessary to turn both Internet and GPS on before I can read my current location(country, city, locality etc) in my app? If they are, then any alternative way to get the location only from GPS? Since the internet availability is an issue.

MMG
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Ibad Baig
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  • I believe that you can listen for both gps and network positions. So having both on would be the best choice, but not required. – Johan Aug 26 '12 at 09:28
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    You often need the internet to download the map for GPS. If you only want absolute coordinates (longitude, latitude) you don't need a network connexion. – Basile Starynkevitch Aug 26 '12 at 09:30
  • Thanks to both of you for clarification. What if I want to get the location name based on the absolute values I got through GPS, will this require data connection? – Ibad Baig Aug 26 '12 at 09:47
  • @Jaunty finaly what you say ? i want only location(latitute, longitute) on GPS without internet,wifi can it get loction or not? – CoronaPintu Nov 22 '13 at 12:39

5 Answers5

106

As others have said, you do not need internet for GPS.

GPS is basically a satellite based positioning system that is designed to calculate geographic coordinates based on timing information received from multiple satellites in the GPS constellation. GPS has a relatively slow time to first fix (TTFF), and from a cold start (meaning without a last known position), it can take up to 15 minutes to download the data it needs from the satellites to calculate a position. A-GPS used by cellular networks shortens this time by using the cellular network to deliver the satellite data to the phone.

But regardless of whether it is an A-GPS or GPS location, all that is derived is Geographic Coordinates (latitude/longitude). It is impossible to obtain more from GPS only.

To be able to return anything other than coordinates (such as an address), you need some mechanism to do Reverse Geocoding. Typically this is done by querying a server or a web service (like using Google Maps or Bing Maps, but there are others). Some of the services will allow you to cache data locally, but it would still require an internet connection for periods of time to download the map information in the surrounding area.

While it requires a significant amount of effort, you can write your own tool to do the reverse geocoding, but you still need to be able to house the data somewhere as the amount of data required to do this is far more you can store on a phone, which means you still need an internet connection to do it. If you think of tools like Garmin GPS Navigation units, they do store the data locally, so it is possible, but you will need to optimize it for maximum storage and would probably need more than is generally available in a phone.

Bottom line:

The short answer to your question is, no you do not need an active internet connection to get coordinates, but unless you are building a specialized device or have unlimited storage, you will need an internet connection to turn those coordinates into anything else.

psubsee2003
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  • i am testing with gps provider and network provider but without internet i cant get location in open clear sky. can you help me how can you achive it? – CoronaPintu Nov 22 '13 at 12:41
  • @psubsee2003 Is there a necessary to switch on network connection or will it automatically connect to it, while we are using A-GPS? – Dhasneem Jan 10 '14 at 06:02
15

In Android 4

Go to Setting->Location services->

Uncheck Google`s location service.
Check GPS satelites.

For test you can use GPS Test.Please test Outdoor!
Offline maps are available on new version of Google map.

Phonix
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6

There are two issues:

  1. Getting the current coordinates (longitude, latitude, perhaps altitude) based on some external signals received by your device, and
  2. Deriving a human-readable position (address) from the coordinates.

To get the coordinates you don't need the Internet. GPS is satellite-based. But to derive street/city information from the coordinates, you'd need either to implement the map and the corresponding algorithms yourself on the device (a lot of work!) or to rely on proven services, e.g. by Google, in which case you'd need an Internet connection.

As of recently, Google allows for caching the maps, which would at least allow you to show your current position on the map even without a data connection, provided, you had cached the map in advance, when you could access the Internet.

Igor F.
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4

GPS does not need any kind of internet or wireless connection, but there are technologies like A-GPS that use the mobile network to shorten the time to first fix, or the initial positioning or increase the precision in situations when there is a low satellite visibility.

Android phones tend to use A-GPS. If there is no connectivity, they use pure GPS. They do not override the data network mode. If you deactivated it, the phone won't use any data connection (which is handy if you are abroad, and do not want to pay expensive data roaming).

Aleksandar Stojadinovic
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1

I've found out that GPS does not need Internet, BUT of course if you need to download maps, you will need a data connection or wifi.

http://androidforums.com/samsung-fascinate/288871-gps-independent-3g-wi-fi.html http://www.droidforums.net/forum/droid-applications/63145-does-google-navigation-gps-requires-3g-work.html

Sergi Juanola
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