Question

I am curious about why my app does not notify me sometime when I set it to be notified at same spot everyday. On iPhone 4x devices, the app uses regionMonitoring. Somedays the update is received, some days it is not.

Moreover, with significantLocationChanges also (on 3GS), the updates are not received consistently.

1) As I understand, both significantLocationChange and regionMonitoring receive updates when the device is handed off from one cell tower to the next one. Does it mean that users who live in area where the cell towers are not close by, the app will not work?

So, when there are no other parameters that can change, I am really puzzled by this behavior.

2) Does it mean that users who live in area where the cell towers are not close by, the app will not work?

3) Can I rely on regionMonitoring to notify the user consistently? What is the recommendation?

Regards. Sam.

Answer 1

1. regionMonitoring benefits from a couple other inputs to location monitoring. It triggers based on WiFi connections as well as other applications using location. Any location updates the OS receives will get run for any outstanding regions being monitored. The older significantLocationChanges is basically stuck to cell tower handoffs, and is generally less reliable in sparse cell areas.

2. Doesn’t mean it won’t work, it will just be less effective or useful.

3. My experience says that the regionMonitoring is the most consistent and reliable way to monitor locations without actively using GPS. It is by no means perfect, but for the majority of users, it should work with little to no issues.

I have an app that uses region monitoring and I haven’t had any major complaints about accuracy at all. I made the decision to not support the 3GS and the older method for 2 reason. Few users using it, and getting smaller by the day. Secondly, it is a lot more code to support for much less accuracy and I didn’t want it to detract from the overall experience, so I left it out. Hope this helps.