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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-31T00:14:19+00:00

I’m doing a camera application that will automatically geo-tag each picture taken. Using LocationManager.requestLocationUpdates()

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I’m doing a camera application that will automatically geo-tag each picture taken. Using

LocationManager.requestLocationUpdates()    //simply to get the GPS running
LocationManager.getLastKnownLocation()      //for each picture, to get coordinates

is mostly enough to simply pluck out coordinates from the phone as fast as possible, since it is still a camera application and you don’t want to waste time getting GPS data.

(Assume using GPS_PROVIDER only, not NETWORK_PROVIDER pls)

However the issue will be if the user enters a tunnel for example and the phone is unable to continue getting updates. 10 minutes later when getLastKnownLocation() is called, I will get an outdated location.

I want to find a way in which I can set an ‘expiry’ time on the Location, depending on individual comfort level.

In other words, keep using getLastKnownLocation(), but if the data is (for example) more than 5 minutes old, don’t bother with it, and I rather have a ‘null’ location. if the data is 2 minutes old however, that still is fine

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    You can implement this yourself. There’s nothing in the underlying API that includes this, but it’s perfectly fine to stash the time that you initiated the request (or got the last one) in your app, perhaps in a SharedPreferences. You also have to be weary of things like how fast the user is moving, etc.., so in general you might need to put a fair amount of thought effort into determining how you want to do this. There’s not any way (in the API) to find out how fresh the call to .getLastLocation() will get you. For a few minutes it’s probably best to employ the technique I mentioned. For a lot longer you might want to consider something like an AlarmManager (which you should be using anyway if your app runs on a timescale that is that long). You seem to be using .getLastLocation more than I do, however. I often simply just request updates and then “put the dot down” whenever I get the first update. In general I’ve found that .getLastKnownLocation() isn’t really all that reliable, but maybe that’s just because I don’t use apps with my location very often.

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