So Android 17 will introduce a built-in location button for apps to use. That doesn’t sound exciting. But the nice thing is how it streamlines acesss. Before, you had 3 options:
- Give app always-on background access (rare and restricted nowadays)
- Give apps access when the app is opened
- Force the app to request the location manually (Approve once)
The issue is that the UX for the last option wasn’t great. You had to
- Click a location button
- Select an option in a prompt
- (In some cases, apps even redirected you to settings to nudge you to give permanent access)
Now, if apps integrate this button, you just click the button.
The first time you have to consent to location sharing (when button is clicked.) But the next times you click the button, it will give the app access right away .Since the button is system-provided, your intent is clearly determined.
Button look:
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As much as I hope that this feature will improve privacy, I must say I’m rather pessimistic about its adoption.
I’m thinking it’ll have much the same fate as the Precise / Approximate location split. All the (closed-source commercial) apps that I want to use which demand my location simply refuse to work if I give them only approximate location. They all demand precise location even though they don’t actually need it for anything; they just want it to collect more data (in my opinion).
I’m thinking this feature will be the same. Commercial apps could use the momentary location signal, but that would rob them of their precious location data, and we of course can’t have that! I believe they’ll just request continuous location data regardless of this feature and come up with excuses as to why it’s “necessary” for their apps to work.
Time will tell, I guess. I hope I’m wrong.
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