iOS11 location update after getting killed by user

Question

I'm implementing a non VOIP app in iOS 11. As per the nature of my App, I've implemented the startMonitoringSignificantLocationChanges(). All the implementation went well and it is working now.

• while terminating the app I'm calling startOrReStartSignificantLocationUpdate()

• and I'm restarting significantlocationupdate in didFinishLaunchingWithOptions

• also I'm updating location in server in didUpdateLocations event

Location updates is reflected on my server when the App is in foreground or background. It is now reflects even if user kill the App manually. So it works with SLC but

the problem is;

Updates seems to get stopped after a period of time say, 3 - 4 hours. It happens if the user kills the App manually. As per the nature of my App, I need to get it re-initiated up on location change and get the location update to my server.

Is there any category of App which can get this location updates forever in iOS11? I'm thinking about how Moves App in iOS works. Not sure it works perfect with iOS11 though

Answer 1

If you only use “While Using” location access, as far as I understand nothing changes for you. If you use the “Always” access though, and you didn’t provide a “While Using” fallback as you should have… well, you will need to do that now

As Brad Jensen explains in the WWDC talk I mentioned, Apple has decided that forcing the user to give the app “Always” location access is a bad user experience:

Now, a second reason we think that many developers choose to require Always authorization is they’re simply trying to give their users the best possible experience (…) but this makes for a very poor user experience for the users that don’t wish to grant the app Always authorization. They are forced to choose between granting the app Always, which is more than they would like in this example, or granting it Never, which means they don’t get to benefit from any of the app’s location-based features. And their final option is to grant it Always and then revoke that authorization after they’re done using the app. In any case, the user is not having a great time with this app.

So, when you build your app using the iOS 11 SDK, you are now required to provide an NSLocationWhenInUseUsageDescription key in all cases (if you use location at all). For “Always” access, you can additionally provide a second key, which is now called NSLocationAlwaysAndWhenInUseUsageDescription. If you only provide NSLocationAlwaysAndWhenInUseUsageDescription but not NSLocationWhenInUseUsageDescription, asking for “Always” access will not work:

This app has attempted to access privacy-sensitive data without a usage description. The app's Info.plist must contain both NSLocationAlwaysAndWhenInUseUsageDescription and NSLocationWhenInUseUsageDescription keys with string values explaining to the user how the app uses this data

Effect on existing apps

Most SDK changes usually only take effect once you recompile your app with the latest version of the SDK & Xcode. This one is different: even if you don’t release any updates this summer, this change will affect you. Here’s what the user sees when they run existing apps from the App Store in iOS 11 beta and they ask for location access:

The first one is from Foursquare, which has provided both access level options for a long time. In this case, iOS 11 lets you immediately choose “While Using” or “Always”, and since the description texts have not yet been updated with the new behavior in mind, it shows both texts at the same time.

The second one is from Topo Maps, an app that lets you browse hiking maps and find yourself on the map while you’re on the trail. You can imagine it has no reason to track you in the background, but still, the developer has not provided a “While Using” option. iOS 11 now lets you choose that option anyway, but since it might possibly cause some unexpected behavior in the app, it shows a warning that some parts of the app might not work.

If your app has only provided an “Always” key so far, I’d recommend that prepare a transitional update that adds the NSLocationWhenInUseUsageDescription key and makes sure the app works properly in this mode. That way, the user will get a popup like the one in Foursquare, which at least looks less scary.