How to check if location is on and in high priority on API 18 and below

Question

Tried this:

String locationProviders = Settings.Secure.getString(getActivity().getContentResolver(), Settings.Secure.LOCATION_PROVIDERS_ALLOWED);
Log.d(TAG_MAP, locationProviders);

Output is: gps,network

Are phones that are API 18 and below dont' have HIGH_ACCURACY Priority?

Answer 1

I assume you're wondering how using Settings.Secure.LOCATION_PROVIDERS_ALLOWED, which is depricated in API level 19, is different from using Settings.Secure.LOCATION_MODE, which was introduced in API level 19.

With Settings.Secure.LOCATION_MODE, you have these values (you probably already know this):

LOCATION_MODE_HIGH_ACCURACY, LOCATION_MODE_SENSORS_ONLY, LOCATION_MODE_BATTERY_SAVING, or LOCATION_MODE_OFF

You can map these values to Settings.Secure.LOCATION_PROVIDERS_ALLOWED in this way:

LOCATION_MODE_HIGH_ACCURACY : "gps,network"

LOCATION_MODE_SENSORS_ONLY : "gps"

LOCATION_MODE_BATTERY_SAVING : "network"

LOCATION_MODE_OFF : ""

Note that in code, it's best to reference constants LocationManager.GPS_PROVIDER and LocationManager.NETWORK_PROVIDER instead of just "gps" and "network".

Using this answer as a reference, you could do something like this:

public static int getLocationMode(Context context) {
    int locationMode = 0;
    String locationProviders;

    if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.KITKAT) {
        try {
            locationMode = Settings.Secure.getInt(context.getContentResolver(), Settings.Secure.LOCATION_MODE);

        } catch (SettingNotFoundException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }


    } else {
        locationProviders = Settings.Secure.getString(context.getContentResolver(), Settings.Secure.LOCATION_PROVIDERS_ALLOWED);

        if (TextUtils.isEmpty(locationProviders)) {
          locationMode = Settings.Secure.LOCATION_MODE_OFF;
        }
        else if (locationProviders.contains(LocationManager.GPS_PROVIDER) && locationProviders.contains(LocationManager.NETWORK_PROVIDER)) {
          locationMode = Settings.Secure.LOCATION_MODE_HIGH_ACCURACY;
        }
        else if (locationProviders.contains(LocationManager.GPS_PROVIDER)) {
           locationMode = Settings.Secure.LOCATION_MODE_SENSORS_ONLY;
        }
        else if (locationProviders.contains(LocationManager.NETWORK_PROVIDER)) {
           locationMode = Settings.Secure.LOCATION_MODE_BATTERY_SAVING;
        }

    }

    return locationMode;
}