android - Switching between network and GPS provider

Question

I want to implement a locationListener which will switch between network and GPS providers based on availability.

For example if GPS is not enabled I want it to use network but as soon as GPS is on then I want it to stop listening for location updates from network and start listening from GPS.

Similarly I want it to start listening for updates from network as soon as GPS is switched off.

Is that possible?

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Subquestion

Is GPS as fast as network in providing a location fix?

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Answer 1

Sure, you just get the providers for the network and GPS and pass whichever you want to locationManager.requestLocationUpdates().

When you want to stop listening to a certain provider, call locationManager.removeUpdates() with the listener object you specified in locationManager.requestLocationUpdates().

Network:

Criteria crit = new Criteria();
crit.setPowerRequirement(Criteria.POWER_LOW);
crit.setAccuracy(Criteria.ACCURACY_COARSE);
String provider = locationManager.getBestProvider(crit, false);

GPS:

Criteria crit2 = new Criteria();
crit2.setAccuracy(Criteria.ACCURACY_FINE);
provider2 = locationManager.getBestProvider(crit2, false);

You can use LocationManager.isProviderEnabled() doc to see if the appropriate provider is enabled/disabled. There's more info available in the LocationManager docs.

GPS is usually much slower than network since you have to find 3+ far-away satellites, etc.