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expand feature page info on network location

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Daniel Micay 2025-03-27 19:15:20 -04:00
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static/features.html
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<section id="network-location">
<h3><a href="#network-location">Network location</a></h3>
<p>GrapheneOS provides the ability to use network location as an opt-in
feature.</p>
<p>GrapheneOS provides network-based location as an opt-in feature with our own
implementation. Similar to the services provided by Apple and Google, it offers
location detection based on nearby networks rather than solely relying on using
satellite-based location (GNSS) with technologies to accelerate it (A-GNSS). It
makes getting a location indoors and in cities with tall buildings much faster
or possible when it wouldn't have worked via GNSS. Certain apps also have the
expectation of network-based location being available and don't account for the
time needed to get a GNSS-based estimate or inability to get one everywhere so
this feature provides improved compatibility with apps.</p>
<p>Enabling the network location feature will make getting a location lock
indoors and in cities with tall buildings much faster, or possible when it would
have previously been impossible. Additionally, network location improves app
compatibility for apps that expect a fast location lock from the network
location provider which they won't get when it's off and GNSS is being used
instead.</p>
<p>Unlike Google's service and similar to Apple's service, our feature provides
local position estimation based on retrieving location data for nearby networks
from a service. It caches the information from the service in-memory for up to
15 minutes from when it was last used so it can function offline after getting
the initial data. It only needs to send a network identifier for each network it
wants to use for position estimation. Google's service does server-side position
estimation which requires repeatedly sending distance estimates for each network
to the service for each position estimate update. The approach we use doesn't
require providing any information to the service once the nearby networks are in
the cache or sending distance estimates. The service also provides it with extra
data covering a fairly large area from the initial position with a reasonable
density of networks so it can keep functioning if internet access is lost.</p>
<p>The feature works by sending nearby Wi-Fi network identifiers to the service,
which returns positioning data for those networks and other nearby ones to store
in a temporary in-memory cache. Your location is estimated using a robust
on-device multilateration algorithm.</p>
<p>Our network-based location feature is currently entirely based on Wi-Fi
Access Points (APs). It will be extended with support for cell towers in the
near future to provide better support for rural locations like the Apple and
Google services. Apple and Google also use Bluetooth beacons but it's a very
niche feature only relevant to certain malls, stores, etc. which are usually
covered well enough by Wi-Fi support for decent position estimates.</p>
<p>In the future, GrapheneOS plans to provide an option for offline network
location using downloaded data instead of having to send data to a service.</p>
<p>Users can currently choose between using our proxy to Apple's service or
directly using Apple's service. We're in the process of building our own
database and service based on data from multiple sources including Apple's
service. Unlike the Apple and Google services, our service will provide support
for fully offline usage based on database downloads rather than requiring
sending network identifiers to the service to fetch data for them.</p>
<p>For details on how to use the network location feature, see the
<a href="/usage#network-location">usage section</a>.</p>