LAlazyjeff·Oct 10, 2020
Surprised to see GPSLogger here on Hacker News. I've been using it for 8 years now, basically ever since it's been possible to track location on a phone all day without recharging. This app is a gem.
Besides Google Location History / Google Timeline, GPSLogger is pretty much the only way to have records of your location. I've used it for research (we mention it in an academic paper on location-based memories), for my own records to see where I've been (like "how many times have I been to this area before"), and statistical analysis of my everyday habits. If you want long-term location history, GPSLogger is probably the only way to do this.
The alternate, Google Location History, has only been really reliable for the past few years, whereas there was a long period when GPSLogger beat it hands down in terms of accuracy because it would do G
Read the rest
PS with cell tower fallback, which is probably the best setup in terms of battery-accuracy tradeoff. The author implemented this in 2013 (it was an issue I filed [0]), and combined with the configurability of when it should try to get your coordinates, you can get long/lat records for almost no battery. If you want to own your own data, and export data automatically, GPSLogger is also the only way since Google doesn't let you automate data export as far as I know (plus if they did, you'd have to rewrite that code every year). My instance of this app has run in the background, syncing data hourly for months without needing a restart.
GPSLogger is one of the reasons I stick with Android. I'll keep using it even if I have to sideload the APK. It's really sad that the author has had to go through all this stress. But it's also worth noting there isn't a way to collect location records on iPhone at all, or sideload an app (ipa/apk), so Android is still the more open of the two platforms. The buffet of apps that used to do this type of location tracking (Moves, Gyroscope, Foursquare, and a bunch of indie apps) are basically all gone or pivoted away.
I'm disappointed that there's such a mindset here that apps should have subscriptions / revenue to be worth maintaining. Freeware and "indie" open source supports the long tail of usage. The popular apps can only get to 80% of the use cases out there. This also shows the inadvertent double-edged sword of privacy/security of indie apps, as they often use more hack-ey techniques which are the first to get blocked out. The most private/secure app is one that does nothing more than a website.
[0] https://github.com/mendhak/gpslogger/issues/184