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microg
UnifiedNlp
Java2016–2024
microg / UnifiedNlp

UnifiedNlp

Alternative network location provider for Android, with plugin interface to easily integrate third-party location providers.

Systems & InfrastructureMobile & DesktopNetworkingMaps & Geospatial
Explore on GitHubRead Hacker News discussions
11Distinct people
12Mentions
0Explicit recommenders
1.1KGitHub stars
REPOSITORY AT A GLANCE

What to know before exploring

What it is

Alternative network location provider for Android, with plugin interface to easily integrate third-party location providers.

GitHub

Where it is used

No documented product use was verified in the last source check.

What people are saying

No recommendation phrase was found in the indexed comments.

No classified warning is attached to this page. Read the discussions before treating silence as approval.

Also in these discussions

No other repository is repeatedly linked in the same discussions.

This week on Hacker News

Nov 7–Nov 14 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/14/2026, 3:56:07 PM UTC.

No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.

Mentions over time

HN mentions by year12 dated mentions

Observed mentions: 2016-11-29 23:51:27 UTC to 2024-05-11 03:42:21 UTC.

01232016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 2 mentions; 0 submissions, 2 comments20162017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 comments2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 2 mentions; 0 submissions, 2 comments2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 comments2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 2 mentions; 0 submissions, 2 comments20202021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 3 mentions; 0 submissions, 3 comments2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 comments2024

Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.

View mention counts and date ranges
UTC ranges include their start and exclude their end. Select a period to filter the source evidence.
PeriodStart (UTC)End (exclusive, UTC)MentionsSubmissionsComments
20162016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC202
20172017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC101
20182018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC202
20192019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC101
20202020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC202
20212021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC303
20222022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC000
20232023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC000
20242024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC101

What Hacker News says

12 sources
commoner·May 29, 2021
microG (a replacement for Google Play Services) includes a free and open source network location provider called UnifiedNlp: https://github.com/microg/UnifiedNlp UnifiedNlp allows you to choose the backends your Android device uses to determine the location, without providing any data to Google. Options include: - Mozilla Location Services: https://f-droid.org/en/packages/org.microg.nlp.backend.ichna... - Apple Location Services: https://f-droid.org/en/packages/org.microg.nlp.backend.apple... - OpenCellID (offline): https://f-droid.org/en/packages/org.gfd.gsmlocation/ - Radiocells.org (optionally offline): https://f-droid.org/en/packages/org.openbmap.unifiedNlp/ - Déjà Vu (offline cache using Wi-Fi and cellular data): https://f-droid.org/en/packages/org.fitchfamily.android.deja... The easiest way to use microG is to switch to an Android d
Read the rest
istribution that has it preinstalled: - CalyxOS (supports Google Pixel 2 and later): https://calyxos.org - LineageOS for microG (supports all devices supported by LineageOS): https://lineage.microg.org - /e/ (some overlap with LineageOS, but also supports different devices): https://e.foundation
In Google made it nearly impossible for users to keep their location private
traspler·Mar 9, 2021
Instead of the brutal patchsets that simply remove all the features that touch anything from google, it would have been amazing if there was a project that aims to make them pluggable, maybe even to end users, not just during compile time. Being able to switch these features off or even chose a different provider for it would be pretty great I think. Sure, some of the features can be replaced with extensions but not with the same integration. MicroG (re-implementation & stubs of Google Services for Android) tries to do that at least in some areas, e.g. the location provider: https://github.com/microg/UnifiedNlp
In How to 'un-Google' your Chromium browser experience
Fnoord·Jun 17, 2019
If devices have other radios such as WiFi and GSM these can function as a backup plan (I don't think BT would suffice, unless there would be P2P between Bluetooth devices with devices who can provide coordinates such as WiFi and GSM). For example, the first iPhone used Apple WiFi positioning; it didn't have GPS. I still remember I had a an iPod Touch with a 3rd party GPS which worked with the predecessor of Cydia. Check the sources UnifiedNlp [1] can use. Quoting: > AppleWifiNlpBackend - Uses Apple's service to resolve Wi-Fi locations. It has excellent coverage but the database is proprietary. > OpenWlanMapNlpBackend - Uses OpenWlanMap.org to resolve user location but the NLP backend did not reach release-quality, yet. Users interested in a freely licensed and downloadable database for offline use should stick with openBmap for now - Last
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updated in 2015 > OpenBmapNlpBackend - Uses openBmap to resolve user location. Community-created, freely licensed database that can optionally be downloaded for offline operation. The coverage varies from country to country (it's best in central Europe). > MozillaNlpBackend - Uses the Mozilla Location Service to resolve user location. The coverage is OK. Only the cell tower database is free. > LocalWifiNlpBackend - Local location provider for Wi-Fi APs using on-phone generated database. > LocalGSMLocationProvider - Local opencellid based location provider backend. Has been surpassed by LocalGSMBackend which also has an OpenCellID option - Last update in 2014 > LocalGSMBackend - Local location provider for GSM cells. It works offline by downloading freely licensed database files from Mozilla, OpenCellID, or lacells.db. [1] https://github.com/microg/android_packages_apps_UnifiedNlp
In Study finds that a GPS outage would cost $1B per day
kop316·Dec 10, 2018
I respectfully disagree on Google being entirely transparent about tracking location, especially if you run Android + Google Play Services. I have a tablet (Pixel C) that runs LineageOS + Google Play Services and a Phone (Nexus 5x) that runs LineageOS vanilla (no MicroG, no UnifiedNLP, no Google Play Services). Some things I have noted: - When you install MicroG/Google Play Services, they take over location services (i.e. they run in /system/priv-app, and if you disable their location, location on the device is disabled totally). - Android by default has the default on option to scan wifi and Bluetooth when you turn them off to find wifi/bluetooth and coorelate it to your location. - On my Pixel C, when if I try "high accuracy" or "battery saver" mode Location services, Google Play has tried to force me to agree to their location tracking
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and I have disagreed every single time. Location services does not work if I use "device only" (which is supposed to only use GPS). - I have noted that on my phone now, if I disable location and then reenable it when I have moved more than 20-30 miles, the GPS has to reacquire the signal and can take up to 2 minutes (I also tried it when I drove several hundred miles, it took several minutes to reacquire). This is indicative of the GPS module being off totally. This was not so when it had Google Play Services on, it was able to reacquire my location extremely quickly, sometimes almost instantaneously even if I moved a long distance. I suspect that Google Play was still tracking my location even if I turned off location services (due to it totally controlling my location). - EDIT: Another interesting note is that on my phone has had location services off and then turned just back on (i.e. no GPS lock), it appears to give the last time GPS was acquired as my current location. OSMAnd shows that location but says it doesn't know my location, but other apps do not realize that. I am suspecting that Android does not necessarily have a "stale" location, just the last reported location. Putting my tin foil hat, I hypothesize Google anonymously tracks your location even if your location services if off (allowing them to do traffic, how busy a restaurant is, etc.). EDIT: As correctly pointed out, networked assisted GPS is a thing, and may also play into the differences in GPS reacquiring. I believe that network assisted GPS is in AOSP. When I turn on and off GPS in Android, it appears to have the almanac for where to look for satellites based on SatStat, and how quickly my phone acquires the GPS signal is a function of where it used to be compared to where it is now. In addition, UnifiedNLP [1] scans for networks/cell towers and correlates it to location, it does not appear to implement networked assisted GPS. [1] https://github.com/microg/android_packages_apps_UnifiedNlp
In Companies use smartphone locations to help advertisers and even hedge funds
rmxt·Dec 28, 2016
Fair points. Someone has to "pay", whether through effort or money, for the new systems to garner traction. I agree that it is hard to see where the momentum could or would come from, and no I cannot name an instance where something has garnered significant traction. Some of the alternative android location services are at least functioning for technical users. (https://github.com/microg/android_packages_apps_UnifiedNlp) We return to my issue: does it being difficult and yet to be achieved mean that the people that are aware of potential drawbacks of the status quo should lay down and give up? That seems to be your implication.
In How GPS became a human tracking mechanism
hackuser·Nov 29, 2016
There are several alternatives to Google Apps, if that is what you are referring to, including TK Gapps and the MicroG project (as far as I know - I haven't used them myself). > for example, Geolocation would be a problem without Google's WiFi data UnifiedNlp[0] geolocation, when I looked into it a little while ago, could use various data sources including Mozilla's, Apple's, OpenWlanMap, and others. ---- [0] https://github.com/microg/android_packages_apps_UnifiedNlp/
In Jolla’s Sailfish certified as Russian government’s first ‘Android alternative’

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