How Mobile Software Determine Device Location

January 24 10:00 2014 by Nataliia Vasylyna Print This Article

Location services play important role in most of modern mobile software products. That is why they should be considered in course of almost any mobile application testing. Desktop testing or web site testing usually does not require so much attention to location issues.

Location services are utilized not only by mapping applications but by many other mobile software products, rendering services, selling goods, providing information about local events and so on basing on the device location.

As a rule a mobile software product utilizes several ways of determining location.

The Ways of Targeting Location Utilized by Mobile Software Are:

Global Positioning System. This is one of the main methods of determining location but not the only one.
With the help of WiFi routers.
By means of cellular towers.
With the help of movement sensors. Movement sensors of mobile devices are used together with other methods of positioning for more accurate location targeting.

A software testing company informs that mobile software products usually rely on several methods of location determining, especially those that need very accurate positioning.

It is recommended to consult the development team about methods of location determining used by the tested application and utilize this information in course of mobile testing.

It is important to check how the software product determines the device position in real life conditions. If location services do not operate properly the software may give the user wrong information and its work will be useless. So, in course of any mobile application testing or web site testing for mobile devices functioning of location services should be carefully checked.