Google Latitude and multiple devices - How to prevent location jumping?

Question

I have an Android smartphone and tablet which both are linked to my Google account and Latitude enabled. Since I don't carry the tablet always with me, my Latitude location sometimes jumps back and forth, if my smartphone has no connectivity.

I could disable Latitude on my tablet, but I wonder if there is a way to configure Latitude on the tablet to not provide any location information at all?

Personally I never enabled Latitude on my tablet, it spends most of its time at home, and the rest in Airplane mode! — GAThrawn, Oct 26 '11 at 16:04
So on the tablet, you just want to use Latitude to see where other people are, but not report your own location? And the app doesn't provide an option to turn it off per-device? — endolith, Nov 29 '11 at 20:03
That is exactly the problem, endolith. Since there is no offical Latitude for Android issue tracker, I have asked the question on Google's mobile forums. If you are also looking for a native solution, please star it. Hopefully we will get Google's attention. — Flow, Dec 06 '11 at 11:12

joweiser · Accepted Answer · 2011-11-28T18:30:03.250

8

There's an app called ALTitude that does allow you to configure those settings per installation (= per device in your case).

EDIT: Purpose of the app - updating your Latitude status/location base on more fine grained settings (update interval, location source).

ALTitude on Android Market

XDA Thread

I'd recommend to configure Latitude to "manual location" and ALTitude to automatic update, but first read through the thread to check if this tool does the trick for you.

edited Nov 28 '11 at 18:30

answered Nov 28 '11 at 18:20

joweiser

1,005
9
13

1

I am not sure if this will work, since ALTitude requires to set Latitude to "manual update" and I think that this setting will also be synced across all devices which Latitude enabled and my Google Account. Edit: of course that could work, because ALTitude will then update my location, :-) I'll report back how it turns out. – Flow Nov 29 '11 at 08:11
1

Ok, this will work. But I don't like 3rd party apps. That's why I switched to remotely turning off wifi via GTalkSMS if I have left my tablet at home, so that it has not data connectivity. If there aren't any better answers until the end of the contest, I will accept this one. Thanks masterjo. – Flow Dec 02 '11 at 19:00
@Flow if there's any suggestions you'd like to voice do so in the XDA Thread - the app is in active development and the developer is very responsive. – joweiser Dec 11 '11 at 22:41

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 29 '11 at 20:13

This is probably overkill and might not even work, but you could root your tablet and install Cyanogenmod, which lets you revoke permissions for individual apps. So you could revoke permission for Latitude to access your location on the tablet, but leave the rest of the app running. This may just cause it to crash, though.

score 2 · Answer 3 · edited Nov 29 '11 at 06:52

2

If you go to Settings in your Latitude, under Location Reporting it gives you the option "Do not update your location". Another option is to just turn off the GPS on your tablet, this way it won't give your position in Latitude.

edited Nov 29 '11 at 06:52

Matthew Read

50,567
30
145
273

answered Nov 29 '11 at 04:31

Jonadab Debe

29
1

I'm not sure if the first option is the same as Andrew's answer, but the second makes sense. – Matthew Read Nov 29 '11 at 06:52
2

I am sorry but disabling GPS won't help since Latitude will still update the position from the WiFi and cell tower location data. Also GPS isn't used by Latitude explicitly, it's only used when the GPS postion is already there (e.g. because Maps with enabled GPS is running). – Flow Nov 29 '11 at 08:00

Björn · Answer 4 · 2013-10-14T13:09:14.913

2

For the current version of Google Maps (7.2.0) set Settings > Google location settings >Location Reporting> Off on your tablet. For more details see the Google help page.

For an older version of Google Maps (6.14.4) I found: Settings > Location settings >Report from this device.

edited Oct 14 '13 at 13:09

answered Oct 08 '13 at 19:01

Björn

121
4

score 1 · Answer 5 · edited Jan 23 '13 at 14:05

1

Under Settings > Accounts > Google, Privacy > Maps & Lattitude, I have disabled the option "Report from this device" on my Nexus 7 tablet. This makes my phone the only device to update my location.

edited Jan 23 '13 at 14:05

Flow

18,464
16
79
138

answered Jan 23 '13 at 11:14

Edo de Roo

11
1

Google Latitude and multiple devices - How to prevent location jumping?

5 Answers5