Background Location Service

LocationService is a .NET MAUI sample app (targeting .NET 10) that demonstrates how to obtain periodic GPS location updates and keep delivering them while the app runs in the foreground and — with platform support and the proper permissions — in the background.

The sample was originally developed to collect and broadcast location updates for mobile apps and includes helpers for permission management, a simple background loop that fetches location periodically, and lightweight messaging to deliver updates to the app UI.

Key capabilities

• Periodic location updates (configurable interval)
• Permission consent helpers for iOS
• Background processing pattern for polling GPS and sending updates
• Small, testable core with platform-specific implementations when required

Quick architecture summary

• src/BackgroundServices/LocationUpdates.cs — the periodic worker that requests the device location and publishes updates via WeakReferenceMessenger (LocationUpdate and LocationErrorMessage). The default delay is currently 5000 ms and the GeolocationRequest uses GeolocationAccuracy.High with a 1s timeout; adjust these values to change frequency/accuracy.
• src/Platforms/iOS/LocationManager.cs and src/Platforms/iOS/PermissionConsent.cs — iOS-specific location manager wrapper and a permission-consent helper that requests "always" authorization and enables AllowsBackgroundLocationUpdates when available.
• src/Platforms/Android/PermissionConsent.cs — the Android counterpart that is responsible for requesting runtime location permissions and handling consent flows on Android devices.
• src/Platforms/Android/Services/AndroidLocationService.cs and src/Platforms/iOS/Services/iOsLocationService.cs — platform-specific background service implementations. These files contain the OS integration required to run the LocationUpdates worker in the background (for example, Android foreground service / worker integration and the iOS BeginBackgroundTask wrapper used in iOsLocationService).
• Messaging models in src/Messages/ (for errors and updates) and src/Models/LocationModel.cs hold simple location payloads.

Supported platforms

• iOS (uses CoreLocation/CLLocationManager; requests Always authorization when appropriate)
• Android (via .NET MAUI Geolocation APIs; requires proper manifest permissions and battery-optimisation tweaks on some devices)
• Mac Catalyst and Windows are included in the project multi-target but platform background semantics differ — consult platform docs.

Important platform and permission notes

iOS

• This sample requests Always location access in PermissionConsent and sets AllowsBackgroundLocationUpdates in LocationManager when the OS supports it.
• Update your Info.plist with the appropriate usage descriptions (user-facing text):
  • NSLocationWhenInUseUsageDescription
  • NSLocationAlwaysAndWhenInUseUsageDescription
  • Optionally NSLocationAlwaysUsageDescription (older iOS versions)
• Add the location background mode in UIBackgroundModes if your app needs to continue collecting locations while suspended.

Android

• Add runtime permissions in AndroidManifest.xml and request them at runtime for Android 6+:
  • ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION
  • ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION
  • ACCESS_BACKGROUND_LOCATION (required to access location while the app is in the background on modern Android versions)
• Some manufacturers aggressively stop background work to save battery — you may need to instruct users to exclude the app from battery optimizations or whitelist it.
• Consider using a foreground service (with a notification) if you need long-running background location updates on Android.

Configuration and tuning

• Polling frequency: edit Task.Delay(5000, token) in src/BackgroundServices/LocationUpdates.cs to change how often the sample attempts to fetch location.
• Accuracy/timeout: tune the GeolocationRequest parameters in the same file to balance accuracy and battery usage.
• Preferences: the project contains a small preferences service (src/Utils/PreferencesService.cs) and a SERVICE_STATUS_KEY constant used to persist state.

How to build and run

Prerequisites

• Visual Studio with .NET MAUI workload installed (support for .NET 10 in the product matching the SDK target)
• Or install .NET SDK and MAUI workloads: dotnet workload install maui (use a terminal that supports your platform)

Build and run

• Open the solution in Visual Studio and deploy to a simulator or device for the target platform.
• From the command line you can build or test the projects:
  • dotnet build — builds all projects
  • dotnet test tests/LocationService.Tests — run the test suite

Notes: Some platforms (iOS/tvOS/macCatalyst/Android) require deployment to a device (not all simulators provide background behaviors or accurate hardware location). For full background behavior test on a real device.

Testing

The solution includes a tests project at tests/LocationService.Tests. Execute dotnet test against that project to validate the test suite. Unit tests should be kept platform-agnostic; platform-specific code can be integration-tested on devices.

Contributing

Contributions, bug reports and suggestions are welcome. If you plan to add features, try to keep platform-specific code isolated under src/Platforms/* and common logic under src/ so unit tests can run without device dependencies.

License

This repository includes Apache-2.0 license headers in source files. Confirm and add a repository-level LICENSE file if you intend to publish.

References and further reading

• .NET MAUI documentation: https://learn.microsoft.com/dotnet/maui/
• Apple Core Location guide: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/corelocation
• Android location permissions and background location: https://developer.android.com/training/location