A Complete Guide to Location-Based App Development

Wondering what goes into location tracking app development? No surprise, geolocation technologies are everywhere - from on-demand delivery apps to dating applications and social networks.

The location-based services market grows exponentially. According to the recent industry report, it is projected to grow at 23.2% each year and eventually reach USD 126.4 bln by 2025.

In these conditions, everyone should certainly understand what tech stack makes the location-based apps so good and which steps to take to make an excellent geolocation app.

Let's get to know the usual geolocation technologies, which industries benefit from those, and the actual location tracking app development life-cycle!

How to Use Geolocation

Geolocation is information about your device's geographical location.

All you need is a smartphone, tablet, or a fitness tracking watch connected to Wi-Fi or the one with the GPS chip inside of it. Geolocation services may also use satellite systems data or information received from cellular network stations like GSM, UMTS, and so on.

Geolocation services usually present the following benefits for location tracking apps:

• App users can define their exact geographical location on the map and share with other people upon the necessity. It works great in almost any messenger like Telegram, etc.
• Location-based apps can showcase the nearest points of interest like cafes, measure the distance, and build a route or a range of routes to the place.
• Geolocation services may display useful information about certain places on the map within the chosen radius.

What Geolocation Is Used For

Geolocation services are implemented in many applications for a wide range of industries - from food delivery to shipping cargoes, and even for customer tracking that serves the marketing goals.

Let's see what types of apps may utilize the benefits of location tracking technologies and in which way:

• location tracking apps (Google Maps) - directly find any place on the map;
• social networks (Instagram) - define the location of yourself or friends for networking;
• messengers (WhatsApp) - allow sharing data about the location for meetings with people;
• transit apps (AutoDeal) - help to monitor the transportation of cargoes in real-time;
• fitness apps (Runtastic) - GPS tracking of jogging routes;
• food delivery apps (UberEats) - allows tracking the on-demand food delivery process;
• weather apps (Yahoo Weather) - connects the weather indicators to a specific location;
• photo-location apps (Solocator) - defines the location by the information of the taken photo image;
• dating apps (Tinder) - helps to find acquaintances within a specified map radius;
• travel apps (TripAdvisor) - shows the best routes to the places of interest;
• retail apps (IKEA) - find the closest IKEA stores and provides better navigation inside the shop;
• marketplace apps (eBay) - offers a specific range of delivery options based on the customer location.

The list can be continued endlessly towards the industries that geolocation services may improve and types of apps that can benefit from utilizing such technologies.

Read also: How Much Does It Cost to Make an App in 2021?

Geolocation Technologies

There are two types of location-based technologies - indoor and outdoor. Let's see how they differ from each other.

Outdoor location-based services help to track the person's location on the map, finding the best routes to the destination point, measure distance between places, and follow the chosen path with tips in a form of text or voice. Just like Google Maps helps travelers to navigate in a new city.

It is more about GPS positioning and satellite systems. Here are the main sources of location signal:

• GPS module is integrated almost in any available device on the market. It is probably the most widespread way to locate a device's positioning. It gets the signal from the satellite and doesn't need an internet connection to show accurate figures. The only thing that concerns many smartphone owners is the heavy usage of batteries.
• Cell ID is an indicator that can define the device's location near the closest cell towers. It is useful when there are issues with GPS though only applicable in cities where there are many cell towers in the area. The accuracy of the defined data is based on the closeness of such a tower.
• Wi-Fi positioning shows great accuracy of location data through requires constant access to Wi-Fi spots. It gets information from the internet and drains the device's battery slower than GPS.

Indoor location-based services help to track a device inside the building. It is especially useful in shopping malls when a customer needs guidance to get to the destination store or when a store is so big that a shopper needs to understand how every section is located.

It is an additional channel for advertisement allowing to offer personalized ads to customers based on location.

Here how indoor positioning system apps work in order to help users to navigate inside building more easily:

• Geofencing uses GPS, Wi-Fi, and cellular data to attract people to the store from the closest areas like parking and the street. Geofencing works by triggering actions once a person enters a certain virtual boundary. The triggers work in a way to catch actions that are relative to certain places, dynamic changes, or other people. The most popular example is Amazon's Alexa app that makes some actions or sends reminders once a user crosses a geofenced location. It can be the lights switch off when a shopper walks out the store door.
• iBeacon is developed by Apple and uses BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) to send out the identifiers instead of delivering offers itself. These identifiers trigger actions in special apps. It works in a way when a user enters some museum, once approaching some artwork with an app, it shows all available information about the object.
• Eddystone works in the same way as iBeacon with a little difference - it was designed by Google.

How to Build a Location-Based App

Let's answer the question that may bother you the most: how to make a location tracking app for iOS, Android, or web.

Step 1. Explore the Market

How to create a navigation app that will actually make money and be extremely popular?

First of all, brainstorm your app idea and decide on the type of app you wish to make. Consider your target audience. What are their needs, pains, desires, and aspirations? And how can you cover all the obstacles with your app?

Read also: Best Mobile App Ideas for Different Markets 2021

Then search through your potential competitors over the existing market. Study the most popular geolocation apps, their functionality, special offerings, and drawbacks. Make sure to take into account all competitive apps weaknesses and benefits - here is when you can use the SWOT analysis in action. That's the practice of defining the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of a product.

Think of how your app can be better in functionality, user experience, and monetization.

Step 2. Find a Technology Partner

If you do not have enough experience in software development, all you need is to search for a reliable app development company that can consult you, develop an app, and support you from the tech side all the way through the product development.

Read also: Freelancer vs Software Development Company: What Is Your Best Bet?

Decide on the best suitable hourly rate for app development, explore the company's portfolio, scan the communication level, and make sure to get all the necessary information. It is important to understand whether they have already developed location-based apps, what is their tech stack and which industries they are ready to serve.

Remember about user experience. Make sure the app development company provides all the full-cycle development services like mobile app development, UX/UI design, testing, project management, etc.

Check out the clients’ testimonials about their work. Especially on independent platforms like Clutch or GoodFirms.

Step 3. Choose the Right Tech Stack

Location-based apps require the implementation of specific must-have technologies. Here are the most popular geolocation technologies for location tracking apps according to platforms:

• iOS: Google Maps API, Core Location API, Apple MapKit, Google Places API;
• Android: Google Location Services API, Google Maps API, MapView Class, Open Street Map;
• Web: HTML5 Geolocation API.

Those are only the most popular technologies but the list can be continued depending on many factors like app goals, operating systems, functionality, etc.

Step 4. Protect Data

Security is the top priority for location tracking apps as no one wants to be tracked by scammers.

There are multiple measures that can improve the web and mobile app security, just make sure to use the best practices to mitigate the potential risks.

Here are some basic things that will make a GPS app secure:

• Two-factor authentication or SMS verification makes it harder to hack accounts;
• Encrypt communication with special technologies for each platform;
• Protect sensitive data with enhanced security measures.

Make sure to test potential threats within your digital product from time to time as new vulnerabilities may appear occasionally - hackers continue improving their techniques as well.

Read also: 5 Major Logistics Pain Points & How To Solve Them

Conclusions

Location tracking technologies are developing with increasing speed. Such solutions may be implemented in almost any application serving most business niches. 

Even if you wish to create a healthcare app, the geolocation feature may become in handy while tracking the patients’ activities and overall health state.

So think whether namely the geolocation solution may become your app’s high point that will make your app stand out among competitors.

Ready to create a GPS-tracking app? Let's make the best geolocation solution to grow your business!