Starting March 27, 2025, we recommend using android-latest-release instead of aosp-main to build and contribute to AOSP. For more information, see Changes to AOSP.
Background location access reminder
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Android 10 features a background access location reminder, which
increases transparency into how much access apps have to a device's location and helps users
maintain control over such access. In Android 9 and lower, an app can track a device's location
while running in the background without the user's knowledge. Users can suppress this behavior in
Android 10 by
selecting either the Allow only while using the App or Deny
location access permission.
Figure 1. Background location access reminder.
A reminder gets triggered when an app accesses data protected by the fine-location permission
method ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION
while in the background. To prevent unnecessary interruptions to the user, the reminder doesn't
show all background activity for all apps in a single notification. The user sees one reminder
per day, maximum. When an access request triggers the background location access reminder, it
shows either later in the same day, the next day, or days later, depending on
how many total reminders needed to be pushed. For example, a total of 3
notifications takes 72 hours to show.
Notifications aren't triggered for the following:
- Apps that have permission granted by default, such as system services.
- Apps that are
granted Allow all the time location access permission, that have already
accessed the device location in the background for the first time.
- Apps that receive location updates in the foreground only.
- Apps that receive coarse-location updates only.
Most preinstalled apps have their permissions granted by default. You don't
need to take any action to implement the background location access reminder
feature, and you can't customize it. This feature is tested by CTS.
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Last updated 2025-06-12 UTC.
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Missing the information I need","missingTheInformationINeed","thumb-down"],["Too complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-06-12 UTC."],[],[],null,["# Background location access reminder\n\nAndroid 10 features a background access location reminder, which\nincreases transparency into how much access apps have to a device's location and helps users\nmaintain control over such access. In Android 9 and lower, an app can track a device's location\nwhile running in the background without the user's knowledge. Users can suppress this behavior in\nAndroid 10 by\nselecting either the **Allow only while using the App** or **Deny**\nlocation access permission.\n\n**Figure 1.** Background location access reminder.\n\nA reminder gets triggered when an app accesses data protected by the fine-location permission\nmethod [`ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION`](https://developer.android.com/reference/android/Manifest.permission#ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION)\nwhile in the background. To prevent unnecessary interruptions to the user, the reminder doesn't\nshow all background activity for all apps in a single notification. The user sees one reminder\nper day, maximum. When an access request triggers the background location access reminder, it\nshows either later in the same day, the next day, or days later, depending on\nhow many total reminders needed to be pushed. For example, a total of 3\nnotifications takes 72 hours to show.\n\nNotifications aren't triggered for the following:\n\n- Apps that have permission granted by default, such as system services.\n- Apps that are granted **Allow all the time** location access permission, that have already accessed the device location in the background for the first time.\n- Apps that receive location updates in the foreground only.\n- Apps that receive coarse-location updates only.\n\nMost preinstalled apps have their permissions granted by default. You don't\nneed to take any action to implement the background location access reminder\nfeature, and you can't customize it. This feature is tested by CTS."]]
