I'm developing an app requiring very frequent and accurate location updates, a marker on a map is displayed on screen at all times and it must follow user movements as smoothly as possible.

It just requires latitude/longitude coordinates and no online service, so I'm using android framework's location apis because I read in the documentation (don't remember where exactly) that for this matter it drains less battery than google apis. Anyway, the question below can refer to the google api's usage too.

The first thing I'd like to ask is: setting minTime and minDistance (or interval and ~~don't remember~~ for google apis) when requesting for location updates, does really lower battery usage? I mean, how can it know that the minimum distance has been passed or not if it doesn't calculate new locations to compare to the old one? Isn't it processing new satellite data anyway even if I set a minimum time? I would normally think these settings just alter the way it presents the location data to me, but not the way it processes them in the system threads, which should be what determines the battery drain. But I could be wrong. I just read that it should have this effect but it's not clear to me why exactly.

After that, I'd say how I handled the two providers, GPS and NETWORK, and ask for comments. On the documentation it says to call both, but I don't think the way the responses are handled were adequate to my case.

I've set it up that as long as gps updates are frequent, network updates are discarded. Network updates kick in only when gps updates haven't been received in the last 5 seconds (or if there weren't any). As soon as gps updates return, they immediately take priority over network. I'd say it works pretty well.
In my tests, without a minimum time setting, gps gives updates every 1 second, and network every 20 seconds. When suddenly not receiving updates anymore, the time limit to display a warning that tells the user the location isn't fixed is 5 seconds if the last location used was from gps, and 30 seconds if it was from network.
Gps updates, if used without filter to change the marker position on screen, give a flickering effect, like if it's having convulsions. To smooth it, I have a list of the last few gps updates, and after every update, what I accept as the new location is actually their mathematic average. The result is pretty nice since the updates are very frequent.

If you have comments on my way of doing things, thanks!

Anyway, even if turns out to be ok, I'd like to make sure I'm doing my best lowering battery usage, so:

IF it is really true, as I asked before, that setting a minimum time has a positive effect, should I set it up to more than 0? And what number exactly, 1000ms to not lower current performance? Would it have any visible effect on performance and battery drain?
Should I also worry about changing the setting depending on the environment? What I mean is, if there's a condition where I'm receiving network updates only for a while (so I'm probably indoors), should I increase the minimum time of the search on gps provider, to spend less resources on useless (at the moment) requests, and restore it back only when gps updates start getting through again? Same for the opposite. If it is true that the settings can save up battery, I'd like to save it up as much as possible depending on the situation.

Final question that doesn't relate:

Some users, sometimes, experience strange problems with location tracking. They suddenly find it very difficult to get a fix, until they reboot the phone. As soon as the device is rebooted, it magically starts working perfectly again. I found out it is a problem fairly discussed on the internet, for both android and google apis, but there wasn't a clear solution. It just seems it's device dependent. Have you ever experienced it? Do you know anything about it? What could it be that gets 'resetted' when rebooting the phone, and could it be resetted programmatically?

That's all, thank you if you answer!

submitted by /u/Tankenka-gms
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When the Android source code is going to be released?

Posted: 08 Dec 2016 04:13 AM PST

I can't be the only one here who likes to go to the source code to check what the method does, it has been quite sometime & since they released Android 7.1.1 Nougat, why is it taking too long to release its source?

submitted by /u/imkosh
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Making the most of the APK analyzer – Google Developers

Posted: 08 Dec 2016 09:16 AM PST

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Convenience Utility class to format times and dates

Posted: 08 Dec 2016 11:03 AM PST

submitted by /u/lawloretienne
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[DEV] [IDEA-MVP] Share your Android drawables, color values, layout.

Posted: 08 Dec 2016 02:41 PM PST

submitted by /u/qvdev
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Just released my first personal project on google play

Posted: 08 Dec 2016 11:55 AM PST

Hi guys!

I want to thank you all for content in this sub, it helped me tramandeslously in my career. Today I released my personal app on market called Shibagram It's an instagram like clone that uses flickr and 500px api to fetch photos of Shiba inus (as a shiba inu owner I thought I had to make one)

I'm always open for feedback and improvements. Thank you all for materials you put out here. I know I might not be as expirienced and profficient as some folks here, but i try to learn from you.

Here's the source code https://github.com/SolidScorpion/Shiba-Lover

submitted by /u/SolidScorpion
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Why Android With MVP Is Preferable?

Posted: 08 Dec 2016 04:16 AM PST

submitted by /u/stephanie-leo
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Developing Application

Posted: 08 Dec 2016 05:56 AM PST

How many android developer on this forum work on webservice development as well as android platform. And what do you use for implementing webservice and do job of android developer consist of both thing?

submitted by /u/ankittale
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Android Widgets

Posted: 08 Dec 2016 07:28 AM PST

I'm working on a widget and it seems much harder than a regular app because of the PendingIntents and those things. Does anyone have a good tutorial on a flashlight app widget?

submitted by /u/avipars
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5 Tips for Android App Development

Posted: 08 Dec 2016 04:41 AM PST

submitted by /u/arul-k
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Thanks for reading my news about Google Assistant Dev platform is out at my blog Custom Droid Rom if you want too share this article, please put the resource, and if you think this article is very usefully dont forget to bookmark this site with CTRL + D on your keyboard to web browser.

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