How to check whether the device is idle or moving for Android App?

Question

• In one of my mobile application, I wanted to store real-time latitude and longitude of the user using GPS of Android device.

• For that, I am going to use an API to send the value of latitude and longitude of device and will going to call that API every 10 seconds.

• But, when the device is in idle mode and not moving anywhere, I don't want to send a request through API to avoid unnecessary load on the server.

• Is there any method in Android Library that can detect that the device is moving or not? If the device is in pocket or I put it in the car in my purse, it must check that I am walking or sleeping or the car is moving or not.

I am a novice to Android.

Thanks JD

Answer 1

You can achieve this using Activity Recognition API in android. There are various activity to identify. https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/location/transitions

Answer 2

Save last sent latitude and longitude in shared prefs and calculate distance between last location and current location , If distance is more then update new location to server .

To calculate distance use this function

 private float calculateLocationDifference() {
    float[] dist = new float[1];
    Location.distanceBetween(lastLocation.getLatitude(), lastLocation.getLongitude(), currentLocation.getLatitude(), currentLocation.getLongitude(), dist);
    return dist[0];
}

Please do note that getting location continuously will drain the user battery faster .