iOS 8 Location Settings – Some Don’t Have “When Using…”?
Posted September 20th, 2014 @ 09:11am by Erik J. Barzeski
From this post the other day comes this article about the privacy settings you should change.
Like many people, I've been getting notifications about applications using my location data in the background. I thought I was supposed to be able to choose "While Using the App" but many of the apps only have two options:
- Never
- Always
For example, CardStar. I use it to keep a few cards (Lowe's, Wegmans, etc.) so I don't have to keep them on my keychain. I only want it to have my location when I'm using it, not Always.
But there's no "When Using" option. I'm only given the two choices.
What's up with that?
P.S. None of my apps have all three settings, as seen in the image below. Just two: Never/Always or Never/When Using:
James Thompson (check out PCalc, both for the Mac and the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch) replied:
@iacas I think it’s to do with whether the app has made the new iOS 8 API call to request when using.
— James Thomson (@jamesthomson) September 21, 2014
@iacas Possibly, there are the dialogs that say “this app has been using location in the background” that pop up. It does seem confusing.
— James Thomson (@jamesthomson) September 21, 2014
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Posted 22 Sep 2014 at 3:01pm #
Apps not built with the iOS 8 SDK don’t show the “When Using” option. My guess is that Apple found too many existing apps that crash when they unexpectedly lose access to location services when they’ve been put in the background.
Posted 22 Sep 2014 at 3:25pm #
Sounds about right Tim. What's up with, for example, Apple Store (one of Apple's own apps) only offering two options: Never and Always? Why do you think it doesn't get the "Only When Using" option? Because of the little lock screen icon it can provide when it detects that you're in an Apple Store?
Posted 23 Sep 2014 at 1:38am #
[quote comment="166696"]Sounds about right Tim. What's up with, for example, Apple Store (one of Apple's own apps) only offering two options: Never and Always?[/quote]
I'm guessing it hasn't been recompiled with the iOS 8 SDK yet. Or they have, but they haven't yet adopted the new "only when using" mode (you have to ask specifically for this), or there's something about the iBeacon stuff ... maybe?
[quote comment="166696"]Why do you think it doesn't get the "Only When Using" option? Because of the little lock screen icon it can provide when it detects that you're in an Apple Store?[/quote]
iOS 8 has ways to tell the system to tell the user when they enter a region, then the OS notifies the user and only when the user responds and opens the app does the app get to know the location (which then allows it to work without requiring "Always" permission).