What does "it runs in the background" mean?
Normally, if someone has an app with Indoor Location SDK and locks their phone or switches to another app, their position won't be updated anymore. You can test it with our Indoor Location app!
With the background mode enabled, their position is updated even when the app is in the background. In the Estimote Indoor Location app, we display background users' avatars as 'ghosts.'
How does it work?
If you are inside a location, the Indoor Location SDK will provide position updates as long as you stay inside this location. If the app is killed or suspended it will even relaunch itself upon entering the location.
Unlike region monitoring, Indoor Location in the background provides a continuous stream of (x,y) position updates instead of a single update upon entering or exiting the location.
What is needed to set it up?
- Each user's locations and public location is monitored in the background. Creating a location is fairly easy, here's how you do it.
- The location needs to be mapped with UWB Location Beacons or Location Beacons. It won't work with Proximity Beacons.
- Remember that the background mode is an opt-in feature — the user needs to enable it in the user settings in the Estimote Indoor app (see screenshot below). Once the background mode is enabled in the Estimote Indoor Location app, the app will send the positions of all locations from the list (yours and nearby public locations). To integrate it with your own app, find out how to enable position updates in the background on our developer portal.
Note: in the past, the beacons required to have a Background Mode of their Location packet explicitly enabled in the beacon settings. This is now automatically enabled when you enable Indoor Location broadcasting on your beacons.
And that's it! Happy positioning!