Is there way to programmatically enable GPS on Android 2.1 & above?

Question

I have been seeing different posts that GPS cannot be enabled programmatically How do I find out if the GPS of an Android device is enabled

But this app enables the GPS when it is disabled. Can anyone please help me out.

Thanks, Prateek

Answer 1

No you can't. But you can prompt the user to enable it. Here's the code.

private void buildAlertMessageNoGps() {
    final AlertDialog.Builder builder = new AlertDialog.Builder(this);
    builder.setMessage(
            "Your GPS seems to be disabled, do you want to enable it?")
            .setCancelable(false).setPositiveButton("Yes",
                    new DialogInterface.OnClickListener() {
                        public void onClick(
                                @SuppressWarnings("unused") final DialogInterface dialog,
                                @SuppressWarnings("unused") final int id) {
                            Intent intent = new Intent(
                                    Settings.ACTION_LOCATION_SOURCE_SETTINGS);
                            startActivity(intent);
                        }
                    }).setNegativeButton("No",
                    new DialogInterface.OnClickListener() {
                        public void onClick(final DialogInterface dialog,
                                @SuppressWarnings("unused") final int id) {
                            dialog.cancel();
                        }
                    });
    final AlertDialog alert = builder.create();
    alert.show();
}

Answer 2

yes this can be done up to 2.2 (sdk 8).

private void turnGPSOn(){
String provider = Settings.Secure.getString(getContentResolver(),Settings.Secure.LOCATION_PROVIDERS_ALLOWED);

if(!provider.contains("gps")){ //if gps is disabled
    final Intent poke = new Intent();
    poke.setClassName("com.android.settings", "com.android.settings.widget.SettingsAppWidgetProvider"); 
    poke.addCategory(Intent.CATEGORY_ALTERNATIVE);
    poke.setData(Uri.parse("3")); 
    sendBroadcast(poke);
}
}

Answer 3

If the documentation said that it can't be set programmatically, I suggest you not to do so. There are many impacts why the documentation said that. And if someone was able to do that (enabling the GPS programmatically), it means he/she doing something that was undocumented.

Activating GPS requires user's permission. If your application was able to activate the GPS without notifying the users (furthermore, asking for the user's permission), you might violate the privacy policy.