How accurate is Android GPS?

android gps
Anthony Forloney picture Anthony Forloney · Oct 14, 2009 · Viewed 91.2k times · Source

I thought I have read somewhere that the accuracy of Android's GPS is about 10 cm?

Can anyone verify or correct this? Reason being is that my application I am trying to develop keeps track of locations an user has visited and it would help me out tremendously to know the margin of error I can expect.

Answer

MusiGenesis picture MusiGenesis · Oct 14, 2009

10 centimeters? No chance. In any event, Android is just a device OS; the actual accuracy of a GPS device is dependent on the device's chipset. Android may be theoretically capable of accomodating devices with that level of accuracy, but that's it.

The accuracy of GPS devices is normally not presented as a simple distance, anyway. Usually, a device's accuracy is given as a distance along with the percentage of measurements that are within that distance from the true location. A typical accuracy for a hand-held GPS device would be something like 30% of your measurements within 50 meters of the true position (yes, the devices are typically that inaccurate).

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