How does ACCESS_BACKGROUND_LOCATION introduced in Android Q affect Geofence APIs?
In order to use the Geofence API the user has to give the app ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION. This location is considered to be dangerous and can be revoked at any time; once this permission is revoked, the app can not request the geofence updates.
How does ACCESS_BACKGROUND_LOCATION permission fit in this picture? We know for sure that this permission is also dangerous and can be revoked at any time. Does it mean that if we want to register some IntentService to be invoked every time the geofence change occurs, we also have to make sure the user has provided ACCESS_BACKGROUND_LOCATION permission? Or do we need to use this permission only if we attempt to get a current location in our own background Service/BroadcastReceiver?
The reason I'm asking this question is that the documentation seems to be a bit vague at this point: the documentation describing the Q Developer Preview mentions that geofencing is one of the use cases for the background location retrieval, while the Geofencing API page does not mention ACCESS_BACKGROUND_LOCATION among its requirements.
Answer
Geofencing API Documentation is now updated and we need to define ACCESS_BACKGROUND_LOCATION to monitor Geofences if we target Android Q
From the doc:
To use geofencing, your app must request ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION. If your app targets Android 10 (API level 29) or higher, your app must also request ACCESS_BACKGROUND_LOCATION.