I hate the blue bar and the arrow as well. I honestly could care less which app is using location services. As far as I'm concerned they both need a way to be shut off.
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Location blue bar at top, always on! Horrible!
- Thread starter wylhkg
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Regardless of our use cases, the fact that I can't tap the top of my browser to automatically scroll all the way back up quickly because the blue bar is in the way forcing me to open another app is removing a function that there weren't any complaints about.
Having a bright blue arrow to show location services are being used serves the same purpose IMO as the bright blue bar. A tapable bright blue bar just forces the user to pay more attention to apps using background location services.
Give the users the option to turn that off at least.
It's not all background location services, just resource-intensive real-time location tracking. You should rarely see the blue bar, especially at times when you'd be using Safari. What apps are triggering it for the two of you?
TILE app and swarm is just one example. My problem is not with the "functionality" of the blue bar it's with how its implemented.
This is forcing users to address something that was never a problem.
Now that I think about it, the arrow which has always been there for me wasn't filled blue as often as this blue bar is appearing.
I’ve noticed the “brief” blue bar appearance for:
Google Maps
The bar will appear for a second or two every 20-30 seconds typically. Setting the apps to “only while using” and force-closing them eliminates the issue.
And Waze presents another issue - if I set the location access to “only while using” and subsequently close the app, the blue bar will stay on screen until I force-close Waze. I’ve let it linger for more than 20 minutes without re-opening the app and the blue bar doesn’t go away. This is on latest public beta.
I have no experience with Tile or swarm, but reading about how they work, I suspect they are being more resource intensive with their location tracking than they have to be. I'll predict that this UI change will force them to optimize their use of location services (as intended).
That makes sense for Waze. "Only while using" doesn't necessarily mean "only while foregrounded." In the case of Waze, it is designed to track real-time position while in the background. The app aggressively keeps itself active in the background unless you use the sleep mode in the app that turns off location tracking. It's a prime example of why the blue bar is needed. On more than one occasion in the past, I got to work and realized after a couple of hours that my battery was seriously drained because I had left Waze running. The fact that the tiny arrow is solid rather than hollow is not easily noticeable.
Facebook is a notoriously egregious resource hog. I deleted it a few years ago when I saw the resources it demanded. I use a bookmarked Safari applet to access Facebook, so I can't test it. (Facebook later got caught cheating on backgrounding, so it might be a bit better now, but I still don't trust them enough to try.)
Google Maps makes sense, but for me it seems to respect the "only while using" setting. It does not trigger a blue bar in the background. I don't use it for directions while driving.
The Google app probably shouldn't trigger a blue bar in any case, but I don't see it with "only while using" set.
This is more like forcing the user to provide feedback. Almost like threatening the app owners to "fix" their app or they'll get exposed.
Kind of feel like apple is getting their users to do apples job. Why do we need to be invloved?
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If the user didn't care before that apps were using location services why should they now?
For me, it solves the Waze-left-open-in-the-background problem. I'm fine with Waze using location services, but I want to be reminded if I forget to kill the app. (At this point, killing Waze after parking my car is a deeply ingrained habit.)
As for policing apps using location services, my guess is that Apple just wants to call attention to it. Apps like Tile or swarm presumably aren't breaking hard and fast rules, but they may not be following best practices.
I think a toggle to turn off the bar, ideally on a per-app basis, would be a good idea. They may also need to tweak the algorithm, if reasonably well-behaved apps are triggering the blue bar intermittently. I just haven't seen that myself.
This is one of those areas in which Android has the better solution: an icon in the status bar, paired with a persistent/clickable notification in the pull-down shade that such-and-such app is tracking your location. (Same when files are being downloaded, etc.)
Still present for Waze and another app (for work) on my IPSE. Definitely *not* back to "normal."
iPhone 7 here, Waze is no longer displaying the blue bar once I leave the app with privacy set to “always allow”
You're right. When set to "always" the blue location bar is not present. However I have the privacy setting on "while using the app" and I get the blue bar when Waze is minimized. Weird.
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Sounds like Apple is looking to split the middle. If you set the app to “always allow” they won’t jam the blue bar down your throat. If you set it to “while using” and the app keeps up with the heavy location usage, it throws the blue bar.
I like the hotspot blue bar too. How else am I supposed to know if someone or some device is connecting to my iPhone? That's a big deal on my employer-provided phone with a limited data plan.
In the past I've been alerted to unwanted connections from one of my kids' iDevices, my iPad going rogue, or the laptop I've plugged my iPhone into. If I'm intentionally using the personal hotspot, I'm not going to be using my iPhone to be bothered by the blue bar.
Not in the three situations I referenced. My kids' iOS devices were on my Apple ID, so they were able to connect automatically without entering the password. The same goes for my iPad, of course. And plugging an iPhone into a trusted laptop allows the laptop to share the phone's Internet connection (my work laptop likes to do that on random occasions even though it is already docked or on wifi).
I usually keep connection sharing off except when I specifically turn it on for my iPad, but sometimes I forget to turn it off afterwards.
I normally share my plan with the wife while using the phone myself, so the blue bar is both annoying, a waste of screen space and also prevent me from scrolling to the top of watever by tapping the status bar. strike 3.
maybe a configuration 'display horrendous bar under statusbar when doing X' would be in order.
maybe a configuration 'display horrendous bar under statusbar when doing X' would be in order.