Starting from iOS13, Apple introduced substantial changes in the way apps can gather location permission.
Location permissions have always been an important issue due to the sensitivity of personal information, and the iOS 13 release had influenced the way users grant access to their location.
What an app user is presented regarding location permission changed. Previously there were three options for the user:
- “Only While Using the App” meaning an app could only collect your real-time location while the app was visible on the screen.
- “Always Allow” meaning an app could be collecting your real-time location both while the app was visible on the screen AND in the background even when the app was not visible on the screen.
- “Don’t Allow” meaning that apps could never collect your real-time location.
Starting form iOS13, apps that request location permissions show the following location prompt:
iOS 12 iOS 13
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This iOS13 prompt adds a new option, “Allow Once”, as well as removing “Always Allow” from the initial alternatives available to the user at the beginning of the session.
“Allow Once”
The introduced “Allow Once” option allows the user to specify whether the app will be allowed to collect location data for the current session alone—Apple refers to this as “Provisional When In Use” permissions. In any future sessions, if the app would like to retrieve location data, it must re-request location permissions or it will be denied access to that data.
This type of experience unlocks a completely new capability in which a user could grant location temporarily for one of two reasons. The first, they are interested in understanding how granting location permissions to the app improves their experience. If the user finds this experience invaluable, then they can fully grant permissions in a future session once they are re-prompted. For example, users who enable location tracking features for weather or fitness-related apps will be able to derive more value from location-enabled features and gain more precise info and a better user experience.
The second allows an app to gain location data just for setup. For example, users installing an app for their local grocery store might want to allow the location info for the set up, based on the assumption that this is their home base, and they would like to receive communications and offers for this particular store.
“Don’t Allow”
In iOS 13, the “Don’t Allow” option has been kept by Apple. It continues to allow users to deny access to location tracking, which means that the app will not be granted permission to request the user’s location data at any point. In any future sessions, if the app would like to retrieve location data, it must re-request location permissions or it will be denied access to that data.
“Allow While Using App”
The existing “Allow While Using App” option will grant location permissions to users in the foreground just as it has in the past. However, if an app’s developers have additionally requested that the app track background location, then selecting this option will additionally grant provisional “Always Allow” permissions. This means that the app is actually granted permission to request the user’s location data while the app is not actively visible on the screen for a short period of time. During this short period, Apple will be keeping track of that usage, and eventually will prompt the user with the following: “Keep Only While Using” or “Change to Always Allow.” The notice includes a customizable subtext explaining why the app needs “Always Allow” location permission and helps users understand why and how the location is used to deliver value (see below).
If ‘Allow While Using’ is selected, sometime later the user will receive the second location prompt (see below). This notification shows the user every instance in which the app has looked up their location on a visual map—and grants them one more opportunity to opt-out of this type of collection. This new prompt will be applied to all apps, including apps that had been granted background location permissions before the user upgraded to iOS 13. This option will show not only the tracking of the usage, but once again will give users the opportunity to change permissions to “While Using” or retain the “Always Allow” option.
Drop in background location permissions
An article published in marktech.or in January 2020, showed that at a time when iOS13 adoption was still less than 85%, the rate in background location permission had dropped almost 70%,