Receive a notification (via BroadcastReceiver) when GPS (or location services) is started/stopped

Question

I tried an approach by using a BroadcastReceiver that listens for PROVIDERS_CHANGED action, but that only tells me when the location settings are turned on/off. I would like to know when the location services are being used to acquire a location by any application. I don't need to know which application is doing it, and I don't care for the location itself. I just want to know whenever some application tries to acquire a location, and when it stops doing that. Is this possible?

Answer 1

I don't know if you really need to be notified via broadcast receiver, but if it is not absolutely required then you can use GpsStatus.Listener :

Here is how to use it :

mLocationManager.addGpsStatusListener(new GpsStatus.Listener(){

    @Override
    public void onGpsStatusChanged(int event) {
        if(event==GpsStatus.GPS_EVENT_STARTED){
            Log.d(TAG,"Gps Started");
        }else if(event==GpsStatus.GPS_EVENT_STOPPED){
            Log.d(TAG,"Gps Stopped");
        }
    }
});

And if you really need to receive this info via BroadcastReceiver : just wrap this code in a Service and send the event from there.