Easy way to get decimal GPS coordinates on iOS & Android?
March 8, 2018 1:21 PM   Subscribe

Looking for an easy way to get decimal GPS coordinate (ex: 32.4883, -4.0393) on mobile devices, running either iOS or Android. It should be easy to copy these coordinates to send to a group. Not looking for how to do location sharing.
posted by Brandon Blatcher to Computers & Internet (15 answers total)
 
On iOS the compass app shows the decimal location and if you press and hold on the coordinates the copy prompt will appear.
posted by gac at 1:29 PM on March 8, 2018


Response by poster: Right, but that's not on Android, so I'm looking for a way that works on both OSes, thanks.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 1:32 PM on March 8, 2018


GPS Status on Android lets you copy GPS coords to the clipboard or use any of the Android sharing intents in general.
posted by GuyZero at 1:34 PM on March 8, 2018


Response by poster: Basically a way that shows latitude and longitude in decimal format, like so ex: 32.4883, -4.0393 and can be easily copied i.e. a person doesn't have to manually type out that information to send it to someone else.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 1:35 PM on March 8, 2018


On the Google Maps app (iOS version, anyway), if you drop a pin on your current location, the swipe-up tab has copyable coordinates.
posted by theodolite at 1:36 PM on March 8, 2018


In Google Maps on Android, if you long tap a point on the map, the location becomes Dropped Pin and if you tap More Info, the coordinates will be displayed underneath the Street View preview images. Long press on the coordinates and they will be copied to the clipboard.
posted by yeahlikethat at 1:36 PM on March 8, 2018


Oh actually, you don't even have to go into the More Info, the coordinates appear in the search bar at the top.
posted by yeahlikethat at 1:38 PM on March 8, 2018


Response by poster: But that's in the Google Maps App, correct, i.e. something not everyone would automatically have?
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 1:41 PM on March 8, 2018


I mean, everyone who has an Android phone has Google Maps by default...
posted by yeahlikethat at 1:41 PM on March 8, 2018


Best answer: https://www.gps-coordinates.org/ is a site you can go to to do this. Should work on most modern mobile browsers.
posted by pyro979 at 1:51 PM on March 8, 2018


That gets into existential questions of what an Android device is? Are the Amazon FireOS devices Android devices? You can sideload Google Play Services onto it which is your gateway to getting Google Maps on your device.

Likewise Android Open Source Project (AOSP) exists such to deliver a version of Android that doesn't have any of Google's value add apps (once again, Play Services, Maps, GMail, etc.).

Depending on your audience, you can reasonably assume an Android branded phone (not tablet) from a US cellular provider has Google Maps on it. There is probably an edge case or two where it doesn't.
posted by mmascolino at 1:57 PM on March 8, 2018


Response by poster: Thanks pyro979, the https://www.gps-coordinates.org/ website seems like the best solution as it automatically finds the coordinates for where the person is and they can paste that info into another app.

Ideally it would all be on one line, separated by a comma, but beggars can't choosers, lol.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 2:30 PM on March 8, 2018


https://www.whataremycoordinates.com will do that
posted by pyro979 at 7:11 PM on March 8, 2018


If you or someone you know is handy with Javascript programming, they can create a website that uses the browser's geolocation API to get what you want in the format you want it. That's the tech behind the websites listed above.
posted by Aleyn at 11:07 PM on March 8, 2018


Expanding on Aleyn's comment, I did just that. You can test it out here, or copy and paste this into an HTML document:
<html>
  <head>
    <title>Where Am I?</title>
    <script>
      function locationHandler(location) {
      var loc = document.getElementById("location");
      loc.innerHTML = location.coords.latitude +"," +location.coords.longitude;
      }
      navigator.geolocation.getCurrentPosition(locationHandler);
    </script>
  </head>

  <body>
      <h1>Where Am I?</h1>

      <p>You are at: <span id="location">...</span></p>

      <p><input type="button" name="Refresh" value="here"
      onClick="navigator.geolocation.getCurrentPosition(handler);" /></p>
  </body>
</html>

posted by straw at 9:26 AM on March 9, 2018 [2 favorites]


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