GPS based VS Beacon based ranging? Which governs Lock screen left corner app icon

Question

There are two approaches for showing an app/app suggestion (incase not installed) on the iphone lock screen / app switcher. One is GPS based, in which the IOS decides which app to show as a suggestion. Another is beacon based, in which a particular beacon is identified.

1. If location services are enabled for multiple apps and say all these apps are also using beacon based approach to show their icons on the lock screen left corner, which app icon will be shown by the IOS?
2. Since location services are enabled for these apps,and say there is another relevant app which is NOT using beacon based approach (using just the GPS based approach), can IOS give preference to beacon based apps over the GPS based this new app.?

Answer 1

For instance, Estimote's NYC office is on the same block as an Equinox gym and our phones intelligently and automatically alert us to use that app. It's super easy and intuitive to open the app while walking into the gym - and in the process, streamline the check-in flow with the gym's front desk. However, because it solely uses GPS geofences, the accuracy is poor. We actually get the Equinox icon over 1 block away, and there is no control for the brands or stores (in this case Equinox) on how this appears.

Answer 2

Apple's suggestion of apps not installed on the phone based on proximity uses an undocumented technique . While I have verified it uses GPS as an input, I have never been able to confirm that beacons are used at all.

Regardless of whether beacons are used, because this is an undocumented feature, it is unlikely you will find a way to customize the behavior.

Answer 3

AFAIK, Apple has never shared the implementation details of how the lock screen icon AKA "suggested apps" feature works.

However, we did some experiments at Estimote and noticed that being inside a CLRegion (both the "GPS" CLCircularRegion , and CLBeaconRegion work) that an app monitors for via Core Location, consistently makes the app's icon show up on the lock screen. So it seems that both beacons and GPS location fall into the same mechanism that governs the location-based suggestions. (Note that in iOS 9, that's not just the lock screen icon, but also a bar at the bottom of the app switcher.)

Unfortunately, we weren't able to establish what happens if you're inside multiple qualifying CLRegion s, belonging to different apps. We suspect it might have something to do with the order in which the apps register regions for monitoring, but were never able to get consistent results.

Furthermore, since this whole behavior is undocumented, Apple can change it at any time. Just something to be aware of.

Side note: handoff always trumps suggested apps.